[Geoff]

Well, I think I can say that I am finally done with the Philco 640 cabinet.  Here are the steps I followed since my last post:


1.)  I wet sanded everything again starting lightly with 500 grit, progressing to 1,000 and finally 1,500.
2.) I then went over the entire cabinet with 2 pieces of felt wrapped around a small flat block and 4F pumice stone and mineral oil.  Then wiped it clean with soft polishing cloths.
If anyone is thinking about using water with a few dabs of dishwashing detergent instead of mineral oil I would advise against it.  The soapy water left a somewhat cloudy finish while the mineral oil did not.  Plus, it seemed to provide more lubricity when rubbing out.
3.) I then went over the entire cabinet with 2 pieces of new felt wrapped around a small flat block and used Rottenstone and mineral oil.  Then wiped it clean with soft polishing cloths.  You need to use new felt that does not contain 4F pumice stone residue or you are defeating the purpose of the rottenstone.
4.) I then wiped off the entire cabinet with new polishing cloths and lemon oil to remove any residue.
This left a pretty shiny finish but still a little too hazy for my taste.  Plus, like I mentioned in previous posts, when viewed at certain angles you could see the very fine scratch marks from the 4F pumice stone and rottenstone.

I then went over the entire cabinet twice with Novus #2 polish.  This brought out the shine and did remove some of the finer scratches, but not all of them.  Here are the results:

[Image: http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...alNumber=2]

[Image: http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...alNumber=2]

[Image: http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...alNumber=2]

Even after all that you can still see very fine scratch marks when viewed from certain angles.  Here is the top:

[Image: http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...alNumber=2]

Here is the top when viewed from another angle:

[Image: http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...alNumber=2]

Any white spots are just dust particles that needed to be wiped off.

I still may go back in the spring and do what Kenny Richmond described in the previous post.  From what I gathered, to get rid of these fine scratches you need to use a spray gun setup and apply a couple of very fine mist coats.  The result should be a smooth finish without the fine scratches.  We’ll see if I have the motivation for that come spring.  I have a cheapo $20- AEG 3064 cabinet that I bought in a thrift shop that I will use to practice using an HVLP gun.  If that goes well I may come back to the 640 cabinet.  We’ll see.  I’m actually pretty happy with the way it turned out.  It is still a shinier than I what I was after but not quire as shiny as the menzerna product I used in post #146.

Now onto the electronics.

The main reason I posted this long thread was to get pointers from those who know more about cabinet refinishing than myself and hopefully help others who have never tried refinishing their own cabinets.  I have learned a lot along the way and hope I others were able to learn something as well.

Regards,
Geoff