A new lease of life for a MK1 KB FB10 'Toaster'

[Aerodyne]

Very neat work as usual, David. You've had good answers to the 'twin resistor' question, so I won't go into that except to say that two discrete resistors have twice the surface area of a single one - approximately, at least (I know that a higher wattage component would likely be slightly bigger, of course) so heat dissipation should be better, therefore so should reliability - though what would happen if one went O/C is food for thought!
A smart little set that in its found state, what many would have passed by without a second thought.
Tony

[Yorkie]

Nice restoration David.

I too have used the armature method for repairing Bakelite. Used that Plas-T-Pare from the US.  It can fill really thin sections and years later is still there.  I actually used it on the chipped dial covers (the parts over lapping the dials) of a McMichael 'roller tune' with no support at all, just bonded to the edge which cant be 3mm, they were flatted and sprayed up and are still there and its at least 10 years ago.

How is the cabinet  finish up close?  do you manage to get rid of all the orange peel?  Sorry! you know I have the critical eye !

I  find in these small chassis the modern caps look OK where as in a big 30's one they offend me.

Gary

Excellent invisible repair on the McMichael Gary!

Re 'orange peel', it isn't perfect, but it's acceptable. Not the best time of the year to be spraying of course. My little workshop is heated and double glazed, so I got the temperature up in there, and sprayed it as best I could. I gave it two coats of primer, three coats of gloss, and flatted each one with 'U-Pol pads as used for car re-finishing. As found, the cabinet was very faded and jaded, notwithstanding the damage, which was at the back and could have been camouflaged to a reasonable match had the cabinet not otherwise been beyond redemption. Besides which, I waned it red anyway!

The extent to which it the cabinet had faded is evidenced by the faded speaker cloth - originally bright green.

Re modern caps, yes, I agree - the older and rarer the set, the more that conservation comes into play. Although the caps aren't visible, we know they're there and they do look garish, it has to be admitted. I do re-stuff can electrolytics, as in this case, but I've only ever stuffed caps in pre-war sets in the case of the Ekco A77, which has stalled this last year.

You might recall the vintage repro caps that Colin Wood created some time ago. He rolled tubes from brown wrapping paper, printed a logo 'WESCO British Made', plugged the ends of the tubes with plugs he made from baked Plasticine and dipped the completed caps in paraffin wax. The end result looked very authentic. The ones illustrated are .05, .005 and .01

 

[Joe]

I can't say I'm keen on 'Yellow Peril' caps either. At least the cheapo poly-dip things I use are either dark green or maroon so look a bit more discrete.

I re-stuff electrolytic cans for the simple reason that inside the old one is usually the easiest place to put the new. Rather than cut it open I un-peen the bottom to get access.

— Joe

[Radio Fixer]

I would have only used the 'yellow perils' on small chassis sets where they don't look so out of keeping. Even painted some and covered with PC made labels but I don't bother now. Simply not interested in restoring those small sets as I never play them as I prefer the bigger 30's radios. Have some 50's sets but they will just stay as they are, some would say "and a good thing too".

An easier way than Colin's which looks very good is to use styrene tube from model shops and make suitable labels. Fill the ends with hot melt glue and later paint a shade of brown.

David mentioned re-forming the electrolytics but its just not worth it, they don't last. Re-stuff is cheap and gives more confidence the set will go on working.

Gary

[Crackle]

That's a very nice repair David, and a great write up, very informative.

Mike

[Yorkie]

Thanks for your kind words Mike.

As you're clearly a KB enthusiast, I'm pleased and relieved that you don't see it as an act of vandalism to destroy it's originality by giving it a new livery! At least it didn't get stripped for its bits, and sounds as good as the day it left the factory.

[Pat Pending]

Well done David. I like the new look. I've made "new" wax paper caps using Colin's method but using beeswax, it's much firmer when set. Regards Andy.