[Joeztech]

Yesterday I picked up some 1/8" thick MDF wall panel to use for the grill mounting board. A 4' X 8' sheet cost just under $10 at Lowe's and I will have plenty left over for more radios! I first had bought some posterboard at Walmart, but soon realized that even if I did a build-up stack they would never be stiff enough to do justice to holding grill cloth without warping. The MDF panel material is very similar to the OEM board material. This is a separate piece from the baffle board that the speaker mounts on. I believe Philco used this approach on most of their radios in the 1930s and into the 1940s. It actually makes repair and replacement of grill cloth easier.

Since there is no current source for grill cloth that looks like the original, I picked a repeating brocade cloth with a brown tone that has a nice pattern to it to replace the old cloth. The old cloth was worn through completely in a number of areas and had to go.

Joe