A vintage radio cheat

[Kahuna]

This is too much of a cheat to show it in the "Show Us Your Radios" thread but, since a proper vintage radio hasn't shown itself to me at a price I can afford, it works for me. I found the carcass of an old Silvertone radio/record changer combination while cleaning out the rafters of my mother-in-law's garage. The chassis was too far gone with too many parts missing for a restoration so I refinished the cabinet (first time for me - next time I'll stay away from polyurethane, too shiny). Next I cut a piece of white finished mdf to fit the cavity where the record player used to be and made a hole for the Radio Shack amp (which I found for a buck at a yard sale) and a hole for wires to the mp3/CD player to go through. A couple of speakers, one inside the unit & one across the room, and I was good to go for playing my old-time music or radio shows on CD. The copper incubator that it stands on was trash picked from the sidewalk.

 

[HeyMoe]

Great idea!

We are talking about this over on the SPGE forum too. How hard was the conversion? Materials?

 

[kpreed]

Very Good Job! I like anything Vintage (pretty much) saved from the trash. Well Done!!!!

 

[Kahuna]

Most of the materials I already had on hand. The mini-amps can be found on ebay for cheap sometimes. Other than that I used a pair of outdoor speakers I found several years ago at Pic N' Save for $15, a CD/mp3 player (usually around $25), and a piece of white melamine I already had on hand. The knobs are just Radio Shack knobs mounted on bolts, they don't do anything. The trickiest part was cutting out the angled slot for the amplifier. I just set the angle on my power saw and finished up the corners with my japanese hand saw. The drawback is it doesn't actually pick up radio but you can find hours of oldtime radio shows on mp3 discs at http://www.otrcat.com/.

 

[HeyMoe]

Between this and what Ken (Kpreed) is showing me at SPGE - I think I know what my next project is!!!

 

[kpreed]

Go for it, Old or just Old-looking, I think there all great as long as they play OTR.

 

[Talbot]

Nice save, fixed it good!

 

[latinmajorac]

Very well done! I have a few vintage radios where i have restored the case but was lucky enough to have all o the electrical components work 'well'. I have never done a case mod, but i want to, i am just nervous because i hate changing things that were once old, but you did a great job! seeing this gave me a bit of motivation to schedule some time over spring break.very well done!

 

[MissMittens]

There is a man in Delaware who makes fully-functioning PC's out of old tube radio cases. I lost track of him, but I believe he still does it

 

[Fletch]

Cool...ingenuity always is.

I spotted a pre-Orthophonic cabinet Victrola in the window at our local antique mall and thought briefly about converting it to a stereo rack...a dum-simple project compared to the above, but with the records up top where they belong.

It made me think of a potential project that is anything but dum-simple...

I once spoke to an engineer at Columbia Records who had the interesting sideline of keeping Vladimir Horowitz' favorite portable phonograph playing. Horowitz was so attached to his gear that he always traveled with his own piano and technician. The Columbia man eventually replaced almost all the workings of the portable phono, but left the outer parts exactly as is. Horowitz signed the checks and was happy.

Anyway...how about an acoustic- or early-electric-appearing phono that's actually electronic? A modern, counterweighted tonearm could be concealed in a funky removable housing made of some lightweight material. Under the table, it's all modern electrics including a strobelight you can hide under the used-needle well. You could even adapt the brake lever to turn it on, off, or change speeds!

 

[MissMittens]

Cool...ingenuity always is.

I spotted a pre-Orthophonic cabinet Victrola in the window at our local antique mall and thought briefly about converting it to a stereo rack...a dum-simple project compared to the above, but with the records up top where they belong.

It made me think of a potential project that is anything but dum-simple...

I once spoke to an engineer at Columbia Records who had the interesting sideline of keeping Vladimir Horowitz' favorite portable phonograph playing. Horowitz was so attached to his gear that he always traveled with his own piano and technician. The Columbia man eventually replaced almost all the workings of the portable phono, but left the outer parts exactly as is. Horowitz signed the checks and was happy.

Anyway...how about an acoustic- or early-electric-appearing phono that's actually electronic? A modern, counterweighted tonearm could be concealed in a funky removable housing made of some lightweight material. Under the table, it's all modern electrics including a strobelight you can hide under the used-needle well. You could even adapt the brake lever to turn it on, off, or change speeds!

That's an interesting idea. I have an orthophonic Victrola that has an electric motor instead of wind-up, and I've seen an electric powered orthophonic at the Victor Museum here in Delaware (where Johnson was apparently from) that had an air compressor that forced air through the horn to amplify the sound, so Victor played with hybrid electrical systems.

 

[John in Covina]

Polyurethane is a good tough finish that will protect your radio, just remember that most finishes also come in a semi-gloss and some you can get in a mat / flat finish too.


It you want to take some of the gloss down a step or two talk to the hardware store guys, I think a medium or medium fine grade steel wool would be able to de-gloss it.