28-10-2012, 08:13 AM
At the mo Colin I would rather stick with restoring radios, its nice and warm in my Den where as the only place, assuming I made room, for a lathe would be the garage. I was out there yesterday drilling holes for a back panel, with your excellent jig, and it was darned cold; very glad to get back indoors. Could wear more clothes I suppose... Heating is hardly worth the electricity as with no insulation it only warms the back.
I was never good on a lathe even as an apprentice, of course we all change and I have a lot more sticking power now so could probably get the hang of it. But I cant think of many things I would want to make... pens though take up a lot less room than radios.
It would be good to find somewhere with a CNC machine as above or bigger that would copy knobs to order from suitable plastic stock. Plastic of the right colour and with better colour stability than moulded stuff. I guess I want Bakelite, that was one of the earliest plastics and still cant be beat. I have an Ekco AC97 with cream repro knobs, that were wonderful when I got them but soon darkened. It was a shame as they were a spot on colour match at first. I now keep a cloth over the radio unless being played and they dont seem to be getting any worse so it can only be the affect of UV.
Gary
I was never good on a lathe even as an apprentice, of course we all change and I have a lot more sticking power now so could probably get the hang of it. But I cant think of many things I would want to make... pens though take up a lot less room than radios.
It would be good to find somewhere with a CNC machine as above or bigger that would copy knobs to order from suitable plastic stock. Plastic of the right colour and with better colour stability than moulded stuff. I guess I want Bakelite, that was one of the earliest plastics and still cant be beat. I have an Ekco AC97 with cream repro knobs, that were wonderful when I got them but soon darkened. It was a shame as they were a spot on colour match at first. I now keep a cloth over the radio unless being played and they dont seem to be getting any worse so it can only be the affect of UV.
Gary
