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Old 23rd Dec 2019, 11:43 pm   #7
David G4EBT
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 5,761
Default Re: Reproduction 'Bakelite' Parts

I’ve made replica knobs which are a good match for original Bakelite one as shown at posts 5 & 26 at this link:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=142098

The knobs were to restore a Unitra Figaro bought for £5.00, and a Portadyne Princess bought for £10.00, so there would have been no ‘headroom’ to have spent much on the sets, quite apart from negating the purpose of buying them - namely, to restore them, doing whatever needed to be done. I also had to make a wave change slider knob to replace the broken Bakelite one on the ‘Figaro’, which I fashioned from Tufnol. The result was indistinguishable from the original.

It’s one thing making them for oneself, if the time, effort, skills and inclination is there, but it’s quite another to find anyone who would replicate Bakelite items on a commercial basis in low volume at a price that most hobbyists would find acceptable.

Sadly, the promise which we once thought that 3-D printers might hold for replica knobs etc has not materialised.

(The filler in brown Bakelite was mostly wood flour I believe).
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