Bare Silvertone

[hermitcrab]

Here is a silvertone I have had for about 10 years sitting on the shelf ... no cabinet , I figured I could copy and make one from a picture on the internet. The radio itself works great , but seeing the escutcheon or benzels for these models are made of unobtanium I figured what's the point... until my son got his 3d printer ... the mess on the bottom were prototypes we tried .. we had no measurements so we just placed a ruler on the dial and looking at pictures on the internet , we came up with the black one on the top as being the best match ... it is far from perfect , it should originally be brown but all we had was white and black filament.. I can paint it ...Now I need to start looking for some plywood up in the rafters ...

[TC Chris]

Good project! I'm ignorant of how you program the printer to create your desired object. Maybe give some basic description?

Chris Campbell

[hermitcrab]

My son found a site that allows you to use a free online CAD program , everything inputs in mm. once you got it how you want it , you download it onto a thumb drive and insert in the printer and hit print .... this took about 2 hours to print ...

[William]

So, what are you printing it on?

Bill

[Firedome]

I've always felt the term is a misnomer, imo it ought to be called 3-D fabrication, as it in most cases it isn't "printing" per se, it's building up an object by laying down sequential layers, most often with plastic but sometimes using metals, even Titanium. A company in NY is the first in the world making parts out of sintered metal Ti for the aerospace industry and other metals can be used as well. In this case it isn't actually printing "on" anything in the usual sense.

[electra225]

I'm assuming one needs a 3D printer, correct? Are those expensive? I've considered printing some RCA knobs that I need.

[hermitcrab]

yes it is a 3D printer... and surprisingly they are getting cheap in price, I think my son paid 200 bucks for his ...watching them work is like watching paint dry ...

[electra225]

You have to admit that 3D printers are straight out of Dick Tracy. Who would have figured when we were in school you could just print a part?

[Motorola minion]

This project looks very worthwhile. Silvertone like that might be made by Admiral.
Is it this model https://radioatticarchives.com/radio.htm?radio=10210

[Motorola minion]

I just looked it up, Colonial Radio of Buffalo (a radio manufacturer later bought by Sylvania) made this chassis.

It is very similar to a table model 4569 I have, which uses the same tube chart sticker on the back of chassis.

[hermitcrab]

I know there are several models of silvertone that used this escutcheon... just deciding which to build is the question ... when I built my version of the sparton 616 table radio using the guts from a beat up console was a easy choice as there was only one model ...

[electra225]

When you are rescuing a chassis, the choice of cabinet styles is yours. I'd build the style that suits you best. You are the guy doing all the work, so you are the one who deserves to be satisfied with the outcome. Good luck.