I remember those laminated dials, Ron. In fact I still have one for a model 89 I decided not to use because it just didn't look right. I'm perfectly happy with RD's scales now. The height of the embossed lettering really isn't noticeable unless you're looking at the dial from the side. All I meant is if they could get it flush they'd be a perfect match to the originals. It's not a complaint by no means...never look a gift horse in the mouth, and these dial scales are a gift from RD to all of us!
Ron, I have been following your progress from the first post and now I just bought an RCA
tombstone model T7-1 which is very similar to yours.
The plus going for me on this one is the dial plastic is in mint condition
You have done a very good job of explaining things which will be a great help, especially with the dial pointer.
Thanks
Dan Walker in Calgary
Very neat! It looks like RCA Victor of Canada took an American T7-5 chassis and simply added a 6E5 tuning eye. Of course the cabinet had to be somewhat redesigned to accommodate the tuning eye. I like it, thanks for sharing. Thank you also for the kind words re: this thread, I appreciate it.
Ron;
RCA used to do things like that on both sides of the border, make a 7 tube chassis, add a magic eye, and you have an 8 tuber, not much different then Philco in some ways.
Regards
Arran
My RCA has two-pin plugs which connect to the loop antenna. These are simple pins, swaged into a piece of thin rectangular Phenolic. One has broken, and although superglue holds it together, it would be nice to make a proper repair with new phenolic sheet.
Ron. I noticed that the decal for the band indicator at Radio Daze is different than the one on my radio,
in that the colors are reversed. In this photo of my radio I see that the red is on the right and the orange is on the
left. Radio Daze decal is reversed
If you took any photos of your decal before,,,how were the colors arranged.
Maybe the Canadian version was a little different. Arran might know.
Did yours have the RCA decal at the bottom?
I will probably wait and see before I order the decals
I got my dial pointer off with the help of your suggestions.
Dan in Calgary
Living in Calgary Alberta
(This post was last modified: 07-12-2018, 06:47 PM by Dan Walker.
Edit Reason: One more question
)
Unfortunately mine no longer has any decals. It is obvious that someone did a (poor) refinish to my T7-5 cabinet at one time, even with an entire sheet of veneer missing on its left side. So anyway...I am sorry but I can't answer your questions about the decals.
Thanks Ron.
I am not trying to hijack you thread, but
If this is any help to you, here are some photos of mine after I used toned lacquer on it.
Mine had the original finish on it , but it was real bad so I had to strip it and start over.
I did it as close as I could to the original colors.
I still have to apply the decals and the final coats of lacquer.
Dan in Calgary.
Dan;
I'm not sure about the band switch decal on those sets as I have never had one, however what is interesting is that your Canadian RCA uses a U.S style name decal rather then the typical Canadian one with the the twin circles, with gold backgrounds, that has the RCA "Meatball" in one, and "Nipper" in the other, and "RCA Victor" in a cursive fond underneath. I suppose what you could do is get a U.S band switch decal, slice it up, and re-arrange the coloured segments, although it would be tedious to do so. Have a look through the decal section on the Radio Daze site under G.E, and C.G.E, as well as the U.S and Canadian RCA Victor pages, and see if they have what you need. By the way, I think that the front panel of your set needs more medium walnut tone spray, apparently someone involved in building the cabinet goofed and sanded through the veneer, it also looks like it was darker on the right and left sides of the control panel between the moldings and the first set of grooves.
Regards
Arran
(This post was last modified: 07-13-2018, 09:58 PM by Arran.)
The phenolic sheet finally arrived this past week. I really dislike the fact that the auction site allows a seller to post a tracking number and they then consider the item shipped, even though the seller may not actually ship the item until days (or weeks) later. Such was the case here...it was a week from payment of the item until it actually shipped. Once it finally shipped, though, it only took a few days to arrive.
Here is the last bit of work which needed to be done to the T7-5 chassis, and why I needed the phenolic:
As you can see, the antenna Fahnestock clip was riveted to a piece of phenolic. Another piece of phenolic mounted behind the front piece, allowing the Fahnestock clip to be well insulated from the chassis. Both pieces of phenolic were broken at one time. It was like this when I bought the radio.
I wasn't paying close attention when I ordered my phenolic sheet, and ordered 1/8" thickness. I should have ordered it in 1/16" thickness, as that is what the radio had originally. However, the sheet was now here so I went with it.
After some cutting and drilling, this is what I had:
