[Nathan Slingerland]

Philco's Bel Geddes designed sets from June 1931 have unusual grille cloth.

The 112 lowboy, 112 highboy and 370 lazyboy (chairside) all have stylized 'P' design grille cloth.

As far as I know this material has never been reproduced...until now. 

   

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Recently I've been restoring a 112 lowboy that had the incorrect grille cloth:

[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4925...aa18_c.jpg]

I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to try making my own reproduction cloth using a digital cloth printing service.

Pattern

The first step was to get a detailed image of the original pattern. The photos on the internet weren't particularly clear - and really I needed a scan to precisely reproduce it. Fortunately I have a Philco 112 Highboy - which I scanned at very high resolution (800dpi). I was able to use Photoshop to clean up the repeating part of the pattern and compensate for the fading where the cloth was exposed to light.

   

Material

I decided to try out the Contrado cloth printing service. They offer printing of custom designs on more that 100 different fabrics. I ordered the material swatch pack and when it arrived I settled on three fabric choices to try out:

Gala Eco Woven
[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4930...5457_z.jpg]

Dorchester Linen
[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4930...6972_z.jpg]

Haverstock Linen
[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4930...05ab_z.jpg]

My goal was to find a material that wouldn't just reproduce the scanned image but also have a similar texture to the original. The original material is fairly coarse in texture. I also selected materials thin enough that they could make a reasonable speaker cloth. All three materials selected fit these criteria.

Printing

Each material prints a bit differently and even with the swatches you can't really tell ahead of time exactly what your final product will look like. Fortunately Contrado offers printing of different size samples - including sizes that are usable for antique radio grille cloth.

I ordered a sample of each of the materials in the 16 1/2” x 23” portrait size. The cost of each sample was ~$16 and shipping is $7.50.

Product

Contrado is based in the UK but uses very fast FedEx International shipping. The order I placed was manufactured and delivered three days later!

The actual product measures 18 3/4” x 25 3/8” with a white border around the printed area of 16 1/2” x 23".

The first material (Gala Eco Woven) came out a bit muddy - likely due to its texture. The two linen samples came out much better - almost identical and match the original cloth appearance quite well. The back of the printed cloth is white.

Here's what the Dorchester Linen looks like:

[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4941...a19f_z.jpg]

Not bad!

Installation

This part is just like any other grill cloth installation. I use a bulletin board and push pins to stretch the cloth after ironing it.

[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4941...e93c_z.jpg]

I used 3M Super 77 spray adhesive to mount grille cloth on the original cardboard backer. Spray the adhesive liberally around the edge of the backer and then let it dry for about 5 minutes. Then apply it to the cloth.

[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4941...8af4_z.jpg]

After leaving the adhesive to set for about an hour I trimmed it down and installed it in the cabinet.

[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4941...d410_z.jpg] [Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4941...ec21_z.jpg]

Result

And... here's the final result!

[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4941...8171_c.jpg]

[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4941...cb57_c.jpg]

[Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/4941...5949_c.jpg]

Final Thoughts

I suspect that this method will work best for materials that are graphic printed designs. For example, the falling leaves pattern from June 1930 would be another great candidate. I don't expect that it would work as well for metallic grill cloth or material which has its pattern created with an unusual weave.

[Radioroslyn]

Looks good and clever as always!
Both good great.
I've got a 370 that came in abt 6-7 yrs ago and never unboxed it's in storage.

[morzh]

Nathan,

Super!!!

I didn't know there is a service like this one.
One pattern many of us would love to replicate is the Falling Leaves for Philco.
Also there is the Forest.

Wow, think of all the possibilities!

[klondike98]

great work Nathan! I restored a Radiola 60 which had a speaker with a flower design on the grill cloth. The reproduction grill cloth was also printed like yours and actually looked quite good. the radiolaguy has it on his website.

your work shows how this could be expanded as long as the pattern is available to be scanned (or digitally duplicated ...wow... that would be a chore)

[Jake Blake]

Mmmmmmm, . . . pretty.  Classy.

[Kestas]

I may use that service where it makes patterns aren't being made.

[KCMike]

Very nice work. Thanks for posting how you did it. 

[EdHolland]

That is clever, and a very good solution to the unobtainuim problem of many grillcloths. I might visit this for my 16X,