This is my latest project I did for a friend of mine.
I met him in the gym. When i confessed to him my latest hobby (or should I say addiction) about "fixing" old stuff, he probably felt this was his opportunity to remake his late mothers old Phillips radio, so I volunteered to help him out. Well, I have to admit this was a temptation and a new challenge for me. Actually this was my first serious "radio" project!
The model was a Phillips BX321A/10. The biggest issue with this thing, was the missing front acrylic glass, along with the dial and was also missing the dial pointer.
Somebody who had volunteered and attempted to fix it in the past (my friend told me it was a colleague of his from the school he works as a teacher), had made enough damage for me to start almost from the beginning again!
Well anyway, I started up by unscrewing and taking everything apart carefully. I had to unsolder the megaphone (speaker) to drag out the amplifier part and the top antenna.
The wooden board that the speaker grill cloth is supposed to be attached to was loose. A bad technician that had replaced the cloth at sometime, broke the plastic Bakelite edges that the wooden board was supposed to clip on! That made me find a "way through" to fix it, so I drilled 5 holes where the clips go and made some room for 5 screws to go there and hold in place the board instead of the clips, with some help from the washers. (By the way drilling the Bakelite and breathing it is bad for health and full of asbestos, as I found out later) so please be cautious about it... using a dust mask is a must! Hopefully nothing will happen to me for doing that just for one time!
I removed the old speaker cloth and replaced it with a piece of vintage wheat type tan/brown grill cloth I had left aside from some other time. This is the type of speaker grill cloth they used on Fender amplifiers and I think it looks good giving that vintage touch.
Next I was looking and trying to find the dial glass so I can copy and remake it. As a graphic designer that wouldn't be much hard for me.
I started googling results for pictures of this model. Not with much luck, cause all the resolutions where low. That meaning the photos were not clear or readable enough!
With some research I discovered there were other similar models around the planet renamed differently, probably to suit the needs of those countries with different sort of dials. Philips had renamed these models to BX427A/10 for Netherlands and a couple of more I found as a Brazilian and an Indian model. While putting searching options to sizes and specific large ones, I managed to find a decent one of the front dial with large enough text on it to copy.
I also had contacted a couple of owners I found online, and kindly asked them to make a close photo if possible and sent it to me. One of them in Holland answered me to my surprise sharing some useful information I wasn't aware of (thank you Gerard!).
After designing the dial, I tried to copy and transfer the front shield size dimensions on cardboard paper, then scan it in my scanner and re-draw it in a designing software like illustrator. I then found a plexiglass (or Acrylic) workshop near me in Athens, that is able to laser cut a piece of 4mm acrylic, according to the file I had designed and gave to them. I have to admit they did a great job with it! They even managed to cut the three horizontal lines in the middle of the window with great ease!
After I had in my hands the front shield, I decided to make the dot pattern I saw the original had, around the open window hole. I was told from the owner of the radio, that the original had the dots outer embossed, but that was really hard to do, so I decided to go the other way and inner carve them from the back. I felt the best way to do that was with a drill, making it carved in just a bit, thinking that the light from beneath will shine nicely on that pattern and make it look white (I was right by the way).
I began some testings with the drill, working on a small piece of plexiglass, and the result was satisfying!
My other option was to make the dots part of the white printed dial copy, and stick it together with the rest of the transparent sticker all around the acrylic shield... good thing I didn't do it that way!
Since I finished with the carving part, I unpeeled my ready made sticker and placed it on the bottom part of the front shield. I had made two... one normal and one mirror printed in case I needed to stick it from the back of the acrylic glass. I decided from the front was better, since from the back side, the dial pointer I had to construct, would make contact with the sticker and might have scratched it.
Then I had to glue two little "ears" on the top of my glass, to use for holding the dial shield in place. There are two insert holes on top of the shield base made on the Bakelite so you can "button" the dial shield in there. I found out that for gluing plexiglass somebody needs Chloroform! A kind of dangerous chemical liquid, not so easy to find around. I read that all it takes is a few drops, making the acrylic melt just a tiny bit, enough to mold the two pieces together. An alternative was the well known "Super-Glue". It also works very well with acrylic but the only problem is it might make it slightly cloudy... so I was very careful using just a very small drop, with no problem at all.
I used some sellotape to keep the small piece in place until the glue dried.
Which
brings us to the making of the dial pointer... With some research (you
tube videos and fellow bloggers) I found out how to make my own dial
pointer from wire (I preferred red colored hard solid wire), which i
bent easily with a needle nose pliers, after making some tests with a
softer wire and finally coming to an ending result.
I also discovered the right way to attach it to the dial string, that was luckily still in place. And I mean "luckily" cause from what i know it is really a "pain in the ass" to redo the dial string!
Now another bad thing
that had happened to that radio, was that somebody (not so bright) had
ruined the beautiful Bakelite cover, by painting it over with polishing
varnish. This had as a result for the varnish after some years to start
peeling of. (you can see the awful result). So what I needed to do is
scratch everything out by hand and knife, very carefully not to scratch
the Bakelite.
Halfway around I found a way to do it more easy by using oven cleaning foam. The secret is not to leave it for long on the Bakelite and remove it fast. It does leave a dull result, but of course shining back the Bakelite is what must follow.
What I had to do
next was find a nice shinning product, good for Bakelite. So research
started again, and I found that buffering with a product well known as
"Brasso" will do the job... and it did. First apply, then wipe before
totally dried, then buffer with clean cloth and voila! shinning like
new!
I then wanted to clean the four buttons on the front of the radio. Placed them in soap and warm water (not very hot, as it will damage the clearness off the buttons), then start removing any dirt shown with a toothpick. Something wrong that I did was that I used alcohol on one...Never use Alcohol based product on clear acrylic... it did make it a bit dull. So always remember to avoid that! But otherwise they did turn out clean and shiny. I then cut 4 round pieces of a gold sticker, about 20 mm wide, using a circle cutting divider caliper, and stuck them on top of the buttons, making them look new again. I suggest using a mirror effect gold one, cause the one I did was matte styled (not bad of course).
The next thing to do was paint the double gold line in the front of the shield, that are engraved in the Bakelite. So I used some shiny metallic gold paint I had left over from a previous "jukebox" restoration project and applied it in the engraved lines with a tooth pick and a little bit of cotton applied on the end of it.
The back cardboard cover was torn and drafty taped with a transparent sticky tape.
I removed that cause it looked ugly and glued it with a strong glue called UHU. That seemed perfect for the job, cause the place it was torn, was mostly on the holes of the back cover... a really hard place to glue back!
Almost everything is done except the inner radio mechanical and electric working parts. Everything seemed to be in order. Nothing was missing but still no radio stations were received!
I cleaned everything carefully with a small paintbrush. Used also alcohol and a lot of contact cleaner to reduce any noise!
Finally all polished and set together. Although some capacitors need to be changed, the sound is almost perfect... How am I going to give this back? I just loved it!
I met him in the gym. When i confessed to him my latest hobby (or should I say addiction) about "fixing" old stuff, he probably felt this was his opportunity to remake his late mothers old Phillips radio, so I volunteered to help him out. Well, I have to admit this was a temptation and a new challenge for me. Actually this was my first serious "radio" project!
The model was a Phillips BX321A/10. The biggest issue with this thing, was the missing front acrylic glass, along with the dial and was also missing the dial pointer.
Somebody who had volunteered and attempted to fix it in the past (my friend told me it was a colleague of his from the school he works as a teacher), had made enough damage for me to start almost from the beginning again!
Well anyway, I started up by unscrewing and taking everything apart carefully. I had to unsolder the megaphone (speaker) to drag out the amplifier part and the top antenna.
The wooden board that the speaker grill cloth is supposed to be attached to was loose. A bad technician that had replaced the cloth at sometime, broke the plastic Bakelite edges that the wooden board was supposed to clip on! That made me find a "way through" to fix it, so I drilled 5 holes where the clips go and made some room for 5 screws to go there and hold in place the board instead of the clips, with some help from the washers. (By the way drilling the Bakelite and breathing it is bad for health and full of asbestos, as I found out later) so please be cautious about it... using a dust mask is a must! Hopefully nothing will happen to me for doing that just for one time!
Next I was looking and trying to find the dial glass so I can copy and remake it. As a graphic designer that wouldn't be much hard for me.
I started googling results for pictures of this model. Not with much luck, cause all the resolutions where low. That meaning the photos were not clear or readable enough!
With some research I discovered there were other similar models around the planet renamed differently, probably to suit the needs of those countries with different sort of dials. Philips had renamed these models to BX427A/10 for Netherlands and a couple of more I found as a Brazilian and an Indian model. While putting searching options to sizes and specific large ones, I managed to find a decent one of the front dial with large enough text on it to copy.
I also had contacted a couple of owners I found online, and kindly asked them to make a close photo if possible and sent it to me. One of them in Holland answered me to my surprise sharing some useful information I wasn't aware of (thank you Gerard!).
After designing the dial, I tried to copy and transfer the front shield size dimensions on cardboard paper, then scan it in my scanner and re-draw it in a designing software like illustrator. I then found a plexiglass (or Acrylic) workshop near me in Athens, that is able to laser cut a piece of 4mm acrylic, according to the file I had designed and gave to them. I have to admit they did a great job with it! They even managed to cut the three horizontal lines in the middle of the window with great ease!
After I had in my hands the front shield, I decided to make the dot pattern I saw the original had, around the open window hole. I was told from the owner of the radio, that the original had the dots outer embossed, but that was really hard to do, so I decided to go the other way and inner carve them from the back. I felt the best way to do that was with a drill, making it carved in just a bit, thinking that the light from beneath will shine nicely on that pattern and make it look white (I was right by the way).
I began some testings with the drill, working on a small piece of plexiglass, and the result was satisfying!
My other option was to make the dots part of the white printed dial copy, and stick it together with the rest of the transparent sticker all around the acrylic shield... good thing I didn't do it that way!
Since I finished with the carving part, I unpeeled my ready made sticker and placed it on the bottom part of the front shield. I had made two... one normal and one mirror printed in case I needed to stick it from the back of the acrylic glass. I decided from the front was better, since from the back side, the dial pointer I had to construct, would make contact with the sticker and might have scratched it.
Then I had to glue two little "ears" on the top of my glass, to use for holding the dial shield in place. There are two insert holes on top of the shield base made on the Bakelite so you can "button" the dial shield in there. I found out that for gluing plexiglass somebody needs Chloroform! A kind of dangerous chemical liquid, not so easy to find around. I read that all it takes is a few drops, making the acrylic melt just a tiny bit, enough to mold the two pieces together. An alternative was the well known "Super-Glue". It also works very well with acrylic but the only problem is it might make it slightly cloudy... so I was very careful using just a very small drop, with no problem at all.
I used some sellotape to keep the small piece in place until the glue dried.
I also discovered the right way to attach it to the dial string, that was luckily still in place. And I mean "luckily" cause from what i know it is really a "pain in the ass" to redo the dial string!
Halfway around I found a way to do it more easy by using oven cleaning foam. The secret is not to leave it for long on the Bakelite and remove it fast. It does leave a dull result, but of course shining back the Bakelite is what must follow.
I then wanted to clean the four buttons on the front of the radio. Placed them in soap and warm water (not very hot, as it will damage the clearness off the buttons), then start removing any dirt shown with a toothpick. Something wrong that I did was that I used alcohol on one...Never use Alcohol based product on clear acrylic... it did make it a bit dull. So always remember to avoid that! But otherwise they did turn out clean and shiny. I then cut 4 round pieces of a gold sticker, about 20 mm wide, using a circle cutting divider caliper, and stuck them on top of the buttons, making them look new again. I suggest using a mirror effect gold one, cause the one I did was matte styled (not bad of course).
The next thing to do was paint the double gold line in the front of the shield, that are engraved in the Bakelite. So I used some shiny metallic gold paint I had left over from a previous "jukebox" restoration project and applied it in the engraved lines with a tooth pick and a little bit of cotton applied on the end of it.
The back cardboard cover was torn and drafty taped with a transparent sticky tape.
I removed that cause it looked ugly and glued it with a strong glue called UHU. That seemed perfect for the job, cause the place it was torn, was mostly on the holes of the back cover... a really hard place to glue back!
Almost everything is done except the inner radio mechanical and electric working parts. Everything seemed to be in order. Nothing was missing but still no radio stations were received!
I cleaned everything carefully with a small paintbrush. Used also alcohol and a lot of contact cleaner to reduce any noise!
Finally all polished and set together. Although some capacitors need to be changed, the sound is almost perfect... How am I going to give this back? I just loved it!
