[mikethedruid]

I have heard that the new dial material available is now lighter than what was being used for the repro dials for a long time, which duplicated the darkened orange color of the dials one is used to seeing on these old radios. I remember what the dials looked like 50 years ago, and they were lighter then, and I have a feeling were even lighter when they were manufactured. That kind of thin, translucent, paper micarta board darkens over the years. I have a feeling the dials were originally fairly light, much like the new repro dials. It would make sense, since the black lettering would show up with more contrast against a brighter background. I wonder what others think ?

[Ron Ramirez]

Are you referring to the dials from Radio Daze or Mark Oppat?

[mikethedruid]

The ones from Radio Daze seem very light, and Mark's look better, although darker than I remember them being 50 years ago. He says he can no longer get that dark stuff, so his may be lighter from now on too. I will find out, since I just bought one for my 37-61 from him. I actually will prefer if it is the lighter color. It will more closely match the repro grill cloth I bought from what the pictures seem.

[Ron Ramirez]

The Radio Daze dials are not as light as they used to be.

The Radio Daze dials were once pale yellow, as they were printed on paper and laminated. The paper was not translucent, and so light did not shine through them very well. The pale yellow was an attempt to compensate for that. Unfortunately, the dial scales did not look very well as a result.

Recently I purchased a repro dial for my Philco 604, and I can tell you that the Radio Daze dials look much better than they did previously - they are now very close to the proper original color. I can't say how well they allow light to shine through as I have not yet installed the dial - I ran into problems restoring the chassis and have set it aside until winter.

Now, Mark's dials were always translucent as he used silkscreening to make his dials. But they have become too dark over the past few years.

This photo shows about what color they should be...in my opinion.

[Image: http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k420/...g~original]

Philco 655 chassis, dial scale printed by me and laminated. I used an LED bulb (brighter than an incandescent 44) and it illuminated OK.

[mikethedruid]

Yes, that is about what I figure they were like originally.