Grundig 3028 Cabinet Restore

[Retired]

Hi,

It won't be long now John before you are starting on a new project as the old one draws to a successful close. I find all aspects of cabinetwork to be highly addictive and delight in the smell of freshly worked wood.

I can well remember the days of craftsmen guarding their secrets and agree that by doing so it secured their jobs.

Then along came Barry Bucknell being a forerunner to DIY. Whilst Barry can be credited with many things he alone must be responsible for encouraging the destruction of thousands upon thousands of beautiful old panelled doors; he introduced "Flush doors" to the masses and the sale of hardboard must have rocketed. We are visiting a friend on Friday and every time we walk into her huge old house it is like a trip into a time warp as the house still retains the kitchen style from the sixties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Bucknell

Kind regards, Col.

[Yorkie]

That brought back memories Colin! In November 1961, three months before we were married, we bought our first house - a 1938 semi. It had what we'd now consider gorgeous panelled doors in hemlock, (pine family), which is a wonderful straight grained timber free from knots. I spent the next six years removing every other ‘period’ feature such as picture rails, Bakelite light switches and so on. They’d probably end up on e-bay now. There’s a huge architectural salvage warehouse at Belper, near Derby, which sells all this stuff at eye-watering prices.

http://www.british-trees.com/treeguide/h...0000004672

I spent weeks removing every door, and flushing them with hardboard, stocked by DIY stores exactly for that purpose. I used several tins of Evostick, countless panel pins, chucked away to lovely Bakelite knobs and fitted ‘contemporary’ ones as they were then called. A major undertaking, the outcome of which I was very proud of, so for an encore, I went on to give the stair spindles the same treatment - again, lovely hemlock spindles, which I ‘boxed in’ with hardboard. Ironic that the original features would add value and period ‘character’ to a property of that era and make it easier to sell.

Barry Bucknell is also famous for being the co-designer of the Mirror Dinghy’ designed for the Daily Mirror, a DIY sailing boat aimed at bringing sailing within the pocket of cloth cap workers who comprised the Daily Mirror readership. It was a hugely successful venture, and they’re sailed all over the world, probably by people who haven’t a clue about the origins of the design.

Nothing at all to do with John’s 3028 restoration, but to use a sailing analogy, we’re allowed to drift off course on here without being jettisoned overboard as unwanted on voyage!

David

[Geaney]

Well 18 months of regular use later the clutch mechanism driving the dial cords has given up on the FM side. I saw signs of that when I was doing the original restore but, ever the optimist, I hoped I'd get away with it. I suppose I can't complain having had 18 months use. Anyway, since I have the donor set that Ed sent me way back when, I've taken the clutch plates from that (also hardened and worn) and made new pads for them using tap washers with a cork base. Alas, I'll have to strip down the chassis to remove the clutch mechanism so I can swap the plates with those from the donor set. Oh well, it's a lovely set and I use it all the time.

Cheers, John

[Geaney]

I've stripped down the clutch and replaced the pads - had to do it over as the version with the cork bases were too thick - and rebuilt everything. So far so good. Next I'll re-string it and see of the rubber pads have enough grip to drive everything properly.

Putting it back together involved a certain amount of fiddling and some expletives along the way

Cheers, John