01-05-2015, 09:13 AM
The plastic does indeed shrink, Sam. I think your idea of using an MDF panel has merit. It's a matter of making up the thickness of the grille in some way, to fill the gap around the scale escutcheon.
The plastic on an A104 I worked on some years back had shrunk to expose the edges, very untidy. Sadly I can't find photographs of how I got around it but I know I did, using a grille cloth as a replacement. I must have adapted the escutcheon mounting method to allow it to sit flat on the fabric. I believe the shrinking of the original plastic grille was made worse by exposure to heat, perhaps from proximity to an open fire. The A144 uses a similar grille plastic and I've restored one of those, but fortunately in that example the plastic had shrunk only minimally and I was able to re-set it to reach the cabinet edges without a gap showing.
Tony
The plastic on an A104 I worked on some years back had shrunk to expose the edges, very untidy. Sadly I can't find photographs of how I got around it but I know I did, using a grille cloth as a replacement. I must have adapted the escutcheon mounting method to allow it to sit flat on the fabric. I believe the shrinking of the original plastic grille was made worse by exposure to heat, perhaps from proximity to an open fire. The A144 uses a similar grille plastic and I've restored one of those, but fortunately in that example the plastic had shrunk only minimally and I was able to re-set it to reach the cabinet edges without a gap showing.
Tony
