This was a garage find (In the rafters) many years ago. A 1936 Steward-Warner ferrodyne table valve radio. As can be seen, the cabinet was in poor state and this has put me off restoring it all these years. Truth be told, cabinet restoration and just plain woodworking has never been my forte. Finally decided to have a go at restoring this one. I planned to see if I could get the cabinet looking respectable first, before I would actually restore the chassis.
I wanted to do a sympathetic restoration of the cabinet and did not want to just strip off all the original finish and varnish it again. In my mind it would not then, look like an 80+ year old radio with all it's history. I wanted to preserve as much of the cabinet's original patina as possible. I was able to disassembled the entire cabinet without any damage and then wiped off each section using a lint free cloth and acetone. This had to be done quickly and once only so as not to remove to much of the original finish.
Finally I applied water based mahogany varnish stain, evenly, once again using a cloth patch. Reassembled the cabinet once I was happy with the finish.
The restoration of the chassis was then completed, no major problems, just the normal re-capping and resistor replacement.
As can be seen cabinet was in pretty bad shape:
The cabinet in pieces!
What the chassis and dial look like.
The chassis being re-capped:
The set completed and chassis installed:
On test on the work bench:
And finally in it's new position in the lounge. Overall don't think it came out to badly!
I wanted to do a sympathetic restoration of the cabinet and did not want to just strip off all the original finish and varnish it again. In my mind it would not then, look like an 80+ year old radio with all it's history. I wanted to preserve as much of the cabinet's original patina as possible. I was able to disassembled the entire cabinet without any damage and then wiped off each section using a lint free cloth and acetone. This had to be done quickly and once only so as not to remove to much of the original finish.
Finally I applied water based mahogany varnish stain, evenly, once again using a cloth patch. Reassembled the cabinet once I was happy with the finish.
The restoration of the chassis was then completed, no major problems, just the normal re-capping and resistor replacement.
As can be seen cabinet was in pretty bad shape:
The cabinet in pieces!
What the chassis and dial look like.
The chassis being re-capped:
The set completed and chassis installed:
On test on the work bench:
And finally in it's new position in the lounge. Overall don't think it came out to badly!
