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Old 12th May 2021, 1:45 pm   #1
David G4EBT
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 5,737
Default Veneering a £13,000 turntable.

At first sight this might appear to be in the wrong section or maybe not on the forum at all, but as I have a 'woodie' to restore which involves re-veneering the cabinet, I thought I'd mention that I've been exploring the options for gluing the veneer, which has led me to a website called 'The New Yorkshire Workshop' where there are two videos of relevance and interest to us, which I'll give the links to below.

I think it's true to say that most of us find restoring woodie cabinets something of a challenge or even a chore to be avoided if possible, but it's something I enjoy, as woodworking/woodturning is my other hobby.

Since the early 1960s I've always used hide glue and a jacketed gluepot for veneering and have the hide glue and the veneer I'll be using, but it's messy and smelly so I thought I'd consider other options. You can of course get adhesive-backed veneers, which I'm not keen on. Other options include Titebond veneer glue, wet PVA and clamping, or the dry PVA iron-on technique, which as I recall a few members have tried with some success.

As to finishing, over the years I've used polyurethane varnish, French polishing, and Danish oil/Tung oil, but I'm not keen on modern water-based varnishes. In recent years, I've exclusively use 'U-Pol' Clearcoat Power-Can auto lacquer, which is widely used by woodturners and cabinet makers. Using aerosol auto lacquer has several advantages - no brush marks or cleaning up, quick drying between coats, and a tough durable finish, given that it's designed to be use in all weathers and temperatures.

Also, gloss auto lacquer is closer to what radio cabinets were originally finished with at the factory, which was nitro-cellulose gloss lacquer, sometimes with a toner to make cheap nondescript veneers look more interesting. As on the 'Ovaltiny' radio with it's two dark bands of toner to emulate dark veneer banding, (as often as not stripped off by inept DIY restorers who mistakenly assumed that it was bands of dark veneer).

I thought some forum members might find the video at the link below of interest and relevance in that it encompasses several techniques applicable to radio cabinet restoration, albeit by someone at the top of his game, (who modestly describes himself as a 'lifelong carpenter'), with a well equipped workshop.

No shouty dialogue either - he just quietly gets on with it.

8 minutes into the 36 minute video he uses dry PVA iron-on veneering technique to apply bubinga veneer.

18.50 mins in, orbital sanding the veneer, scraping out glue from cracks in the veneer, filling the cracks with bubinga dust and filler gel for an exactly matched filler, followed by applying ruby woodstain, then applying 3 coats of ‘isolator’ to seal the stain.

26 minute in, spraying with three coats of automotive acrylic clearcoat lacquer.

Of interest to audiophiles, at 32 mins, he fits a £5,000 ikeda 345 tonearm, an Audionote 0-10 cartridge, (another £5,000) and a Garrard 301 turntable.

(An awful lot of money just to play a sea shanty at the end!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKFQ8B4cx64&t=25s

We often have radio cabinets in which pieces of veneer are missing, which presents the challenge of how to effect a repair which can be sufficiently authentic to blend in and not stand out like a sore thumb. In this regard, this second video entitled 'Painting Woodgrain' has some useful tips. It concerns using cocobolo veneer and disguising patches of sapwood using natural earth pigments. (Its on another high end turntable plinth). He 'feathers' the ends of the veneer at the corners of the cabinet to overlap them and create an invisible joints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaohiGAYW-0

Incidentally, for woodworking joints on such thigs as bespoke mahogany handrails, he uses a domino jointer and 20-second medium viscosity superglue).

When I see people attaining such high standards, I don't know whether to be inspired or depressed!

The cabinet I'll be re-veneering is for a Murphy A124 which I bought from a fellow forum ember a while ago. I've got the sapele mahogany veneer for the front and to re-veneer the end, will use sycamore as the exotic veneer used originally isn't easily come by. As the veneer will have to curve against the grain at the top, I'll make a simple steam box and clamp the veneer over a 'caul' until it dries. I guess the reason the original has come adrift at the top is that it was clamped in position to the contour, and it's rather too much to expect glue to hold it to such a tight contour.

I hope the videos are of interest to someone, and maybe Russ's other videos will be too, such as his nixie clock/Dosimeter project.

Some pics below of my rather sad looking Murphy A124.
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