Speaker Grill Cloth fixing question

[SurreyNick]

Thank you for the compliments. Probably easier for me to see the slight flaws close up than it is to see them in a picture. I am not quite aligned perfectly, being perhaps 2mm out and I have one pencil mark showing on the cloth too. Other than that however it's fine. It's a 10" speaker hole, but with sufficient fretwork for me to have adhesion across some of the width. I used greaseproof paper to make a stencil and then drew the pattern onto the cloth. In that way I was able to apply UHT to all parts where wood contacted the cloth and so there is no sagging anywhere.

Your thoughts on the choice of cloth Gary?

Nick.

[Radio Fixer]

That is a hard one from a small picture Nick.  I cant really visualise the speaker front from that and cant appreciate the size.  But it is a lot better than some that appear on web sites and at auctions.  The worst are those with a floral design that look as if the material has been cut out of old curtains.

In my early days I use to try to find cloth of the right colour and not worry too much about the design but from experience I now do it the other way around.  I have two radios here like that where the design is too big and probably intended for full front or console.   Below is an example, the colour is excellent to the original and note the, to me, perfect positioning.  But it doesn't look right.  One day I will have to change them, no problem, its all experience and the cost of the cloth is down in the noise !

   

Often a plain cloth is better than a pattern unless it closely matches the original.  Its certainly a lot easier to do.

   

Gary

[SurreyNick]

Ah, I only asked because you wrote in post #20 Gary "Interesting choice of cloth !" I thought you had formed some opinion on it and I was interested to hear it. I was keen to find something that was in keeping with the design and the era of the radio. However, it's surprisingly hard to find references for radios of this period i.e. 1929 and the remnant of the cloth that resided with the radio was not much help. So I took a punt and chose the herringbone weave in a light cream colour in the hope it would appear in character. I appreciate this is likely to be a matter of personal taste and that opinion is probably divided, but I would still be interested to hear anyone's thoughts.

I have posted a couple more pictures of the receiver (a Marconiphone 55) so you can get a better idea of how it looks.

Nick
       

[pwdrive]

I always think cream and brown go together....so did Pullman apparently:

http://www.urban75.org/blog/desolate-aba...-cornwall/


The cabinet etc looks to have come up well, looks very good.

Lawrence.

[SurreyNick]

Thanks

[pwdrive]

I reckon you have an artistic flare...

Lawrence.

[Radio Fixer]

Yes! Now I can see the whole front that looks a good combination. Is the pencil mark in the top right petal?

Cabinet looks good and period.

Gary

[SurreyNick]

Yes Gary, that's the pencil mark. It was such a stupid and unnecessary mistake too. I was drawing around the stencil and let the dogs catch my attention!
Thanks for the compliments too. I did as little restoration as possible to the Marconiphone.
Nick

[AlanBeckett]

I think it looks splendid. I particularly like the Grain, although would it have been like that originally?

Alan

[Radio Fixer]

You maybe able to remove it Nick but I would have a practise on a scrap of the material and the same pencil first.

If the cloth can be supported from behind then gently rubbing with a piece of fresh white bread may well lift it. And I would have someone with a vacuum cleaner, on gentle, sucking up the crumbs.

Of course if it doesn't bother you then leave it. And you have learnt something: it's not easy putting in grill cloth perfect. And yet back in the factory the Ladies would have been slapping them in in minutes, most likely using hot hide glue and gloves. Its a shame that there are so few pictures of how they did cabinet work.

For me, over the years, I probably have become far too perfectionist but the other side of that is you have to try to do better, else what's the point.