Belmont/Wsestern Royal Restoration

[Scuzzer]

As a long time member of AK but never having been over here I thought I'd introduce myself by showing some pictures of my Western Royal Radio restoration. It just seems more appropriate to post it here than there. Its a Western Royal 78 phono/radio that crosses to a Belmont 533c.

I got this for free as a "hey you want this as well" type of thing when I went to buy a tube amp last year. It's sorry state and AM only capacity made me want to say no thanks but I chucked it in the back of the car fully figuring I'd throw it in the trash as soon as I got home. As irrational as it seems I kinda felt sorry for it when I got home so I tucked it away in the basement. Not long after that I got the itch to do a project I've never done and I thought "what the heck" I'll give lacquer/toner a try but only if I could minimize the expense. Here's the radio/phono in its found state:





It had some serious veneer delamination problems and I've circled the major areas in red below.



Obviously the photo finish decal was toast so after searching around for a solution I decided with my meager skills I'd just use burl walnut veneer instead. After a bit of (understatement) gluing and clamping, a little sanding (once again understatement), some stain and lacquer and some glued up veneer I got her to this condition.





I think the stain on the burl veneer was a bit too dark even though it wasn't listed as a dark stain but I'd already gotten this far so I figured a few more coats of lacquer and I'd call it good. Perhaps a bit more experience here would have helped.

I had an old Grundig console that I bought some grill cloth at JoAnne Fabrics for and in keeping with the limited expense objective of this project I just used some of it here. Obviously it needs something with a more bold pattern/weave but it was all I had at the time.



Can anyone spot where the burl veneer cracked after it had fully dried? Yeah, I'll have some fun filling that in. More experience for the books.

After a bit more elbow grease I got it to the point where it was good but not great and I decided to call it quits for awhile. I plan on revisiting the finish for a final touch up but here's where she's at now.



And finally a shot of the Western Royal playing a Lionel Hampton 78.



Obviously I recapped the chassis and checked all the dog bone resistors. Remarkably I only had to swap out one resistor in the power supply otherwise it's fully stock on the resistor end. Although I'd originally thought that an AM only radio would be useless around here I found the the University of Colorado radio station is AM and it plays old 78 era blues all night on the weekends. Perfect sound and feel for the old Western Royal. As a bonus they play ambient music overnight on the weekdays so my first exposure to hearing Brian Eno on the radio was the old Western Royal.

So all I need to do now is finalize the finish, find some correct looking grill cloth and get the idler wheel rebuilt. I did the cut a groove and use an O-ring trick on it but I think the old girl deserves better. This radio/phono is pretty much the same age as my dad since it was built in the '39 to '40 timeframe, so I now think of it in terms of my old man and what I'd do for him. It would be nice to find a better speaker for it as well since the original wasn't in the greatest shape.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with my first foray into lacquer and toning. Thanks for reading this overly long and picture intensive post.

[Reece]

Wow, Scuzzer! You did a super beautiful job. The old girl never looked so good. Don't go away: find more stuff and regale us with your restorations.

As to a crack in the veneer: been/done that/there. Fill with a wood filler colored the closest you can, feather out with sandpaper, get artistic with a fine artist's brush.

[Scuzzer]

Originally Posted by Reece

Wow, Scuzzer! You did a super beautiful job.

Thanks! I'm trying to decide if filling in the crack is even worth it. Where the radio sits it's extremely hard to even see it so I'd hate for the fix to be worse. This hobby is so addictive, I've been looking at the local CL for a cheap cool looking upright to fully restore.

[capbuster]

If i done a nice job like that . I would want someone to brag on it. So here goes
Awesome nice fantastic beautiful you did do a great job. I would leave good enough alone. Would not of noticed it if you did not point it out.

[bandersen]

Excellent job I didn't notice the crack either

[RitchieMars]

I know that electronic restorations can be challenging enough, but I'm always the most impressed when I see seemingly rough cabinets made to look like new. I really like what you've done with this one, especially since it strikes me as a fairly less-common example. I also love anything with a built-in record player! I swear I've seen a grill cloth pattern close to what was in there originally but I don't recall where. Probably on grillecloth.com or radiodaze.com. I looked, but never did see the crack in the veneer.

Very nice work! It's always nice when you can say that you've actually been introduced to music by listening to an old radio such as this one. I've heard songs for the first time on my old Zenith, and when I think about it... it's rather humbling to know that the same radio was playing music for somebody decades before I was ever born!

[leadlike]

hey, it looks great to me! I was just reading today about burl veneers, and how you should not use contact cement on them, but rather some other special glue-is that possible what caused it to crack?

[Scuzzer]

Originally Posted by leadlike

what caused it to crack?

I used the "apply a thin layer glue, let it dry and iron it on method" it cracked because I was unwilling to cut past the iffy part right on the edge of the incredibly cheap veneer I bought off ebay. I knew it was iffy but in the process of gluing it down and curing it split apart. I thought I could fill it with lacquer but lacquer is about as filling as rice cakes. Also at the time I thought the project would turn out like crap so I wasn't going overboard to make it perfect. When I got some lacquer on it and started to see the improvement I changed my tune but it was too late to change/fix the veneer.

I got four 8" by 10" sheets of burl veneer for $12 so it was only natural that it wouldn't be the highest quality. I don't know if you can see it but the 45 degree angle corner joints also had a photo finish decal and I replaced those as well. Since they were only a half inch wide it presented extra problems.

[Scuzzer]

Originally Posted by RitchieMars

I swear I've seen a grill cloth pattern close to what was in there originally but I don't recall where. Probably on grillecloth.com or radiodaze.com.

I've looked at both and there are some patterns that would work here. The original was so faded that I have no idea what the colors were. Behind the center rosetta there was some color left and it looked like it should be a fairly bold print. The only picture on the net of one of these radios is about as bad as my original shot so that's no help either. I figure I'll pick up something that has gold and browns in it with a heavy weave and call it done.

[AUdubon5425]

Don't sweat over the minor details - you have something to be proud of there.