[PhilcoJohn]

Beautiful job! I bet it took a lot of time to make the cabinet. Great work!

[OldRestorer]

I have all the talent I need for my own restorations........ And Mikes

I would absolutely love you to make a video of how to do this amazing work.
I know, I know then people will copy it but just send it to me and I'll never tell!

I would love to make my own cabinets, Not 70's or 90's but original ones. Making that arch is what really get me.

I cant believe you made the router bit. thats just ingenious too.

Have I fluffed the pillow enough to get a tutorial?

Kirk

[codefox1]

It's really nice. I'll bet the set you put inside will be proud and sound its' best!

[Steve Davis]

I know then people will copy it but just send it to me and I'll never tell! Icon_silentIcon_silent

I don't have any secrets. This is a hobby for me, I probably only make about three dollars an hour making a cabinet. If anyone wants to make their own trim parts or even a complete cabinet, I will help any way I can.

One of the things I have been thinking about is, making these cabinets available as a "kit". I'm sure there are restorers out there that have woodworking skills but, maybe don't have the equipment to make the machine cuts and such or have the machines and just don't want to go to all the trouble to make the tooling and patterns necessary, just to make one cabinet. Any thoughts on this?

I cant believe you made the router bit. thats just ingenious too.

For small trim parts with shallow cuts, I take a straight carbide router bit and regrind to the profile. Here are some pictures of my homemade profile grinder.

http://s985.photobucket.com/user/Stevein...t=6&page=1

Larger pieces, are done on the wood shaper using a moulding head. These knives, I grind freehand. I make a pattern the same as I do for the router bits, then I trace the profile onto the steel and start grinding, checking the profile against the original often.

Steve

[morzh]

Well, these cabinets are for restoration community tomuse as, as far as I remember the prices of Steve's cabinets they are more expensive than originals so whever is out to commit this kind of "fraud" will incur losses rather than gains.

Then again, even though the word "reproduction" is neutral, it does have some "not true, cheap" connotation to it and this is why I have touble using it towards something like this which is in both quality and detail probably better than original, as any decent custom job typically (not without exceptions, but typically) exceeds a mass-produced merchandize, and whether we lime it or not, these radios were, after all, exactly that - a mass-produced merchandize.

If someone sold me this cabinet for a price of an original...I would not ak for my money back.

[jerryhawthorne]

Steve, that profile grinder is just a neat work of engineering.
Jerry

[PAradiogeek]

Steve,

Beautiful work!

[radiohenry]

Steve,
Very nice !
Thanks for sharing.
Henry

[Arran]

That's the key here when it comes to a reproduction cabinet for a Baby Grand Philco model, how much more valuable is a 20, 21, 70, or 90 then the console versions? My guess would be no more then $200 to $250 at the most, so it would hardly make sense to buy a console version of any of those just to get the chassis out to make a cathedral.
The same can't be said about a brand Z "Walton", the value differential there is at least three to one. This is unfortunate because many consoles and battery sets have lost their lives to that stupid fad. In my opinion the so called "Walton" cabinet is likely the ugliest tombstone cabinet design that brand Z ever came out with.
Regards
Arran

[jerryhawthorne]

Arran, as for your first statement you are assuming people would buy these very limited available cabinets for the Baby Grand style radio as they are stripping chassis out of console models. I'm guessing the very few people who can buy these lovely reproductions probably have chassis missing a cabinet for one reason or another. As you say, not good business sense to yank them out of consoles. Steve is providing a great service as Richmond Design is going for some high end cabinets that are no longer available.
As for the Walton, well to me it is not the"ugliest tombstone cabinet design from brand Z". They have made worse. Even from Philco. OK, kill me now.
Jerry

[Chuck Schwark]

Nah, just go stand in the corner 'til Ron calls you….

[Ron Ramirez]

Calling Jerry Hawthorne...

Go get someone to fix your mailbox. Don't call Red Green. Have the repairman add that steel pipe with an I-beam inside as a nice surprise for the next shmendrik who tries to take out your next mailbox.

Just kidding, brother.

Back on topic: Yes, Philco did make some less than attractive radios. And (this may surprise you) I agree that the Walton isn't the ugliest tombstone brand Z ever made. But I'll be darned if I would spend $3K+ for one...

[morzh]

I in fact do lime the Waltons' looks. Except that one that has a narrower base and widens up towards the top, could be 7Jxxx, don't remember.

On the other hand even though 70 is not the rarest of radios, and nor is 90, the consoles with these chassis, at least to my observation, come up less often than cathedrals.

And if Steve makes a 20 cabinet...I have seen a 20 console maybe twice over the last year. And with the latticework grill, like mine....once in the last three years. Would be plain stupid to squander that.

And 20 chassis do come up on a regular basis, sometimes clean, sometimes less clean but doable, like his one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1930-Philco-Mode...3f3a9e3acd

or this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PHILCO-20-CATHED...19f14aa1dd


So...

[Arran]

More then likely nobody would use a console version of any of these Philco models to make a counterfeit baby grand set, but that would be the usual path to take since the console versions of most models tend to be less collectable then the table versions.
I don't know if $3000 is the going rate for a "Walton" but rightly or wrongly they do regularly sell for four figures, the console models using the same chassis do not. I was just using that as an example of where there would be a financial incentive to create a counterfeit set with a reproduction cabinet, or to transplant a AC chassis into a battery or a 6 volt model, such incentives don't really exist with Philco Baby Grand models.
Another example would be the Philco model 511, most were Spanish Brown, but there were also hand painted versions numbered model 512 through 515. So repaint a Spanish Brown cabinet in one of the rarer schemes and you could more then double your money, not in Walton territory but still. Lets not even get into the Catalin sets with repaired cabinets being sold as nice originals, or with non original coloured repro trim being sold as rare variants.
Regards
Arran

[morzh]

I do not want us to steal the thread.

As for going rates, my definition of the going rate is "market-dictated prevailing price paid for the item during the studied period". Like it or not, agree or not.