GE 810 restoration

[kbmuri]

Oh, just noticed the fer-garbage cabinet has 4 oval vent holes. Now I kinda want to save it. It was actually in the bonfire stack this summer for awhile, but I tossed it in the garage because I wanted to save the brass -n- glass parts first, after seeing Bob's amazing polishing results.

I haven't tried the iron-on-veneering method yet but am really intrigued. This would be a good canvas for that experiment. If I "F it up" I can still bonfire it. Something for another thread, some other time...

Back to the main topic. That grillecloth looks great, can't wait to see how it looks on your restored set! If you ordered a square yard, you'll have a little left over. Hang onto it, I have a suggestion for your next project.

[bandersen]

Yeah, don't burn it up There's really no way you can mess up iron on veneer. Just heat it up again and the glue softens. Either reposition or peel it off and start over.

Assuming I don't screw it up, I'll have over half the cloth left. Reece has already staked a claim on it.
Not sure what you have it mind. I've left a trail of partially finished projects behind me that I really need to finish off

[kbmuri]

The companion piece. Same year, same grillecloth, same brass logo, same veneer, similar brass trim too. You could use up your scrap cloth, wood, leftover stains to make a perfect match. The two would look nice together in your display. Or mine. This one, the dufus before me put a power sander to the wood and sanded right thru the veneer. So it's fairly "disposable". Fodder for the iron-on experiment too.

Google GE 212. They're on eBay every now and then. Cheep usually. Extremely well-built chassis, big speaker, and sounds great.

[bandersen]

Neat! At first glance I though that was a UHF converter, but a radio is cool too.

A quick search turned up just one on ebay with a reasonable BIN and free shipping. I hope it makes it to me in one piece.

[Reece]

I don't need all that cloth! Take your time and use what you need. I have about three radios that could use it but I've got some similar for one of them so don't need much and not until next summer, probably.

[bandersen]

Well the "cloth" arrived today and it's a disappointment. It's actually some sort of woven plastic fiber - not cloth at all! It also doesn't match the sample picture.
Reminds me of the filter in my air conditioner. I sent the seller a note - maybe they sent me the wrong stuff ?

[Reece]

That was for guitar amps, right? Industrial strength. Try holding it tight against a black backround. Usually speaker boards are black to lessen the contrast between the board and the cone.

Another source might be the cloth sold for a lot of German radios.

[Phil Nelson]

Some speaker coverings are totally plastic. The "cloth" on my KLH 21 FM radio looks like woven monofilament. You could make a beach chair seat out of it. I cleaned it by scrubbing with a brush and Goof Off!

I wouldn't want that on a vintage TV, though. If you don't want to use this stuff, perhaps the seller would exchange it.

Phil

[bandersen]

Yeah, this stuff is like monofilament. I definitely won't be using it on this set.
What really bugs me is that the sellers sample picture doesn't match what I received. I'm waiting to hear back.

I'll move on to other projects in the meantime.

[kbmuri]

Well, that's a drag.

I found this at Goodwill a few years ago:

It's a man's driving scarf and was a dollar. Probably 4 square yards. I have it folded on my Zenith roundie as a dust/scuff protector. It would work well as a GE-810 grillecloth. Maybe try Goodwill and browse around. Lots of old clothes that might suffice.

[M3-SRT8]

Yeah, maybe you can cut up a mid 70's Leasure Suit.

I would check around on eBay, on the section selling Tube radios 1930-49. Lots of speaker cloth material sold under that heading.

[bandersen]

Thanks for the tips - I'll keep my eyes open. Of course, there's still the original cloth.

[Reece]

M3-SRT8 wrote: Yeah, maybe you can cut up a mid 70's Leisure Suit.

You could, but those things are flammable!

Edit: Bob, I went back and looked at your before/after pix of the grille cloth. From my house, that stuff almost looks like burlap, although yours does not have the regular weave of burlap. Might be a possibility. There should be a light colored burlap. Dyeing, bleaching, etc. might be part of the process. I used brown once in a former life for speaker grille cloth.

[bandersen]

I just happened to have some burlap someone had used in an old Philco console radio.
It was pretty filthy so I gave it a wash in laundry detergent and some bleach and then ironed it.
It turned up better than I expected. Not only did the color lighten, but it shrunk and the weave got tighter.



I think I'll go with it and might try gluing the old cloth on top of it too. I can always replace it if something better comes along.

[marty59]

I won't tell anyone that you used burlap for a grillcloth! There's some good suggestions/ideas from Reese.

I kinda' like the way that it's sturdy enough to wash in the machine as well as how nice it shrinks up. I could see me having a use for some burlap "grillcloth" too.