Guppy's Old School Radio Projects

[Guppy]

I got myself a couple of projects! They are some old 1930s-1950s valve radios, got two of them from Trademe for $20.

 

The first one was in relatively good condition, and still worked when I plugged it in. It seemed a shame to ruin it so I gave it a semi restoration. I know little about electronics, so it was lucky that it still worked! The main focus was on aesthetic repairs, so I pulled it apart, sanded it down and oiled it, replaced the speaker material, fixed the tuning mechanism/display thingy inside, and various other small bits and pieces.

 

First radio at the start:

 

 

Insides: 

 

 

Side - note the scratches etc

 

 

 

 

Scratched varnish and horrible water mark on the top:

 

 

 

Damaged speaker material:

 

 

 

 

Speaker grill out - you can see how much the material has faded!

 

 

Chipped wood veneer detail. There was one in each corner, so I decided to cut them all out and replace them with fresh veneer.

 

 

 

Half sanded down:

 

 

 

 

New and old speaker material - the white balance is off in this photo so the colours didn't come out too well:

 

 

 

After cutting out the damaged veneer:

 

 

 

 

New pieces of veneer ready to be glued in place (and some packers already glued in)

 

 

 

 

Half oiled (I used Briwax Danish Oil, came out really well), to show the difference that it makes compared to just being sanded:

 

 

 

 

Section of dodgy wiring cut out:

 

 

 

Finished box, just needing the insides installed again - I haven't got any photos of it back together yet, but I'll put some up when I get the camera out again.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now - I'll post up some photos of my second, more adventurous project later. That one is still a work in progress, but a bit more interesting/challenging!

[Guppy]

This is my second radio - in my opinion it looks cooler, and is a bigger part of the reason I bought both of them.

 

The plan is to transplant the internals from a more modern stereo into it, so I have something to play my iPod through. Not too fussed about the tape player/CD player or radio, as I don't use them that much anyway. As previously stated I don't know much about electronics so I'll try and keep it as simple as possible.

 

This radio was in worse condition, and it didn't seem to work, so I didn't really have any problems with chopping it up a bit. When I pulled the electronics out, the base of the radio was in terrible condition - the metal tray was corroding away and the ply base had the strength of cardboard, and turned to dust when moved. The plan is to pull it apart, restore the box, transplant the electronic stuff, and make it all look pretty. Unfortunately it has been hit pretty hard by borer as you'll see, meaning I won't  just be able to sand it down and oil it like the last one, so i'm going to attempt to apply some veneer to the sides and top, and sand down & oil the rest. Fortunately the front face isn't TOO bad.

 

Photos!

 

 

Project #2 as it was when I got it:

 

 

 

In the beginning:

 

 

 

 

Frequency dial:

 

 

 

Sides with lots of scratches:

 

 

 

 

Other side, with varnish coming off and dings/scratches etc:

 

 

 

 

Back side at the start:

 

 

 

 

Electrodynamic speaker...no magnets here

 

 

 

 

Metal base corroding away:

 

 

 

 

 

dodgy plug:

 

 

 

 

Rotten base:

 

 

 

 

 

Metal tray rusting away:

 

 

 

 

Plywood sides of the radio delaminating:

 

 

 

 

This is the chrome surround of the frequency dial - I have used a metal brush fitting in my rotary tool thing (like a dremel tool) on the top part so you can see a before/after of what that looked like:

 

 

 

 

Making a new base:

 

 

 

 

New base in:

 

 

 

Donor stereo with the sides/top taken off. I got this for free by a piece of awesome timing - the neighbours were going to throw it in a skip, so it quickly became mine! Along with some decent speakers too. Yusssss!

 

 

 

 

After opening the donor stereo up a bit more:

 

 

 

 

These are all of the photos I have at this stage, but a bit more progress has been made so I'll try and put some more photos up on the weekend.

[63Ragtop]

Really cool work bro! looking forward to seeing this working.

I have the same old sony system in my garage, hmmmmm?

[Guppy]

Really cool work bro! looking forward to seeing this working.

I have the same old sony system in my garage, hmmmmm?

 

 

Thanks! Yeah it's not a bad stereo actually, I was sort of in two minds about chopping it up, but it's not going to go to waste, and it was free! If it ends up not working out, I think I'll got for one of those el cheapo ipod docks from kmart or somewhere....my flatmate wired one to the other speaker, and it actually sounds really good, much better than i thought it would.

[Guppy]

Made a little more progress. The outside of the box is now completely rough sanded (well, all except for a couple of small nooks and crannies that take ages to get at) to get rid of the old varnish and paint.

 

 

 

Here you can see part of the top after being rough sanded - not the borer holes everywhere! They will soon be hidden though. and I'll probably glue up the holes to hopefully stop them doing any more damage - I read on the internet that the borer eggs can survive inside for something like 4-7 years...hopefully some glue will bury them in there and they won't eat through the nice veneer i want to put on top!

This photo shows the base tray of the stereo in relation to the valve radio box - sort of hard to tell but it's too wide to fit in.

 

 

 

The way I intend on fixing it is to relocate the transformer (the green thing) as shown below:

 

 

 

Instead of cutting the base tray to fit, I partly cut it and then folded the rest of it up as you can see below. This makes it look a little more intentional (not that it really matters) and more importantly it lines up perfectly with the holes on the front of the valve radio case, which means I can use the upturned part to mount the controls to. Pretty impressed with how clever I am

 

 

 

 

Rejigged base tray:

 

 

 

 

Valve radio case is now completely rough sanded:

 

 

 

 

Basic electonic stuff mocked up inside valve radio case. Lots more yet to go in though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Started modifying some of the electronics to be able to fit them where I want. Volume dial before:

 

 

 

And after, havign desoldered the dial and soldered in some wire so I can mount it remotely from the board it was originally part of:

 

More updates will come when I make some more progress

[Nominal]

I got myself a couple of projects! They are some old 1930s-1950s valve radios, got two of them from Trademe for $20.

 

The first one was in relatively good condition, and still worked when I plugged it in. It seemed a shame to ruin it so I gave it a semi restoration. I know little about electronics, so it was lucky that it still worked! The main focus was on aesthetic repairs, so I pulled it apart, sanded it down and oiled it, replaced the speaker material, fixed the tuning mechanism/display thingy inside, and various other small bits and pieces.

 

First radio at the start:

 

 

 

That's it for now - I'll post up some photos of my second, more adventurous project later. That one is still a work in progress, but a bit more interesting/challenging!

 

I have the same radio at home. Actually plugged it in and tested it out the other day, first time for a few years. IIRC I did the cosmetic restore thing about (mumble) years ago.

[Guppy]

Bit more progress this weekend...

 

 

 

 

After fine sanding the front face:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Measuring up the Rimu veneer for the top:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm going to book match the veneer on the top:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taped together to make sure the pattern matches correctly:

 

 

 

 

 

To glue the veneer to the top I filled some plastic bags with rocks and filled the inside. Put it on some carpet too, to try and provide even pressure across the veneer....we shall see how it goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mocked up the workings of the stereo to make sure my re-wiring has worked.....good news is that it has. Was to be expected though as it wasn't really that much of a change.

[thegreatestben]

Hey mate, where abouts are you located?

 

My aunt has this Old radio/record player thing. It's all Oak.

Unfortunately borer has gotten into it in places, not too bad.

 

The radio part is removable and I had a look in the back and it's all valves and shit like these.

 

You are welcome to it, it's in wellington. I can take photos of it if you are?

[Guppy]

Hey mate, where abouts are you located?

 

My aunt has this Old radio/record player thing. It's all Oak.

Unfortunately borer has gotten into it in places, not too bad.

 

The radio part is removable and I had a look in the back and it's all valves and shit like these.

 

You are welcome to it, it's in wellington. I can take photos of it if you are?

 

 

Cheers man, thanks for the offer! I'm in Auckland though, so that won't work out I'm afraid. You should have a go at it though! It's not as exciting as a project I'll admit, but it's always fun to have something to tinker with...and you don't need much space or fancy expensive tools etc either

[KKtrips]

Hey Ben - I could be keen - might be a nice change from this working on cars lark.

[thegreatestben]

Sure, I couldn't find those books again (for now) but I found some others about wellington for you.

[Guppy]

A bit more progress!

 

 

 

Gluing the speaker grill fabric on

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted a chrome knob, but couldn't find anything decent with a grub screw fitting that would work on the potentiometer shaft...so I bought a black aluminium one and sanded the paint off...

 

 

 

 

 

...mounted it in my lathe/drill, and set about polishing it up:

 

 

 

 

 

Nice and shiny, pretty please with how it turned out:

 

 

 

 

 

I had a bit of a change of plans. The stereo had an intermittent problem that meant it sometimes wasn't working, so I got some external power source PC speakers from the markets in Browns Bay for $20:

 

 

 

 

 

Problem now is that the chrome switches I had already bought were the wrong type. They are momentary switches (so power is only on while the switch is being pressed - like a keyboard button) and I needed a latching switch (like for a light)...and Jaycar only had ugly plastic ones. So my solution is was to drill out the insides of one of the switches, and the ugly black plastic switch fits nicely inside it! I just put a screw into the remaining plastic of the chrome switch so that I can adjust it to work just right. The other switch will just fill the other holes that is already there, and won't actually do anything.

 

 

 

 

 

I want to have the original frequency dial backlit when the power is on, and I bought a clock mechanism to put into it. Here I'm making a template of where my new LEDs are going to go:

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the LEDs in place (just waiting on 2 more which are in the post):

 

 

 

 

 

Trial run of the backlit face. The patchy effect was expected - this isn't the final look, just a mock up. I bought the mechanism with the longest shaft so that I could set it back as far as possible, to reduce the uneven light as much as possible:

 

 

 

 

 

This is foam packaging that I'm going to use to diffuse the light and make it more even:

 

 

 

 

 

The original frequency dial mount thingy, this will come in handy for holding the foam in place:

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now...more photos when I make some more progress

[Bistro]

WOW this is some seriously cool stuff here!! Keep up the good work man!

[Ned]

Cambrian Plastics in Henderson have an acrylic called Arctic Ice. I use this to diffuse LED lighting and it works quite well. i think i used the 3mm stuff or the 6mm stuff. Can check if you really want to know. You could even come shine some light through some i have but its a decent size piece and you cant cut it up or have any as i have none spare ATM. Unsure what sort of spacing you have etc as you will need some decent space or you will never diffuse it.

Do those lights do anything other than do back lighting? because you could always use LED edge lit acrylic instead to try get an even glow maybe? or get a proper backlight thing if you like spending money

Also, go buy some heat shrink and throw that electrical tape back in the toolbox

Love reading through this though good job

[Stu]

Satin ice is also good - and I have swags of it.

 

Best bet is to edge light with ribbon LED.  Unless your 60mm away or more you'll always get spotting

[Ned]

I can get arctic ice to look good at ~30mm with 25mm spaced leds or so

[Guppy]

Thanks guys!

 

It's been a bit of a learning curve...electronics aren't my forte, but fortunately this is relatively basic stuff. I had to learn about transistors at university. and it completely had me stumped...hence why I went with civil!

 

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking about getting some of the plastic that they put over the lights in office buildings, but I'd only need some about 10cm square...didn't really think it was worth it, and the foam stuff seems to do the trick fine.

I think the type of plastic is pretty good for backlighting - when you look at the photos below you can see what it looks like with just the foam (better, but not perfect) and with the face in place.

 

 

Got quite a lot more done today, but it was lots of little things, and not much that is photo worthy.

 

 

 

LEDs behind my foam diffuser

 

 

 

 

 

This is how it looks when it's in place - nice and even and you can't see the individual lights, I think it's worked out well.

 

 

 

 

 

Speakers in place

 

 

 

 

I also put my hybrid switch in, installed the volume control and aligned it properly, painted the inside of the chrome surround, test fitted the clock mechanism and switches, and lots of other little bits and pieces. Getting there slowly but surely!!

[kicker]

Hey man, how are the radios coming along?

I got inspired by yours and have just picked one up, might just use PC speakers like yours and add a bluetooth receiver to keep it wireless (geddit )

 

 

[Guppy]

Wow that's cool - I love the old retro style! Looks like it's in really good shape too. Yeah going with a wireless system sounds pretty cool...depending on what you want to do you can buy an entire wireless ipod dock type thing from Harvey Norman - I saw one there today for like $100, but you'd be able to get them cheaper elsewhere I'm sure. I'd be interested to see what you do - make sure you keep us updated!

 

I've made a bit more progress - my one is drying at the moment, as I glued some veneer on tonight....man that stuff can be tricky to work with. Now all that's left to do is one more layer of veneer on the top (I had some dramas with the original top piece getting an air bubble that popped up and down with changing humidity/temperature...) then oil it and reassemble everything.....nearly there - looking forward to getting it done!

[Guppy]

It's now all finished!!!

 

Remaining photos:

 

 

 

I decided to take this metal thing out as it was a bit dinged and rough. I just filled up the hole with a piece of timber that fit neatly inside:

 

 

 

 

 

About to veneer the sides...

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the curvature of the front corners that I had to bend the veneer around:

 

 

 

 

 

After thinking long and hard about how I was going to get even pressure on the curved parts, this is what I came up with! Bought a 4 pack of ratchet straps from Mitre 10, and used an old seatbelt at the bottom. Glad too, as it worked really well and there were no signs of paint bubbles:

 

 

 

 

 

Now the sides just need to be glued on:

 

 

 

 

 

Back prior to painting. It's now black on the back (haven't got a photo, but it looks much better):

 

 

 

 

 

Completed carcass, just needs sanding and oiling:

 

 

 

 

 

Half of the top oiled for comparison:

 

 

 

 

 

Completely oiled:

 

 

 

 

 

Done!

 

 

 

 

 

All finished!!! Super happy with how it's turned out!!!