Yesterday I acquired a 40-201 model which has fairly decent exterior finish of the cabinet. There are a couple of spots of delamination of the veneer and one area of the base on the left side has some wood that has been gnawed off or has broken off - will have to check again.
The biggest problem is that mice had gotten into the cabinet and created a nest and really left lots of excrement and pee all over the wood that the chassis mounts to. Right now I have the chassis removed. I used a metal spatula to scrape off the worst of the mouse mess. It was about 3/8" thick in places! I did some research on eliminating mouse odor and some of the most promising comments were:
1) Use a bowl of vinegar and enclose the cabinet in a large plastic bag and leave in the sunlight for several hours.
2) Scrub the interior with a dilute bleach solution.
3) Use baking soda. Possibly use a paste of baking soda and some water.
4) Use peroxide to remove the odor.
5) Use plain charcoal and enclose in a bag in sunlight.
6) Use Nature's Miracle Cage Odor Eliminator (this comment was followed by comments that said this product leaves an odor behind that was as bad as the original problem).
7) After whatever method is used to eliminate odor use some shellac to seal off the area to keep odor from returning.
It appears that the least likely to cause added problems would be to try the vinegar treatment first, as it only produces some fumes. Baking soda is a well known odor eliminator, but I am somewhat reluctant to use a water and baking soda paste due to possible wood warping. The person who mentioned using baking soda said that they used it frequently in working on pianos, so maybe it would not be a problem to use a baking soda paste. Using dilute bleach solution or peroxide may work too, but again it may lead to warped wood.
Have any of you fought this problem and found a solution?
Philco used a medium to dark brown flat finish paint on the inside of their cabinets. Have any of you found a suitable paint to use for repainting the inside of the cabinets?
Can you post picture of the mouse mess - - -just kidding
What I would do is clean and prepare the wood for the finish using the shellac as an odor barrier. Let the cabinet air-out outside in the sun if possible. My concern is that any "treatment" that penetrates the wood far enough to remove all of the odor may damage the wood or impair the ability of the shellac to bond properly.
You know that bleach smells pretty bad for a while too. So does vinegar.
I did not waste any time getting the mouse nest material out of the building. I felt absolutely contaminated from the scraping exercise and had to go in and shower and shampoo to get rid of the smell.
Your thoughts seem to echo mine. Like you, I am reluctant to use anything which would really penetrate the wood. Shellac or polyurethane varnish do a pretty good job of sealing wood against odors. I had to tear a wall apart in one house I owned years ago and strip out the insulation, vacuum out roach poo and then used Kilz oil base primer followed by shellac to seal out odors. Then fiberglass insulation was installed and new sheetrock followed that along with textoning and primer plus new paint. It had been a long standing odor proplem, but the process I followed did the job. Shellac or varnish can also be used to stop a spreading water stain on a sheetrock ceiling or wall. Of course the source of the water has to be found and stopped first. Then after the shellac it can be repainted and the stain will not reappear.
Of course a radio cabinet is somewhat different. One possible solution would be to remove the existing plywood shelf the chassis sits on and cut a new piece of plywood, then use it as a template to drill the right size and position of holes in the new plywood shelf, install it and seal and repaint it using the correct flat brown paint that Philco used. I need to recheck the shelf and see how it is attached. I seem to remember seeing a row of wood screws along the front connected to a horizontal brace that the speaker panel is fastened to underneath, I will take some pictures of the inside of the cabinetm, the chassis etc. and post them.
I will see if I can get a piece of inside bracing wood loose to take in for color analysis at a local paint store.
[attachment=2991I finished doing a preliminary cleaning of the cabinet and chassis. I have some pictures I will try to post. The damage I saw on the left end of the base turned out to be due to termites! Fortunately it is confined to the lowest board glued to the base trim. It should be easy to replace.
Joe
(This post was last modified: 11-18-2013, 11:57 PM by Joeztech.)
It depends on your perspective of "easy" and woodworking. I have had to make several completely new bases because of termites. A good router is nice, scroll saw, table saw, and some other stuff.
One can never have enough tools! It seems that every time I begin some project I eventually buy some new tool or tools. Sometimes I improvise and make a tool myself if I am not in a rush. I prefer not to be rushed at my age. The piece of wood that has the termite damage is on the very bottom and is glued to the part above it that is larger. There is already some separation between it and the wood above and likely it could be removed easily using a spatula carefully. That particular section is pretty much a straight tapered side with the thinnest edge at the very bottom. It could be made by using a belt sander after doing a first pass on a table saw set for a slight angle cut.
I think I will try some sanding on the chassis shelf tomorrow then try perhaps the baking soda paste using very little water. There are lots of tasks to keep me busy.
Since you are using a water based solution anyhow try some TSP from a paint store and hot water. That stuff will take the smell out of just about anything. About two tablespoons in a gallon of water should do, along with scrubbing and a rinse. I didn't mention it because there is a chance that the water may dissolve some of the glue and cause some delamination. The inside of the cabinet should be sealed with something anyhow so hopefully the rat pee didn't soak in too much. It's too bad that you can't find someone who can dry ice blast the inside of the cabinet, it will take a small amount of wood off but it obviously won't cause delamination.
Regards
Arran
(This post was last modified: 11-19-2013, 03:46 AM by Arran.)
TSP = Trisodium phosphate? If I am right, that is a non-scented detergent. That should not be too difficult to do. I did take another look at the horizontal chassis board late yesterday and it is held in place by triangular cross-section wood pieces both above and below its perimeter. I first thought it was held in place by screws, but that was incorrect. If some of the wood becomes delaminated, I may be able to re-glue it if it is along an edge.
I see some instructions on-line about how to re-glue veneer. I have some spots along the front edges of the top of the cabinet that have delaminated. The instructions I found talked about scraping old glue off the base wood and back side of the veneer using a craft knife (Xacto knife?). The very front edges of the delaminated veneer on both left and right sides of the cabinet top are also cracked and very fragile. The portion of the veneer that is closest to the veneer that is still glued down would be difficult to reach with brushes to get any new wood glue in there. I see instructions about using a hypodermic syringe to inject wood glue, but what size of syringe and needle is needed? Wood glue is pretty thick, or would the glue need to be thinned?
Thank you very much for the information on the syringes. Those will work well for this task. The long needles will be a bonus to reach as far back as possible. Looks like I will be buying two longer clamps to do the veneer reglue effort. The ones I had are not quite long enough to reach the full length needed to do the job.
Next I will put together a full list of what I will need for the cabinet work starting with supplies for the odor abatement, then the veneer reglue.
Now that is using your head! It is also inexpensive. I think we already have some straws. Scratch one item off the list!
Today I worked mainly on the chassis and managed to get the knobs cleaned. These are thumbwheel types and difficult to remove and reinstall. Fortunately I had good pictures before I took them apart. The confusing one was the bandswitch knob which has a captive lever assembly attached to it with a rivet. When reinstalling you have to get all the parts oriented correctly or they will not work right. Also the volume and control knobs are difficult to remove for cleaning. Each control shaft has a gear staked to the end of its shaft. The bracket that holds the whole assembly has to be removed first, then the controls have to be unfastened but not removed from the chassis. This provides enough slack in everything to allow removal of the knobs. Clean knobs using a fine wire brush - a tooth brush will not be adequate to get the grime out of the splined surface. When the knobs are replaced some juggling of controls and brackets is necessary to get everything lined up again for smooth operation.
One question I have is what color was the original background behind the dial glass. Was it a dark brown? This one looks as though it may have faded considerably. It also appears to be flocked and is also somewhat dirty. I don't know whether to chance cleaning it with something or leave it alone. The back of the dial glass has really delicate painted lettering on it. I don't think I will be touching that even though it is dirty (at least for now). I wonder if anyone makes replacement dial glass complete with lettering? Or perhaps a decal?
I've cleaned the dial glass on a 48-482 that has the lettering on one side and some markings on the other side by gently using water and a Q-tip followed by gently wiping with a paper towel.
I had a radio with mouse nest too. I searched the web as you did. It finally occured to me to try spraying it with "OUT", and letting it soak for a few minutes and wiping it down. This is a pet pee cleaner that is sold in Canada. It worked very well for me. 99% of the odor was gone when it dryed.
Thanks for the links for the dial. I may order one, although it may not hurt to try cleaning the OEM one. Q-tips and alcohol or water may work to remove the film I see on the backside of the glass. Only one of the links shows a picture of the dial, the http://www.radiodaze.com/product/13719.aspx link item looks just like the one on this radio.
Tom;
Thanks for this reference to "OUT". I will see if I can find some either on-line or in a local pet store. Anything that saves time and/or effort and works is definitely a plus.
Can anyone comment about the flocked surface behind the dial glass? Or provide a picture of their restored 40-195, 40-200 or 40-201 radio dial? I think the one in this radio is faded considerably. It is also quite dirty with dust. I brushed off some of the dust using a soft camel hair brush, but it still is dirty and faded. It looks light brown in color and has some light spots on it.
It seems that every time I begin some project I eventually buy some new tool or tools. Sometimes I improvise and make a tool myself if I am not in a rush. I prefer not to be rushed at my age. The piece of wood that has the termite damage is on the very bottom and is glued to the part above it that is larger. There is already some separation between it and the wood above and likely it could be removed easily using a spatula carefully. That particular section is pretty much a straight tapered side with the thinnest edge at the very bottom. It could be made by using a belt sander after doing a first pass on a table saw set for a slight angle cut.
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