Raymond Electric F17

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Ray P
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#1 Raymond Electric F17

Post by Ray P »

I've started this new thread to record progress of my project to 'restore' my Raymond Electric F17 radio from 1947.

After a life of over 60years the radio, which was already in need of a lot of work, was badly damaged in transit to me because of totally inadequate packaging on the part of the seller. So now there's even more work to do.

Here's one similar to mine but in better shape;

Image
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Ray P
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#2 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by Ray P »

One of the main casualties of the mishandling was the tuning dial glass, which was broken into three pieces with one of the pieces missing.

To try and recreate a glass I have scanned the parts that survived and found a picture of a radio with the same glass.

Image

A colleague who is a whizz with photoshop (or is that paintshop) has already used sections of the scan to clone the base layout of the missing part and is going to try to regenerate the missing station names, etc. matching the fonts/colours etc. The main problem will be accurate placement of the missing elements. All being well the aim is to get the reconstructed image digitally printed onto a new piece of glass.
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Ray P
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#3 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by Ray P »

An interesting aspect of the glass is the company logo in the centre as it shows how our view of the world has changed; the silhouetted figure is smoking a cigarette (using a cigarette holder), presumably to suggest sophistication. The advertsising material for the radio also features a cigarette (and an ashtray!);

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-engli ... 94567.html

I also can't help but see the large M in the radio as an extension of the same silhouette, it looks as though they're sitting in a most inelegant pose, legs wide open!
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Thermionic Idler
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#4 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by Thermionic Idler »

Ha! Very subversive.
Deck: Garrard 301 - Audio Origami PU7 - NW Analogue DH3S
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ed
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#5 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by ed »

alexander technique?
get the best posture whilst smoking your passing clouds
way ahead of its time
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
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Ray P
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#6 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by Ray P »

Today I have reassembled the jigsaw puzzle that was the bakelite enclosure. I've used brush applied cyano to stabilise the cracks and fix the loose pieces back into place. It seems to have done the job so the next thing will be to mix some milliput filler (when it arrives) to try and get a colour match and fill the voids where the bakelite has crumbled. It's looking better already.

Once I've filled the voids (so the resin doesn't get onto the outside surface) I'll look to use epoxy/glass to reinforce the base area of the enclosure.
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Mike H
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#7 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by Mike H »

Ray P wrote: Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:47 pm An interesting aspect of the glass is the company logo in the centre as it shows how our view of the world has changed; the silhouetted figure is smoking a cigarette (using a cigarette holder), presumably to suggest sophistication.
Oh yes indeed, very Noel Coward. :D
I also can't help but see the large M in the radio as an extension of the same silhouette, it looks as though they're sitting in a most inelegant pose, legs wide open!
Yes! Very unfortunate!

Strange how one piece of the glass went AWOL. Very peculiar.
 
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Ray P
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#8 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by Ray P »

Mike H wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:10 pm Strange how one piece of the glass went AWOL. Very peculiar.
Suspicious more like; if the glass got broken in the box all of the pieces would still be in the box...
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#9 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by Mike H »

Exactly! :shock:
 
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#10 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by Ray P »

Remember this little project.

The more I looked at this before the more disillusioned I became when I looked at how bad the damage was. In the end I boxed it up and it's been sitting on a shelf in the garage.

I dug it out again over the weekend to remind myself of where I left off. Upon close inspection the bakelite case repairs have worked out pretty well and with relativey little effort I should be able to get it looking quite presentable. Looking closely at the valve radio that used to inhabit the bakelite it looks a lot less promising - a lot of damage has been done by somebody in the past and the whole thing is badly corroded and I'm concluding that it is just scrap. In addition there is no speaker, the one I found inside was a tiny cheap thing, the sort of thing Maplins used to sell.

So what to do?

I'm seriously considering using the bakelite case to house a network music player using a little Class D amplifier and some sort of Raspberry Pi based DAC - in most respects that could be non-destructive so if a slow restore of the radio comes to fruition it could be reinstalled.

The exception to that, and I think it applies whether its a modern amp or a restored radio, is the speaker mounting. It is clear that the original speaker mounted on the radio chassis in a bespoke arrangement but I don't think there will be any way of finding an original speaker or replicating the arrangement with a replacement so I will have to invent a means of mounting a replacement speaker onto the bakelite case. Fortunately the inside of the case has a nice round moulded ring about 1-1.25in deep and 6inches inside diameter so I think I could cut an MDF circle that would slot over the ring so there is something to bolt a speaker to. I'll post a picture later.

I think the next thing is to find a suitable speaker. It obviously needs to be 'full-range' and perhaps vintage? so I'll start looking out for something.
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#11 Re: Raymond Electric F17

Post by Ray P »

I had another look at this project when I was down in the garage yesterday.

It pains me to do it but the original internals are now heading to be recycled at the local tip as they're beyond redemption, however, I did manage to reconstruct the bakelite case and it doesn't look too bad and with the warmer weather I'll be able to give it more structural integrity with some glass/epoxy strengthening inside and I think with a little effort it could look OK as a nice retro-look music player, albeit probably a little compromised in absolute sound quality terms.

The question is what to use internally. The starting point is a suitable speaker, something around 6.5in diameter is needed and I've been looking at 'architectural' speakers, designed to be mounted in ceilings and the like. Kef do some that look good with a bass unit and coaxial tweeter and seem pretty flexible with respect to 'cabinet' volume. I would need to devise a means to mount one but that shouldn't be too difficult. I think the rear of the bakelite case will essentially be open though it'll likely be located with the back facing a wall.

That leaves a source and amplifier to sort out and I need to consider the fact that it'll have to be mono too.

I have a litle stereo chip amp module (with a 12AU7 input section) that I think might be just right. For a source, I'm thinking a MiniDSP 2x4 kit with a bluetooth 5 module delivering I2S to it - I could then use the MiniDSP to mix the Left and Right Channels and before a dsp active crossover feeding the two sections of the Kef (sans current passive crossover) via the steeo amp.

How does that look in theory and can anyone spot a gotcha.

My primary question currently is whether the MiniDSP can mix L&R input and then do the active crossover so I need to look more at the manual and maybe post a question on thir forum.
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
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