[Oldie Goldie]

MrFixr55, thanks for the encouragement. I fully recognize that i am fanatical when i get into something i like.
The reason there is more planning than action, is because i am out of the plywood i need to get going on this. A nice 3/4" thick 24x24" piece of grade B whatever wood would fit the bill. Im going to go overboard making the front face if this thing strong, secured to the cabinet frame, and its joints shored upnon the inside. Because just like it was bolted in place behind the dash of a '49 Buick, all the radios weight is hanging off that wood panel with two "wings" on tge back if the radio bolted to the cabinet frame.
plus i want to garentee nothing is going to buzz or rattle fom the bass of this thing. Im looking at YOU Bing Crosby!

[Oldie Goldie]

Every time i listen to Bing Crosby's deep soothing voice, my mind drifts to how (at least I think) Denise Crosby kinda sounds like him.
And i had the hots for Denice Crosby
untill her character was killed by that oil slick in the first season of ST:TNG, which i saw much later in 1992 or 1993.
I kinda still do, i dont care how old shes gotten, she an throw me in the Enterprise-D bring annnnnyyyytime.

[Oldie Goldie]

i had an idea about my plywood shortage. I think one of those laminate top plywood kitchen tables with the flimbsy chrome legs would work for this. It would be period 60s correct to cut a big piece from the table top, cut the holes for the speaker, knobs, and tuning scale, and face the bare wood side out with the shiny laminate side with the cartoon atoms, on the inside of the cabinet for future people to notice .

Maybe dude found a kitchen table in the trash from the year before, because one of the chrome legs bent and failed and dumped an entire table full of dinner on the floor.

I saw this happen with a so-called "they don't build em like they used to" 50s/60s chrome trim tables,

I see tables i can cut up from that time at my local thrift store, even the extension panel would fit the bill.
I only need an 18x12" for the piece.

i DO have a lot of thick clear plexiglass panel. But to cut that ultra hard stuff with precision is below my current skillset. Id like to stick with plywood, but it was a thought.
I DO also have the panel from a Mac Pro that UPS trashed in shipping, which is extremely strong, but it's not quite what i want.

[Oldie Goldie]

Get a load of this raunchy cheesy flower pattern
burlap fabrick i cut off a discarded 60s couch.
The boxcutter came out and i took as much of it as i could. The big back piece that lives its life backed against a wall, the side lieces, and the big cushions. Gents believe me this stuff is ciggerette GLAZED. I washed a big piece of it  to see if it is salvageable, and it came up nice. I like flowers and this stuff is a candidate for speaker grill cloth in this project.

[Oldie Goldie]

I am having a tough time keeping in mind how small this entire consolete really is. the face of it above its little shelf is only 12x18".

I saw this squat old 40s table in front of a house looking sad and soaked by the rain that started an hour before.
And i am basically building this whole thing around it.
Thank god the soaking it got didnt totally destroy the veneer.

Fate....protects fools....children....and ships named Enterprise.

[Oldie Goldie]

Here is a look at a one design i drew that i hated the least. What do you gents think?
Remember its suposed to look authentic to a 60s DIY Mr fixit might have made with ideas from a magazine and materials scavenged from stuff.

The grill pattern IS from a Philco table radio.
Not unlike a wa trxture from the episode 1 stage 1 of the 1993 Doom from ID.

The look of the table is wayyyy more accurite than it has a right to be. I drew it with MS Paint, than mushed the edges for the photo in PSP-9

[Oldie Goldie]

I redesigned the front of this.
Drawing number 49.

Taking into account my own basic skill set....the probable skilset of 60s weekend hobbyist and a design that he might of picked after thumbing through a '64 Radio Shack catalog.
And planning it around a crusty table and loose fabric from the attic or basement.
Picking a flowers pattern to keep the wife happy.
This is what i got. Two final options.

The second drawing has a more 1930s quality to it.

The ciggerette glazed
Mrs. Doubtfire of radios.

[Oldie Goldie]

As luck would have it, the terrible thrift store i live fairly close to dumped another load of stuff people kindly donated to them at the curb to be picked up by the trash smasher.

A very upscale 1990s television cabinet made of very thick particle board.
It was meant to hild a tv in its shelf, and have doors that open and project the tv out on a trey which swivels. I dont need to remind anybody here how heavy a 20"+ CRT must be and how beefy all of the construction had to be to hold that thing and slide it out on its platform thing.

But it had all polished brass knobs and hinges and screws.
I grabbed four sets of the solid brass knobs for upgrading my crap at home.

But i realized instead of blowing $40+ on a pair of chrome Delco Buick Sonimatic 1948 knobs, i expermibtally drilled out the hole in one of these brass knobs.
Not bad!
Epoxy in a D shaped spring clip and im good to go!

[Oldie Goldie]

I think i might have to carefully make a trim piece for around the knob shafts, i have a bunch of pueces if antique mahogany from a 1920s desk somebody pitched down a hill last year.

Im planning to make a simple wall shelf someday soon.

[Oldie Goldie]

Who knew such a simple idea eould get so involved huh?