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1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - Printable Version

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RE: 1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - Radioroslyn - 02-01-2021

The chassis is fitted into the cabinet on top of gum rubber washers. Most of the time these are flat as a pancake. They are also available in a few different thicknesses. This can help get the shafts where they need to be.

RE: 1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - Ron Ramirez - 02-01-2021

62fender Wrote:Looks like they didn't use tape measures, or eyeballs the day mine was being built. My center panel is off by a good quarter of an inch at the bottom.

Maybe that cabinet was made on a Monday morning or late Friday afternoon. Or the worker who made it managed to sneak a flask into the factory. Icon_lol

RE: 1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - Arran - 02-02-2021

I'm not surprised that there are alignment issues with panels, and other things, these were production pieces of furniture after all, and the lowboy cabinet was the most mass produced of all the early Philco consoles. Since Philco was still new to the radio business, and decided to build most of their cabinets in house, they probably had not worked all the bugs out of the production line that early on. Some really never did work the bugs out of the line, I have a Crosley cabinet from the mid 40s where they glued one of the front pilasters on with an 1/8'' gap between it and the side panel, I fixed that and found out that the foot on the bottom now sticks out too far. Crosley (not Deforest Crosley) was notorious for building cheap sets.
Regards
Arran

RE: 1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - Steve Davis - 02-02-2021

Quote:Maybe that cabinet was made on a Monday morning or late Friday afternoon. Or the worker who made it managed to sneak a flask into the factory. [Image: https://philcoradio.com/phorum/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif]


I'm pretty sure all Philco cabinets were made on a Monday morning or late Friday afternoon. I have found minor discrepancys on almost all Philco cabinets. I have made patterns for front panels that match the original perfectly. Then I have laid the pattern upside down on the original front and the cutouts may be an eighth of an inch off.

Steve

RE: 1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - Arran - 02-02-2021

In that documentary from the late 1920s of the Philco factory, there is a segment of the cabinet shop building teh very cabinets that we are talking about. They had some sort of jig and were cutting the grilles out with an early form of straight sided router bit mounted in a mandrel almost like a drill press. It's bee a while since I saw it. The legs are likely more uniform in that they put square stock in something like a duplicating lathe, but the cutters were spinning as the legs rotated past them. I had always wondered how they could turn out splindle legs in such quantity, I'm not sure that the modern lathes work that way.
Regards
Arran

RE: 1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - 62fender - 02-14-2021

Finally got around to trying out the new scroll saw. Had purchased some walnut plywood online, same thickness as original. Grain seems to match original perfectly! Not too shabby?

RE: 1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - 62fender - 02-14-2021

Dry fit into opening. I draped a piece of gold cloth behind it for contrast. Look like it fits pretty good.

RE: 1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - Kestas - 02-14-2021

It passes the 10 foot test.

RE: 1929 Philco model 87 lowboy cabinet questions - Radioroslyn - 02-14-2021

Looks Great! Next step is to take about 10 pieces of wood, screw them together, cut out the pattern, and go into business!