[Jayce]

Finally got this radio up and going after giving up on it three years back, though still ironing out some crankiness. (Thought it had lost FM totally 3 years back and blamed the coils and IFs. Reason: Forgot to hook the antenna wire back up!   ) Anyways, I had the radio back apart today to clean the fussy band switch for the third time and realized this radio has an asbestos pad glued in the cabinet over the output tube side of the chassis! Ack! It's decent, but what would be best to use to seal this over? Can't pull it out and don't want to disturb it. I have only done that on wooden radios where it has been stapled in and already mangled.

[morzh]

Automotive Hi-Temp compound in spray can.
like VHT flameproof.

[Jayce]

Thanks! I'll have to check the area automotive stores and see what they carry. I have one just down the street from where I work.

[John Bartley]

It's been there for ??? years.

It is NOT going to jump out of the cabinet and attack somebody. Just do your work and leave it alone.

[morzh]

That is my thought also. This is why I do not discard asbestos sheets: they were there for a reason.
But when everything is out and you have a chance to seal it - won't hurt.

[Jayce]

The only reason I asked is it is a little crumbly around the edges and has one split in the middle. I HAVE removed asbestos pads that some previous person had mangled in the past as those need to go. Mostly it's to keep things safe in case I do fumble into it and also keep my family calm. Peace of mind.

[Paul Philco322]

I have had RCAs with A Besto and usually remove, I have a plumber friend who disposes these little pieces for me. I have a Philco with a tiny pad in it I left. Big thing dont disturb, if ragged maybe get rid of. If it gets airborne yes maybe issue but sleeping dogs do lie down. 

If you feel better take out. 

Paul

[Jimradio]

I have used cookie baking pads, good for 400+ degrees, made from silicone. Also I have coated the asbestos with shellac.

[Paul Philco322]

Good ideas Jim. Do you bake cookies too?

Paul

[Jayce]

With the way Zenith pasted the pad in my radio, there would be no really safe way to remove it completely. I am definitely not a fan of Asbestos due to all the trouble it has caused and is still causing. First off is the health problems and people it has killed, but second is all the old buildings it has doomed around here. Asbestos is usually the main reason given for either not maintaining a building or for tearing it down. Even people in town just shrug when an old building gets torn down. "I heard it was full of asbestos, so had to come down." Doesn't matter that it has to be abated first either way. Basically, it puts the cost of renovation up, so in comes the demolition crew and up goes a particle board building.

[Jimradio]

Ha....my wife bakes cookies, good ones too.
To remove asbestos just wet it down with water, keeps the fibers from going air borne.

[morzh]

I think you run more risk removing asbestos than leaving it alone.
As a kid I repaired mom's iron several times, replacing the heater, and it was covered with an asbestos sheet cut in the shape of that iron.
You unscrewed to thumbnuts, removed the cover, lifted the sheet, remove the spiraled heater, replace it (they were sold in any hardware store), replace the cover and put back the nuts.

I also disassembled the soldering irons gotten bad. The heating element was wrapped in mica sheets and them wrapped around with an asbestos cord, probably to keep mica from unwrapping.
Our radio masters, as we called TV repairmen lived normal lives, and if died early - that was due to people paying them with vodka (I ain't kidding, it was customary to give them a bottle for a successful repairs of a TV or such) and them consumingit in excess, and dying form cirrhosis of liver rather than from the asbestos-related complications in lungs (or, and they all smoked. All of them. Not TVs, the TV repairmen).