Ekco T311 TV Cabinet customization.

[Joe]

I now get most of my wood finishing supplies off e-Bay and have always been satisfied with the quality and service.

Like so many things it's practice that makes perfect and the wooden ends of Roberts and Hacker sets would make a very good starting point.

- Joe

[Retired]

Hi,

You really are too kind David and reading your comments has made me feel quite emotional.

I actually used a router to cut the stringing grooves but using a home made router bit to the precise width of the stringing; it worked a treat and thankfully didn't need re-sharpening lasting just long enough to complete the grooves.

With the cabinet successfully restored much to my surprise; I then had to wait a while as the warmer weather arrived allowing me to do outside jobs around home.

About a month ago I decided time had come to have a go at restoring the chassis but admit my heart wasn't in it and felt it to be an hopeless case as it was extremely rough. the LOPT housing had completely disintegrated to dust; in fact I didn't know it had a housing until later. I couldn't see many of the components on the chassis deck as everything was covered in debris and I ended up blowing it all away using my compressor and airline.

I had taken many digital pictures and drawn sketches with notes when I stripped the set and now I was thankful of these. Bench space was very limited so excluded doing any work with the cabinet on the bench so I made a bespoke cradle to hold the CRT/loudspeaker securely and safely.

With "the works" on the bench I had to use a mirror placed against the workshop window to view the screen.

A friend very kindly gave me a working LOPT and wouldn't even accept payment for postage on it. The original LOPT was beyond hope as the over-wind had burned out; in fact this was so bad I'm surprised the set didn't go up in flames.

I'm a member of another forum and received tremendous help from its members some of whom also kindly donated the parts as required whilst work was in progress and refused payment of any kind for them. The two threads combined on the other forum were huge as I went into great detail throughout the work but can only touch the surface here. It's a pity forum rules prevent me from adding links to the other forum but I'll abide by the rules and am happy to add the shortened story here.

Following the advice given it took a couple of weeks before the set burst into life showing "first light". This was a very moving moment for me considering I thought I was into a hiding for nothing but suddenly I had great hopes of finally seeing this set working in all its glory. One day my Chum Mike Phelan visited and Mike spent a couple of hours chasing a fault and ended up briefly displaying the test card before having to leave.

Mike had removed the tuning selector drum but gave me sufficient information to enable me to re-install it which I did. Shortly after I got the test card to display then took another week to iron out all the faults. Every capacitor above and including 0.001uF was replaced but excluded the two main electrolytics which were actually in working order and still are. Two valves (U25 and PY33) were replaced as were a number of resistors.

For safety I removed the two original mains pins on the rear of the chassis together with the two fuse holders and replaced them with modern safety types. Over the last few days the set has been winding me up with strange faults but finally today I can declare this a success story in fact I think it's a miracle and a restorers dream come true. The following pictures only tell part of the story as this set when I received it was indeed dire.

As Joe rightly says practice makes perfect but I've never worked on a TV before although I have radio experience so this was a huge personal challenge for me and I did the work in front of the world by doing it in real time on an Internet forum. I'm just pleased I didn't end up looking like a total fool as there was never any guarantee that I could restore either the cabinet or chassis.

I enjoyed this restoration immensely and have gained a great deal of knowledge and experience whilst doing so.

I hope this story encourages others to have a go. the main thing is to actually make a start and I agree with Joe even a pair of wooden ends from a Roberts would be an ideal first step.

Kind regards, Col.

                       

[Joe]

As part of the re-organisation links to VRF are now allowed providing they are relevant to the topic under discussion.

It remains our policy to not tolerate any defamation of that or other web-sites or individuals.

The links to Col's TV story are:-

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showt...hp?t=62371 - Cabinet
http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showt...hp?t=67298 - Chassis

- Joe

[Tedzed1]

Hello Col, I have not plucked up the courage to start this one yet, would you fancy a go?

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks Joe for adding the links and I'm pleased to see we can now cross reference forums which to me makes a lot of sense as forums can also share members to everyone's mutual benefit.

Given the in depth reporting covering this restoration on VRF it would have taken a great deal of time to add the full story here; I'm also a member of an American forum so adding links is a great way of sharing not only a restoration story but a great deal of useful information. I like all three forums and find them a huge help in passing away the many gloomy months of winter. I have plenty of stories to add so I'll be rambling on again before long.

Wow Paul what a lovely cabinet. Yes it would make a good restoration project but I think in all honesty I would remove "the works" and roast the woodworm on November 5th after firstly taking lots of good digital pictures together with every dimension on a drawing then not hesitate and make a brand new cabinet adding my own selection of veneers. Please; please have a go because you have everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose. The worst thing that could happen is that you lose a bit of timber but what a whole lot of fun and entertainment is ahead of you.

I'd say go for it and if you can prove me wrong and restore this wreck then may the force be with you. The very best of luck.

Kind regards, Col.

[Mark Hennessy]

That really is an amazing transformation! Actually, I'm not sure that word does it justice - more like rebirth. I really must build up the courage to try some veneer work - after all, there's no shortage of guidance (not to mention expertise) on this forum. One potential project might involve re-veneering loudspeakers - at least they're a straightforward box - and another is a Hacker Mayflower II, which is also a fairly plain box. Although in reality, I bought that as a cosmetic wreck for just a tenner so that I could remove parts with a clear conscious

Which reminds me. Earlier Mayflowers came with a gloss lacquer finish which is rock-hard. Nice, because minor scratches can be polished out with Brasso. But, is such a finish possible at home? Would it require an air-gun? I haven't much experience with conventional varnish, but can these be polished to give such a nice finish, or would a thick layer built up over many coats be flawed - perhaps with ripples or runs?

Oh, and I was wondering how you found a router bit that small - how on earth do you make a DIY router bit? Before you posted that reply, I was wondering if you used the very tip of a 45 degree chamfer bit, but of course that wouldn't work with the stringing...

I must say that threads like these are what makes the forum so special

Thanks again,

Mark

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Mark for your most kind comments.

Please have a go at veneering as it will possibly drive you mad at first but once you get the hang of it veneering does become much easier; these jobs are like trying to ride a bike for the first time but persist and you get there; the rewards are great and once you have veneered and finished a wreck of a cabinet it gives such a great feeling of satisfaction.

Regarding home made router cutters. I'm used to using lots of different types of cutters from lathe tooling to end mills so all I needed to do was to sort out what I wanted to achieve and work from there. It sounds easy put like this and it proved to be so in practice.

Silver steel is readily available in many diameters and can be used to make all kinds of cutters including cutters which cut metal if the bit is heat treated either before or after the required profile has been added. I bought a couple of lengths of 1/4" Dia silver steel but I could also have bought ready tempered tool steel and ground it to size.

The length of the new router cutter was decided upon and a blank cut from the length of silver steel; this steel is very tough even before tempering but cuts with decent tooling like an hacksaw.

It was chucked in the three jaw on the Myford and the end reduced to the exact diameter to match the new stringing/banding which I believe was something like 80 thou (0.080") for a length of 1/4". Next job was to gently file the flat using a small square file and a taper was added to give a shear cut as can be seen in the picture. This was just a guess because I didn't even know if it would work or not but I had high hopes.

At this stage it was still just an idea but I like to experiment and decided not to heat treat the new cutter because steel is tougher than wood anyway and I wanted to prove my idea before getting too technical.

The cutter fitted into the router collet perfectly as expected because silver steel is finished to very close tolerances. It was then easy to try a few sample cuts using the router free hand as can be seen below. The cutter did a wonderful job without over heating and continued to do so as it sank all the grooves for the stringing in the side panels. As the last bit of cutting was done the cutter started to lose its sharpness but lasted just long enough to complete the job. For the top panel I simply made another new cutter. By doing the job this way it saved me the problem of hardening and tempering the cutters but should I have had a lot more grooves to cut I would have done the tempering. The blunted cutters can now be used for other types of tooling as silver steel is handy stuff to have around even in short lengths.

I hope this answers your question Mark and just about any size cutter could have been made.

Kind regards, Col.