KB 'Toaster' from Golborne gets a facelift

[Yorkie]

At the recent Swapmeet I picked up a KB toaster that had been 'in the wars' a bit and had a chunk missing from the bottom of the cabinet front near the tuning knob, about the size of a 10p coin. It was otherwise OK and cheap enough at a tenner, so I thought I'd give it a facelift. I'm rather fond of the 'FB10' - I think it's a clever combination of style and technical design. It's AC only and has a small auto transformer rather than a high wattage dropper, with just one 7.5W 15R resistor in series with the transformer, the radio runs much cooler than do AC/DC radios. (All the other resistors are 1/4 and 1/2 Watt ones. The earlier model had a frame aerial and used a 6V6GT for the output, whereas the FB10/2 had a ferrite rod aerial and a 6BW6 output valve. (This one is a FB10/2).

I remedied the missing chunk using Isopon car body filler, but as it would be vulnerable to being snapped off, to strengthen the repair I made an 'armature' of 1mm steel wire to the shape of the missing piece, and drilled 1mm holes into the edges of the cabinet. I poked the 1mm wire into the holes, and built up the missing section with Isopon, which I then shaped to the contours of the cabinet.

The cabinet would of course have needed to be sprayed in any event, and rather than spray it in cream, I decided to liven it up by spraying it red. (I'd previously sprayed one in peppermint green for my younger son).

The set worked well but I replaced the waxy caps anyway. Excellent little performer. I've attached a few pics of this one, and a pic of the earlier green one. Admittedly not to everyone's taste, but I like them, and I hope that perhaps a few other do too!

[pwdrive]

Very posh..

Lawrence.

[Yorkie]

Thanks Lawrence!

[Joe]

Very nice indeed. I quite like them too but would want the FB10FM VHF-only version.

I keep hoping for a DAC90(a) with a poor enough case to give a custom paint-job to but am yet to find one.

- Joe

[tiv48]

i quite like the green one
rob t

[Retired]

Hi,

I've been privileged to see this as work in progress and what a lovely result. Very well done David another set saved.

Good luck with your search for a DAC 90A Joe.

Kind regards, Col.

[Joe]

I'm hardly searching, Col, as I've got three (plus a DAC90) and if I obtain another I think David may explode.

One of the ones I have came with a smashed case but it repaired too well to paint.

- Joe

[Tedzed1]

Must say David, I also like the red example, now how about one in purple?

[Refugee]

Did you take a before photo of the cabinet damage?

[Yorkie]

Did you take a before photo of the cabinet damage?

Sorry, no - it didn't initially occur to me until after I'd sprayed it, and it might have been more helpful to others if I'd taken some pics.

Basically, it was an arc shaped piece just above the control knob, about the size of a 10p piece. As I explained, because it was at an edge of the cabinet, it could easily have been snapped off if I hadn't reinforced it, and whatever material was used (eg, Milliput etc), the joint would have been weak and fragile at the junction where it met the cabinet. Hence, I drilled sideways into the edge of the cabinet using a 1mm bit in a Dremel type drill, then I bent a piece of wire (actually a paper clip) which was a push fit into the holes, so as to reinforce the Isopon car body filler.

I spent some time carefully shaping the contour of the filler to that of the cabinet, then when I sprayed it with primer, used 500g wet and dry to highlight any high or low spots till I was happy enough to apply another coat of primer before the gloss. I find such repairs quite satisfying, as many would simply write off the set as only good for spares, and the repair is indiscernible from the outside, but I built up the thickness on the inside.