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Old 30th Dec 2016, 4:39 pm   #1
skodajag
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Default On making radio/gram cabinets

While working on sets I constantly think about those who originally put them together. Recently it's been in relation to wood cabinets, mainly from the thirties, but post war too. Just now I'm working on a large HMV radiogram cabinet and wondering how skilled those who originally made it needed to be. On the one hand there are no skilled wood working jointing (mortise and tenon etc) - it's all glued, screwed and occasionally bolted together. But it's very solid and well executed. Certainly it looks hugely neater than my own attempts to construct things in wood. It also looks very labour intensive. And of course most of the component parts had to be cut to exactly the right size. Would such cutting have been automated? Would one or two people be charged with making a complete cabinet, or would they have been on an assembly line, with one person making and fitting the same part to one cabinet after another? If the latter it must have been excruciatingly boring. I hope it wasn't. I assume the veneering was a reasonably skilled activity but that too must have been repetitive. Has anyone seen any film footage of cabinet assembly?
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Old 30th Dec 2016, 4:58 pm   #2
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Default Re: On making radio/gram cabinets

I'm sorry I can't help with an answer to your question(s) but I would be interested to know the model of the HMV cabinet you are working on and perhaps see some pictures.
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Old 30th Dec 2016, 6:15 pm   #3
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Default Re: On making radio/gram cabinets

Remember that radiograms were considered items of furniture: many of the radiogram manufacturers contracted-out the woodwork to furniture/cabinetmaking enterprises rather than doing the work themselves.

I believe some Dynatron radiograms in the late-1930s had cabinets made for them by the rather-upmarket furnituremakers "Waring & Gillow".

And yes, it must have been pretty boring work - much of it - particularly things like cutting frets for speaker-grilles - was semi-automated: there was a metal template and the operator had to manually position and guide a 'follower' round all the holes in it - this was linked mechanically to the actual router that did the cutting.

Turning 'spindle' legs for things like 1950s TVs/radiograms/chairs was much more automated - the operator just had to load a 'blank' into the lathe which then did the rest. That's how they achieved the repeatability expected.

Lung-disease due to sawdust inhalation was the bane of furniture-industry workers (same as for pneumoconiosis in miners).
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Old 30th Dec 2016, 11:21 pm   #4
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Default Re: On making radio/gram cabinets

There's a few pictures of cabinet assembly lines of the 1930's in The Setmakers. Pye for example had their own wood shop with the junior male staff members doing the rubbing-down and other menial tasks.
There's also a film knocking around youtube of EMI's HMV cabinet department shot in the 30's; very much production line stuff.
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Old 30th Dec 2016, 11:48 pm   #5
skodajag
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Default Re: On making radio/gram cabinets

Just checked out YouTube and found a HMV video from1936 - not sure it its the one, but fascinating. Mentions using 145 tons of timber each week...
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Old 31st Dec 2016, 12:05 am   #6
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Default Re: On making radio/gram cabinets

Many manufacturers contracted cabinet manufacture to furniture companies, and the construction techniques are identical. This was true of table radios as well as radiograms. Woodies were particularly popular in the British market and sold at a premium.
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Old 31st Dec 2016, 12:08 am   #7
ukcol
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Default Re: On making radio/gram cabinets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-siONklizI
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Old 31st Dec 2016, 3:13 pm   #8
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Default Re: On making radio/gram cabinets

I can say with certainty that the front fascia of my HMV570A radiogram was made up as a fully completed panel with the veneer laid onto thin birch ply, this was then fitted as a complete panel to the cabinet frame and finally trimmed to size.
It must have saved considerable time doing it this way, I have no idea if the sides were done in the same manner as these have not been removed from mine.
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Old 7th Jan 2017, 2:34 pm   #9
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Default Re: On making radio/gram cabinets

I think we had a Pye radio, rather a large 1950s tabletop one, which like some Bush TV cabinets was radiused plywood, which presumably would have been steamed to shape on a former, then the final veneer applied.
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