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GE A53 insult to injury - Printable Version

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GE A53 insult to injury - Paul Philco322 - 02-24-2018

Well we have a bit of a mess here.............Fred Taylor did a stunning job on my cabinet, I inspected it when he sent it back and it was perfect in every way. I stored it away till I had a chance to reassemble, a pal in my club helped with the recap and repair. 

So when I went to put it together I noticed two thin cracks on the top part of the case, why?
Only thing I can think of is that I had this in a cold corner of my cellar. We had endured 10 days of below 20 degree weather around new years, some days 3 degrees was the high. So I am thinking the extreme cold may have led to an uneven chilling of the wood lead the thin top section to contract in a way different than the rest of the case and crack. 

To make it even better the set will not play and when we had it out of the case it was playing fine, I think it may be a bandswitch issue as when turned back and forth some static kicks in, so a real fun time with this one. Any thoughts on the case? I think we can wrestle the technical issue down. 

Take a gander...........

https://www.flickr.com/photos/92577012@N02/albums/72157693822556645

Thanks. 

Paul

RE: GE A53 insult to injury - PAradiogeek - 02-26-2018

Paul,

Was anything heavy resting on top of the radio? In one of the pictures I see several white-ish circles. They look like they may be from the 'feet' of some other item. Maybe if something heavy was placed on top, it caused the top piece to flex and induce the cracks.

RE: GE A53 insult to injury - Eliot Ness - 02-26-2018

Did Fred replace that veneer on the top that cracked?  Either way I've never seen that happen before, so it must have been either the cold and/or the weight of something sitting on top (if there was something).

RE: GE A53 insult to injury - Paul Philco322 - 02-26-2018

Maybe just some dots from the Bubble wrap on the top, I had nothing resting on top. 
I tend to be a bit paranoid so this was stored pretty carefully, maybe just too cold. I have a friend up here good with wood I am going to ask his opinion. A little frustration sandwich.



Paul

RE: GE A53 insult to injury - Fred Taylor - 04-01-2018

Paul I don't remember any cracks on the Top when I refinished your radio, I noticed on one picture that shows the back of radio that the crack go's all the way thru the wood. I'm sorry this happened , really don't know why this occurred. I know wood will get dry and crack, and perhaps temperature. I have had some wood radio cabinets develop cracks also but not that bad as yours.  There is no veneer on that top its a solid piece or I should say it was a solid piece. All you can do now is get some wood glue down in crack, the fill and smooth out surface then repaint the top only in black satin lacquer. You know very cold air is dry, you see a lot of static in the winter, you get shocked when you touch something in the house.

RE: GE A53 insult to injury - Paul Philco322 - 04-05-2018

Thanks Fred, I can not state enough how **** cold it was for a spell up here, single digits for almost ten days, like you may remember from Milwaukee. I got the case and it was perfect. So lesson learned, keep these upsatirs in winter I guess. 

Will give it a try and see how we do, I will report back. Also need to check that bandswitch. 

Thanks again Fred. 

Paul