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Attaching Grill Cloth to Cabinet Philco 38-12 - Printable Version

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Attaching Grill Cloth to Cabinet Philco 38-12 - JoeM - 12-03-2017

Total Newbie here.

I thought I had just finished my very first radio repair.  I bought a non-working Philco 38-12 on EBay and have made it work.  It has taken me forever!  Recapped radio, replaced a few tubes, replaced a few wires, did an alignment, etc.  Fortunately the cabinet was in very good shape, except for the grill cloth.  I glued the new grill cloth to the (homemade) cardboard backer with Super 77 spray adhesive.  No problem there.  But I need suggestions on how to attach the cardboard to the cabinet.  Philco used some very small staples.  These are much shorter than normal office staples.
Do I need to find the correct staples and a tool to install them?  I tried hot gluing the speaker cloth covered board to the cabinet.  The glue stuck real well to the cabinet but not at all to the fabric.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

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RE: Attaching Grill Cloth to Cabinet Philco 38-12 - morzh - 12-03-2017

I went through that about a year ago.
First, not office staples: you need the wood staples and staplegun. Use 1/4".
Yes they are too long, so put a piece of the same material you use for the frame under the staple before you fire that gun.

http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=14587&page=2

This is the thread where I did that. At the end.

RE: Attaching Grill Cloth to Cabinet Philco 38-12 - JoeM - 12-03-2017

Thanks for the reply!  I have an upholstery nailer (air gun) but didn't think to use that.  Smallest staples I have right now are 3/8" but I found some 1/8" 22 guage staples that I found on Amazon that should fit my gun.  I am going to try it once the staples arrive!  Thanks again.

RE: Attaching Grill Cloth to Cabinet Philco 38-12 - Radioroslyn - 12-03-2017

I have a similar issue and thought of using my Dremel cutoff wheel to shorten the Arrow T-50 staples to resize them. Haven't tried it out yet. I'm pretty sure that the shortest T-50 staples you can but are 1/4 which is too large.

GL

RE: Attaching Grill Cloth to Cabinet Philco 38-12 - morzh - 12-03-2017

Don't use any power gun, use hand stapler from Home Depot, and I myself was fretting it until it occured to me to pad it: worked just fine. You don't need to ground staples etc.
Just make sure the frame plus cabinet plus your padding is just a tad thicker than 1/4".

RE: Attaching Grill Cloth to Cabinet Philco 38-12 - klondike98 - 12-03-2017

I've just clipped off the staples with wire cutters to the correct length and then tapped/hammered them in by hand. Its a little tricky holding it and tapping on it to get it in but it doesn't take much to get it into the wood enough to hold the cloth and frame.

RE: Attaching Grill Cloth to Cabinet Philco 38-12 - Phlogiston - 12-08-2017

Sad thing, Bosch used to make a stapler that was perfect for this. It is/was about half the ga. of the big staplers they still sell. Not any more. I still have mine but am down to the last few staples - then it becomes a tack hammer.

RE: Attaching Grill Cloth to Cabinet Philco 38-12 - Warren - 12-08-2017

Dont hold the staples by hand, use needle nose pliers. Easier to tap n with them.