Fancy a new hobby/project?

Hi,

When I retired in 2000 aged 53 on a works pension Bron and I had paid a lot of money into I wanted an interesting hobby to pass away our long dreary winters when I couldn't work outside.

One day whilst in an old fashioned TV/radio repair shop down Abbeydale Road in Sheffield the shop owner suggest I try restoring vintage radios. I'd just done my very first ever electronics project this to put a circuit together I bought as a kit that would switch on at dusk and off at dawn our illuminated house numbers so I was interested.

The next ten years I spent restoring vintage valve radios starting from scratch and being entirely self taught; I'm hopelessly colour blind and when I started I hadn't a clue what a DMM (digital multimeter) was. Right from the start I settled into this new hobby but first of all with me being a mechanical engineer I needed to check regarding safety after all this new hobby could kill me given the slightest chance; I quickly gained confidence and joined The British Vintage Wireless Society (BVWS) in 2009 I was honoured to receive best restoration award by the society and by this time I'd had over ten articles published in the BVWS Bulletin.

I'll not go on at length because if this is of interest I've got lots of other very unusual projects to share.

Kind regards, Colin.



Just the kind of challenge I like; a skip would have rejected this TV. Veneers delaminating; masses of woodworm damage and no safety screen should the tube explode.


Woodworm damage at its best.


Yes the woodworm must have found this cabinet very tasty indeed.


Given the dreadful condition of the set I couldn't make it much worse; it takes a bit of confidence to take a cabinet restoration back as far as this


Using cabinet scraper on top panel to remove original finish.


Two new side panels made from scratch with my own design veneers in Sapele cross banding; Sapele Pommelle panels and home made stringing. All assembled using hot hide glue during the worst winter ever recorded. Most of the cabinet work was done on our kitchen work surface because the workshop windows were covered in ice on the inside; once I start a project nothing is going to stop me.



No longer a restoration more a modification; it didn't look this good when new. Finished in French polish and I did the entire job on my own.


Here's the chassis in similar condition to the cabinet.


In this box should be an LOPT (line output transformer).


After a lot of time and work.



Test card shown whilst tube was on soak test on bench top. Test card signal from an Aurora standards converter. At this time I had fully restored over 100 vintage radios but this was the only TV I ever restored and what a wonderful project it turned out to be; I posted the entire project on a vintage radio forum and each day forum members were eagerly watching for the days progress one saying it's better than The Archers?

 

Good work there , the place in Abbeydale Road, that wouldn't be Bardwells by any chance ?

They started off after the war in a shop in the back streets just before the old Abbeydale cinema.

Bought my first componets there to make a simple two transistor radio.

 

Hi,

Thanks ricky101; yes Bardwells; I think the staff were Reg; Steve; Jenny and Rod?

Bron and I used to visit Meadowhall then returning home drive to Bardwells; I always liked the shop counter loaded with lots of goodies all at fantastically low prices. The staff knew their trade very well indeed; if they didn't have a particular component they could always fix me up with something else that was suitable. Reg was once in court for bullying an employee. The last time I was in Bardwells; Reg was having a jolly good natter with a couple at the counter the lady having a small dog in her arms; I was totally ignored for ten minutes until the door closed behind me and I never returned; they are closed down now of course but over the years I did enjoy my trips to the store. The radio/TV repair shop was Mr Mawson's about two stores down. We also used to pop into Maplins from Bardwells on the way home but Maplins became so bad saying we haven't got it in but we can get it for you tomorrow; Maplins too are now history but not surprising really because so few these days want to do any worthwhile hobby; they prefer wandering around with a mobile phone welded to their ear.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Hi,

Bardwells was started and run by Rods mother and father selling ex war /mod stuff when Rod was a just a knee high.

Though the bullying case was a bad one, never sure why the young lad stayed there for so many years, not as if jobs were hard to find those days.

Well Maplins are back actually, as online only which is kind of where they started out , advertising in Practical Wireless all those years ago, long before the web.

With places like Farnells/CPC/RS offering free or lo cost shipping and all the ebay/amazon sellers we are rather spoilt for choice, just sit back in the garden or greenhouse and wait for the postie, beats having to wade though the traffic and parking etc

 

Thanks for posting. You've done a great job. Brought back some memories.

At the age of 21, I managed a radio,TV and electrical appliance store in North London.

The staffing was me, a salesman, an engineer, a cashier and a driver. We were self-contained, the shop was responsible for sales, service and deliveries. It was part of a chain, but we were a little family. I was the eldest, but only by a year. I earned quite a good wage as sales were always good so lots of commission.

But after four years, I moved on to bigger and better things in the retail world.

Things do stick in my mind, like the problems we had with the many Ultra 1775 TVs we had out on rental. They often developed a rolling picture, usually cured by changing a PCL 82 valve. Why do I remember that? it's nearly sixty years ago?

Also sales of Blue Spot radiograms, the one with the cocktail cabinet in them, They were about £110. That's £1000 in today's money. We sold lots of them on HP to West Indian immigrants, many came over to work on the buses and tubes. Mostly nice people, very polite, but often living in one room with few posessions. Sad.

A customer took advantage of our, "we'll give you £10 for your old set, any condition, in part-exchange" gimmick on certain TV sets. These old sets were usually scrapped. But a man brought in a Bush VHF 64 radio set, as an exchange, which was in perfect condition so I kept it for years, a wonderful bit of kit.
They put the name Bush on any old rubbish now. It's just a "brand name," undeservedly living on its past good reputation.

I found this on a message board a while back. Looks like the business had gone belly up decades ago and the owners just walked away. Seems rather sad.

The T.V. Repair Shop

 

My father was the radio operator on a Lancaster and after the war he stuck with the trade. He went on to study more complex systems and went on to install the systems for the original microwave tower network across Canada.

And when he was home, he'd have a mirror propped against the sofa so he could see the picture tube whilst fiddling behind the used television we had.

Good memories.

 

Hi,

Many thanks ricky101; I might have got Steve's name wrong at Bardwell's it's possible he was called Chris but it's years since I visited; you might also recollect the late Jim Fish of "Wilson Valves" Bron and I visited Wilson Valves for about seven years but most contact was with Roger who was Jim's business partner; Jim sold the transmitting valves and Roger sold the receiving valves; alas the business was sold out. I couldn't agree with you more about the convenience of buying online.

Thanks Doghouse for sharing your memories; I too can remember things from 60 years ago but easily forget what I did five minutes ago; Radio Rentals used to be a big player and how many small garages made a decent bob or two from charging radio batteries. WOW the link you kindly supplied caught my attention; at first I thought the first picture to be an Ekco T311 given the style of its control knobs but it's possibly a Fergusson? How sad it now is that so many vintage radios/TV command such low prices whereas modern kids thing nothing of spending hundreds of pounds on mobile phones; I used to have over 70 assorted vintage radios in my collection and when I packed in restoring them I sold 24 as a batch thinking I did well to receive £300; old technology appears to be worth little these days.

Thanks Canadian Lori for adding your story; my late father was working on Lancaster bomber final assembly in the war and my late mother working in munitions; I wonder many times why the UK fought two world wars when I see the way things are heading now?

Below are pictures of a genuine Bush radio Doghouse; just another set I fully restored. I thought it to be the ugliest radio I had ever seen and it was being broken for its valves so I took pity on it and bought it; after lots of TLC this Bush radio was transformed from ugly duckling to beautiful swan.

Kind regards, Colin.


Flatting the original finish using 240g abrasive paper with talcum powder as lubricant.


It sure looked ugly.


After lots of TLC from me.



I made lots of mistakes whilst French polishing at first but I'm stubborn and here is a close up of the Bush radio's new finish;

 

Your mention of vintage audio equipment not fetching much money, reminded me of several comments on an American vintage audio board to which I subscribe. For those unaware. The most popular USA high end kit in the late fifties and sixties, were "Maggies," the range of Magnovox Astro-sonic phonographs, or as we would call them, radiograms. These in the day could cost as much as new small car.
Lovingly looked after by owners for decades, probably even when they were no longer used, as they were a "nice piece of furniture" to put on photographs of the grandkids.

When these people pass away, the grandkids don't want this machines and when the houses are cleared are often picked up "free at the kerb" or in thrift shops for next to nothing.
All they usually require is the caps changing and the turntables freed up of hardened grease and relubricated.

Lots of images on here.

magnovox astrosonic at DuckDuckGo


Lots of videos on YouTube but some more about the owner than the subject.



Vintage second-hand audio stuff on E-bay has dramatically increased in price over the last five years or so, due to younger people getting interested in vinyl, but it'll be a passing fad.

I bought my 1982 Leak 2000 tuner/amp on e-Bay for about thirty quid ten years ago. It's still in perfect condition, some are fetching up to three times the price at the moment. I bought mine to replace a Philips 790 I bought 1972.

 

Hi,

The Ekco TV restoration was the last restoration of its kind I did; when I first started restoring vintage radios I was a raw novice with so much to learn and new skills to grasp; the problem though was I became too proficient knowing I could now restore any set at all however rough it was so I quickly lost interest because the challenges had now been met; restoring more sets would be more like a production line so I resorted back to my metal/woodworking also I was still doing a great deal of DIY on our bungalow from the sewers to the top of the chimney pot.

Here's another radio; this one Bron kindly bought for me as a Christmas present it being on eBay in Oklahoma; it was the roughest set on eBay and looked like a decent project; when it arrived it looked extremely rough indeed so I subjected it to a comprehensive restoration.

Thanks Doghouse; yes many older people bought equipment when they struggled for cash making them cherish what they had bought because money was so tight but once this older generation started to pass away as you say the equipment was handed down sometimes to two generations but each handing down decreased the value because it was a case of easy come easy go and the younger generation didn't have to save every penny they had in order to buy such items; it's truly sad the way things have gone and most of the old skills are also dying with the older generation too.

Kind regards, Colin.


I used to love these roughest of sets because whatever I did I simply couldn't damage them further this Philco 84B was no exception with its badly delaminated veneers and being on American low 115V I converted it to run on our 240V.


Yes it sure was rough.



After many hours enjoyable work. Fully French polished.



There's only one way to go with a cabinet in such poor condition.


Here's the chassis having been stripped bare then rebuilt.


Repairs under way.


The chassis as bought being stripped.



Underside of chassis.


Completely stripped.



Chassis painted ready for populating. A different project shortly.

 

I remember as a child, my parents had this 1930s model Philco radio.



I've lost count of the number of times I've seen the same model in "period" TV dramas.

I was given a 1930s or forties, table-top radiogram sometime in the mid fifties. Can't remember the make. It belonged to an aunt and uncle who were emigrating to South Africa. It only played 78s.

Knowing nothing about it, I bought a modern pick up arm for it and just swapped them over.

It had a regulator for small adjustments to the turnable speed. The lever next to the turntable just operated a felt pad which pressed against the flywheel. By bending the lever I was able to make it exert more pressure, enough for me to slow it down to play 45rpm and LP records. You just had to guess that it was right. With records I bought of stuff you heard on the radio it was easy to judge the right speed. But with jazz records I bought that you didn't hear on the radio, it was more difficult.
For about six months I thought Ottilie Patterson who sang with the Chris Barber jazz band had a much higher voice than she really did, until I heard them live at a concert. I'd not got the speed right.
A bit later when I was eighteen, I bought a Trio amp, a Garrard turntable and some speakers and binned the radiogram. Wish I'd kept it.

 

Hi,

Thanks for adding your story and for the picture Doghouse. I too have had lots of things I should have kept with hindsight but at the time I only paid what they were worth never knowing they would later be worth a great deal of money.

Looking at the radio picture you kindly posted Doghouse brings back lots of memories. A friend had bought a back panel for one of these Philco 444 Peoples sets through eBay paying about £28 but it never arrived; many vintage radio sets lost their back panels and the panels for the Philco were scarce hence attracted good prices. My friend bought a piece of 6mm thick plywood and told me he intended to make a panel out of it; he had borrowed an original back panel to use as a template but he was going to hand drill over 700 holes using a hand drill?

I said to him drilling so many holes in exact position by hand would be virtually impossible but if he cared to pay for an 8' x 4' x 6mm sheet of MDF I'd be pleased to have a go at the job for him which he accepted.

I'm a mechanical engineer so am used to working to precision and first job was to make a hole drilling guide from 1/4 thick steel. I used CAD to draw a paper template with dots at the drilling points; I attached the paper template using double sided self adhesive tape to the steel blank and very carefully center punched each dot. The big MDF sheet yielded 20 back panel blanks.

I arranged two stacks of 10 securely taping them together with masking tape and using the original back panel drew around it with a pencil giving the reference points; the new metal drilling guide was taped at each position and drilled right through using my big drill press; the holes were 3/16" diameter and I had to keep sharpening the drill bit due to the blunting effect of the MDF; with one stack drilled the stack was then run through my bandsaw; the second stack was likewise treated so now I had 20 of these brand new back panels costing only about £10 the lot or 50p each? Blowing over with rattle can black paint the paint sank into the MDF and each new panel looked just like the original; my friend was delighted when I handed him ten new panels plus the original free of charge; I retained ten but over the years have also given these away free of charge; I never charge; if I wanted money I'd just get a job but in retirement such projects as this are simply an hobby and if the projects cost me money I don't mind in the least after all I love to experiment and an hobby to me is just an hobby not a means of making money; I don't drink alcohol; I don't smoke; I don't do drugs and Bron and I haven't had an holiday away from home for the last 42 years; we're very content in our lifestyle enjoying our various hobbies wanting for nothing.

Kind regards, Colin.


Here is the new drilling guide center punched in an offcut of 1/4" thick steel.


Making a drilling guide is very easy for me and such an obvious solution once known but for a novice very difficult hence my friend intended having a go with a hand drill to drill every individual hole;


I'm unsure how I managed to add an additional hole in the panel shown but I managed it? Still I never want to be perfect or I'd be bored.


Here's an original panel from another vintage radio with the same hole pattern.



No problem just make a new panel. I've loaned out the drilling guide by post but I no longer do any radio restoring so I gave the drilling guide to a good friend who is a regular contributor to The British Vintage Wireless Society so it's gone to the right person. Making these back panels was time consuming but very interesting indeed just being a workshop experiment for me to see if I could do a production run; I've spent many hours on projects helping out at no cost to them; my reward was always the success having solved a problem.

 

Hi,

Moving quickly on to another project this one a lot different to radio restoring.

About four years ago Bron passed a casual remark saying our front room carpet was starting to show signs of wearing? I agreed with Bron but said if we're spending a lot of money on a new carpet why don't I give the room a makeover?

The original random stone fireplace at 10' long although good looked rather dated and could do with sorting out so out it came; I retained the stone for future use but amazingly ran 18 bags of rubble to the tip. This now made the room look like a bomb site so next job was to do some plastering; this had to be built up in layers because the exposed wall was now very rough indeed; now we wanted a new fire and fire surround so we visited "Flames of Wakefield" we had browsed the web looking at many hundreds of fire designs and armed with the design we liked yes it could be ordered but firstly an inspection would be needed in order to check chimney suitability. The inspector arrived as arranged and did a smoke test up the chimney and all was in order; the inspector was impressed as we showed him our bungalow and he added a note onto his report "take care with this installation he's an engineer".

After a short wait two guys arrived with the new fire it being an High Energy Efficient gas fire (84% efficient). Also they brought the chosen tiled surround and marble hearth; these two guys just about moved in with us spending many hours to get the installation perfect which they both can be proud of.

Now I could design and make the wooden mantle; I made this from mostly 18mm MDF offcuts left over from our bedroom makeover just needing £12 spending for a bit more MDF. I really went to town on the mantle after all we would be looking at it for years to come. Next I installed more 13A power sockets then I thought wall panels would look nice; I machined over 300' of panel moulding then after routing all the many mitre joints glued each panel; once the glue set the panels were very carefully aligned and nailed directly to the plastered walls using lost head wire nails.

We've visited many stately homes and seen panelling and colours etc so chose a beautiful colour scheme; the ceiling was painted white then the walls were painted taking great care to get it perfect; I had also installed a dado rail; woodwork was painted and with me being hopelessly colour blind I let Bron have free choice of carpet. The carpet fitters did a wonderful job and we were truly amazed by the transformation as we stood back for the first time seeing the room in all its glory. Expenditure on the makeover amounted to around £2,400 this being £1,600 for the new fire and tiled surround and £800 for the new carpet. Doing all the work ourselves excluding installing the new gas fire and surround must have saved us a fortune; we still love our front room. I'll add other room makeovers in due course but as I said previously my hobbies are many and varied. I hope this is of interest.

Kind regards, Colin.


Our front room before the makeover.



Making a start.


Definitely too late now to go back. What a job in removing the old stone fireplace and Welsh slate hearth. Not a job for a novice to DIY.



Plaster made good and almost dry.



The fireplace installers did a wonderful job getting it absolutely bang on.


What a huge transformation and we never tire of looking at it.



Yes it takes a lot of hard work but the end result is always worth it. At night when it's bitterly cold outside and dark we love to turn the fire on and watch the TV in its glow. Bron has never ever complained about mess or disruption she just joins in knowing I don't start jobs without finishing them; Bron is worth doing all this for.