Speaker Grille Cloth - Sid Chaplin

[Bushbaby]

Hi All,
I spent a very useful few hours last Friday with Sid Chaplin who lives locally to me. He sorted me out some speaker cloths for a few a old radios that need replacements. Although original materials can be almost impossible to get, he will sort out cloths that are close and will suit each radio accordingly.

I must say that he is great to deal with and extremely knowledgeable and helpful.

Regards

Rob

[Yorkie]

Lovely guy Rob - he still manages to get to the NVCF, and carries lots of hardware such as hinges, clasps, feet etc for transistor portables and the like. No doubt if he were younger he'd expand the range to include knob brights, Robert's badges and handles etc, and would have a website, but I guess he's just content to bimble along, letting peoople seek him out if they think he can help. I wonder if he's just running his stocks down, or if he can actually replenish stocks from sources? I don't know of anyone else in the UK who provides the service that Sid does. There's Coriene Mass (?) and Ben Djikeman (?) in Holland, but they're in a different league price wise. Coriene (?) will weave an exact copy from a fragment of fabric, and of course it's not only very skilled but very time consuming, so comes with a hefty price tag which is only warranted for a very expensive classic radio.

(I may have the names spelt wrongly).

[Wage Slave]

Do you think he would have a bit of something like this? Although it is not damaged it is well yellowed (more so than the picture shows) and I would quite like to refresh it.

[Yorkie]

Do you think he would have a bit of something like this? Although it is not damaged it is well yellowed (more so than the picture shows) and I would quite like to refresh it.

You'll find Sid's range of items and other info here:

http://www.vintage-radio.com/trg/index.html

Other useful sources of speaker cloth here:

http://www.radiocraft.co.uk/directory/lo...repair.htm

Not cheap stuff, and it depends on how valuable or coveted a set is as to whther we consider the cost worthwhile.

Hope theat helps a bit.

[Bushbaby]

Hi Wage Slave,
If you send Sid a detailed photo of a small area of the cloth so that the pattern can be clearly seen I'm sure that he'll do his best to match it for you. He can be contacted at member@tradragrilles.freeserve.co.uk.

Regards

Rob

[Wage Slave]

Thank you both. I'll send him a picture as you suggest. I don't need an exact match - just something appropriate will do.

[Joe]

Have you tried washing the old one? If you're prepared to replace it anyway you've nothing to loose.

I've had good results with oxygenating crystals.

       

- Joe

[Wage Slave]

Hmmm. Very nice! I did consider trying to wash it but thought that it probably wouldn't work with yellowing. As you say though it is worth a go.

Now to go off and try and find out what oxygenating crystals are and if there is any such thing here.

Lovely radio that one. What model is it? I am hankering for one already .

[Bushbaby]

Its a Bush VHF61 - very similar to the one that I had in my garage before it slipped off the side onto the floor and smashed into about a 1000 pieces of Bakelite.

I too would like (another) one!

Rob

[Joe]

The famous brand of oxygenating crystals in the UK is Vanish Oxy Action but I use the ones from PoundLand.

Your VHF61 sounds like a nice restoration job, Rob. You could always take a leaf out of Greany and Retired's book and make it into a VHF62.

- Joe