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Forum 141

I must be insane! Ekco A22...

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peterscott
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@cathovisor

An understandable mistake though as in the good old days 1500 metres was the home of the Light Program.

Peter

Forum 142

www.nostalgiatech.co.uk

 
Posted : 29/09/2019 6:05 pm
PYE625
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As I sit at "Home", I really must not make "Light" frivolous remarks to detract from Lloyds excellent thread.

Sorry gentlemen.

To understand the black art of electronics is to understand witchcraft. Andrew.

 
Posted : 29/09/2019 6:10 pm
Cathovisor
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Posted by: @pye625

Now, I was going to say "Home", but looked at a couple of dials and they said "Light" so I was confused. It was enough to make me forget the correct spelling of programme. ? 

Pre-1967, Radio 4 was the Home Service and it was regional - note the London, Midland, Northern &c. on the dials of your fine steam wirelesses! The Light Programme - later Radio 2 - was a national programme on a wavelength of 1500m with the odd MW infill. This harks back (in a way) to the old National and Regional programmes.

That all changed with the last major frequency revision in 1978 whereby Radio 4 went to 1500m (later 1515m after it was retuned to fit to a multiple of 9kHz) and became a national programme whilst Radio 2 took up the allocations on 330m and 433m - now of course the home of 5 Live after the BBC was told it couldn't duplicate some services on AM and FM in c. 1990. R2 and R3 were the casualties there.

Reasonably well described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_in_British_radio#November

 
Posted : 29/09/2019 6:18 pm
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Lloyd
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Probably about time I got back to this! I haven't done much with the set since the last update, but I have got myself some new silicone moulding gunk, after the last lot had past it's use by date. I set about making a mould for the knobs just yesterday, didn't take much doing, just find a pot big enough to house the knobs, not too big as I don't want to waste a lot of the moulding paste, and not so small that the mould would deform when the original knobs are removed. I found a business card box was just the right size to house the larger tuning knob and one of the pointer knobs at the same time, and would leave enough silicone to support itself without deforming.

IMG 6977

The moulding pate is mixed 10:1, or until it looks pink!

IMG 6978

Not enough catalyst and the stuff either takes weeks to set, or just doesn't set at all, and too much makes it start setting before you have finished mixing it. I put the knobs in face up, and pour the silicone over the top of them, that way all the bubbles rise to the top away from the visible surface of the knobs, if I had a vacuum chamber, I could just de-gass the mixture.

IMG 6979
IMG 6980

The knobs were left overnight in the silicone, and this morning it had set nicely, and they came back out of the silicone perfectly, no nasty bubbles had stayed on the surfaces, and the mould looks good!

IMG 6982
IMG 6983

Next job is to get some resin to make some new knobs, I'll probably end up using some potting compound from RS, since we had some at work and it looks like it'll do the job nicely, if not that then some polyester resin with black pigment.

And I still haven't bought the new dial!

Regards,

Lloyd.

 
Posted : 27/10/2019 12:26 pm
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PYE625
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A splendid job... ? 

The second photo looks like raspberry ice cream. ? 

To understand the black art of electronics is to understand witchcraft. Andrew.

 
Posted : 27/10/2019 3:43 pm
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Lloyd
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It does look a bit like that! Bet it doesn't taste much like it though...

 
Posted : 28/10/2019 7:25 pm
Lloyd
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Not an update on my set, but thought I'd share this with you all!

Got a message from my Uncle on facebook today, turned out he'd found another A22 in black and chrome coming up for auction by Recycle Auctions in Lincolnshire, now for the bad news, the final hammer price it reached the dizzy heights of..........

£68...........

Yes, £68.. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!! I just hope it went to a good home, and not for some rubbish bluetooth speaker modification bodge. It looked to be in much better condition then mine, had all it's knobs and the back too, even had some old cloth covered cable sticking out of the back!

Just goes to show, not everyone knows the worth of these!

Regards,

Lloyd

 
Posted : 13/11/2019 10:02 pm
PYE625
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Just a thought Lloyd, it may be worth contacting the auction house to see if they are able to pass on the details of the winner of the set.

You never know, the new owner might be willing to pass it on if they are for example, an antiques dealer or suchlike.

To understand the black art of electronics is to understand witchcraft. Andrew.

 
Posted : 13/11/2019 10:09 pm
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Lloyd
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No need, I've found it on eBay! current bid £403. I matched up the blemishes on the back cover to find it! Didn't expect to find it so quickly though!

Regards,

Lloyd

 
Posted : 13/11/2019 10:34 pm
Lloyd
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Well, the year is nearly done, and one thing that’s definitely not done is the restoration of this radio! Fear not, my New Years resolution is to get on with it, and to that end I have got on and purchased one of the repro A22 dials on eBay, so that’ll be here sometime soon! 

Also on the cards is doing something with that chrome ring, I haven’t a clue where to get it rechromed properly, well, not yet anyway, but I have had a crazy thought for a stop-gap solution I can do myself, how about chrome effect vinyl wrap?! It’s meant for sticking on cars, and can be stuck to funny shaped things, so why not an A22 dial ring?! Best of all it’s easily reversed simply by peeling it off, so long as it doesn’t peel off all on its own after a week I think it could look quite good! I’m going to order some and give it a go, the stuff is available for about £3-5 for a roll, so if it turns out completely naff I haven’t lost much.

anyway, here’s to a happy new year to all, let’s see what wonders 2020 brings! ? 

Regards,

Lloyd

 
Posted : 31/12/2019 11:29 pm
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PYE625
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Chrome effect paint is another option, but I tried it once and it looked terrible. You may have better luck.

To understand the black art of electronics is to understand witchcraft. Andrew.

 
Posted : 31/12/2019 11:35 pm
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Lloyd
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I’ve tried the chrome effect paint once before, can’t remember what make it was, but I’m afraid I got the same result as you! Biggest problem I found with it was that even when dry, you could rub it off with your fingers! I tried giving it a coat of lacquer, which just turned it grey, so gave up with it. I’ve still got it somewhere. Strangely, it looked no different to bog standard silver paint when it was first sprayed onto something! 

The thing that is really bothering me about getting it chromed professionally is the thought of it getting lost, or damaged, I did find a company that you can post parts to for re-chroming, but I don’t trust the postal service one little bit! If it was lost, it’d take a hell of a lot to find another, and because it’s from a round Ekco it’d have a price tag to match. 

Regards 

Lloyd 

 
Posted : 31/12/2019 11:55 pm
Nuvistor
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There is a platers in Derby, min price £45 + vat, is that too far to travel?

http://derbyplating.co.uk/contact-us-1/

 

Frank

 
Posted : 01/01/2020 6:31 am
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peterscott
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@lloyd

Hi Lloyd,

A friend of mine has used 

Prestige Electro-Plating, Wombwell

UNIT 9/STATION RD INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, VALLEY ROAD 

S73 0BS Wombwell 
 
for many years and they have always done a good job and never lost the many small parts he has given them to plate.
 
They are a family firm and are genuinely interested in the old parts they restore.
 
Peter

www.nostalgiatech.co.uk

 
Posted : 01/01/2020 9:51 am
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Lloyd
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Cheers for those links, certainly worth looking into!

not much to report on ‘progress’... I have got some black epoxy potting compound to try making knobs with, looks very thick and gloopy, I hope it goes a bit more runny when mixed! 

I’ve fitted my 2 home made waxies, they look ok, still need to make some for the other values. The nice new repro dial that I ordered on New Year’s Eve still hasn’t arrived!! Tried messaging the seller, but got no response, then I looked at my ‘sent’ messages and the 2 messages I sent were not there! So I expect there is some sort of technical issue with eBay and their messaging service, I’ve tried their customer service department, and they are worse than useless! Sent them an email detailing the problem, and received a scripted spiel about their ‘money back guarantee’ and how to open a case.... and the bit that really got my back up was the bit at the end saying ‘we trust this answers your question, thank you for contacting customer services. If you require further assistance, please reply to this message’ so I did, and guess what? The message I sent isn’t in my sent box!!! Absolute head against brick wall time...

never mind, I’ll sit and mix some epoxy while I wait for eBay to fix itself!

 Regards 

Lloyd 

 
Posted : 16/01/2020 7:02 pm
Lloyd
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I've been playing with the epoxy potting compond that arrived the other day, and can now share the very first result of my experiments!

IMG 8657
IMG 8656
IMG 8655
IMG 8654

 

I think it's come out pretty well, it's not totally dry yet, it says it should fully cure in 7 days, and I only mixed a bit yesterday. Sadly there is a pinhole in it, caused by an air bubble which didn't make it to the surface, so I'll have to be more careful of that on the next ones I make. I've got more than enough resin to make a fair few knobs, so I will do that and cherry pick the best ones. I also want to try and add a brass or aluminium insert for the grub screw during moulding, so I don't have to fart about drilling the knob out afterwards, so that way the knobs will emerge from the mould complete and ready to fit, no doubt they will still need a little fettling, but hopefully much less than they otherwise would.

This is the potting compound I used, If the knob looks all good after it's curing time is over, then I'll see about filling the hole in the cabinet with the same stuff too. Another good thing I noticed whilst mixing this stuff up, it doesn't stink!! The polyester resin I used previously used to stink the workshop out, this stuff however doesn't really have much of a smell to it.

Another rather abitious project I have in the pipeline is to make some knobs for a Murphy A100!

IMG 7091

Now they look to be rather difficult..

Regards,

Lloyd

 
Posted : 19/01/2020 10:43 am
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Lloyd
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Time for another update, the new dial has arrived!

ekco4

I must say, I think it was money well spent, there is no way I could have made anything myself that would even come close to this, it's really nice, properly screen printed onto the rear of the clear plastic dial, this is probably as close to an original dial as you can get, without it actually being an original. It's certainly made this restoration much easier.

ekco3
ekco1
ekco2

The home-made dial that came with this set originally will end up with the 'spare' chassis, and I'll probably go to the great expense of a new 'photocopy' of an original dial, to replace the water stained one!

I think now is a good time to put all my projects to one side, and have a damn good tidy up in the workshop, I'm thinking of extending the workbench a little, currently it's 1.5M, I think extending it to 2M would be good, I'd just have to find somewhere else to put the Ekco T368, which is currently on top of the Murphy V250C.. It'll also help when I finally give my boss his wine fridge back! That's been in here for over a week on the workbench whilst I sorted out a new thermistor for the temperature control.

Back to the Ekco, once the bench is free again, I can get the lathe out and make some inserts for the knobs, then I think I'll try using the drill press to keep the inserts central whilst the epoxy cures, it'll all make more sense when I take some pictures of it!

List of things left to do to it now;

  • find replacement speaker cloth
  • get ring re-chromed
  • Make a good set of knobs
  • fill hole in cabinet
  • find a back, or make one
  • refurbish the output transformer/ get the spare one re-wound
  • finish tidying replacement components/ make some new waxies
  • get a nice bit of mains lead!
  • make the video of the restoration

Hopefully that's it then! It could still go on well into next year though.

Regards,

Lloyd

 
Posted : 24/01/2020 7:37 pm
PYE625, Nuvistor, PYE625 and 3 people reacted
Till Eulenspiegel
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Check out this one. 

EkcoA22 cabinet 1

 Will introduce the reconstruction of the cabinet in a new topic.

Till Eulenspiegel.

 
Posted : 07/03/2020 11:34 am
Lloyd
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Good luck with that one! I look forward to the rebuild, how are you going to reconstruct it?

 Regards 

Lloyd 

 
Posted : 07/03/2020 7:51 pm
Till Eulenspiegel
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Hi Lloyd, I'm using a very thin plywood for the cabinet construction. It's only 2mm thick so two pieces required.     Easy to bend into shape. It's the front and curved edges that's going to be the difficult part of the repair job.

Till Eulenspiegel.

 
Posted : 08/03/2020 10:36 am
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