Hello,
- I am in possession of my Grandparents (one family since new!)Silvertone R111. Circa 1940? I am trying to get it working and I am currently stuck trying to remove the chassis. Everything is undone except I can’t seem to remove the c-clips from the tuning and volume shafts. The small buttons eventually came off with some deoxit, but the larger knobs are fixed to the facia by c-clips.
Any help greatly appreciated. Also any other tips and tricks that might save me time or heartache!
PS: I will try to add pictures once I figure it out.
Welcome, I would say it should be just like any other radio. I have not run into one that you had to remove clips to remove knobs. I do have a console that the knobs were seized to the shafts so it took a long time to get them off. At most you loosen a set screw, otherwise they just have a slip fit clip. Assuming that you are referring to removing the chassis from the cabinet.
Radios + Tubes + Scopes + Cars= Nothing better!
Welcome, I would say it should be just like any other radio. I have not run into one that you had to remove clips to remove knobs. I do have a console that the knobs were seized to the shafts so it took a long time to get them off. At most you loosen a set screw, otherwise they just have a slip fit clip. Assuming that you are referring to removing the chassis from the cabinet.
Thanks, yes, I am referring to removing the chassis, which I have already disconnected and unbolted from the rear. The issue is the 2 tuning shafts on the front end have c clips that hold them in place through the glass panel/ face plate. There are no set screws on this set.
It’s kind of like the old style twin shaft car stereos where the two threaded shafts are secured in the dash with nuts. Except in this case, the shafts are not threaded. Rather, they use c clips to hold them in place.
I started thinking about c clips and how to remove them and bought myself a pair of snap ring pliers. Unfortunately, the tips are too fat to get inside the outer knobs. I think I know that I need another set of pliers with a slimmer tip.
I’ll update later.
In the meantime, has anyone ever removed the fancy embroidered speaker cloth in an attempt to wash, clean or paint it? Or does one just source a similar aftermarket speaker cloth?
@radiokaos I would suggest that (if) you can manage to post some close-up detailed pictures of what you are talking about (including the front speaker cloth style) it would be much better than what you can ever describe in words.
I had a radio that I couldn’t remove the knobs. These knobs were made out of wood so I carefully crushed them and kept all the pieces. I manages to put it back together with white glue and wood filler and it ended up looking like new. If that doesn’t fit your situation, here is a guy or web site called ‘Gobs of Knobs” that I have used several times. This guy has almost every knob and is reasonably priced. The guy will need the model of radio, the size of shaft and good pictures of several views. My 1st radio was a Silvertone model 6438B
@frogman I tried googling it but can not find the website. Can you post a link to Gobs of Knobs please.
@ovi4 thanks, I’ve been trying to post images but it just doesn’t seem to work for me. I’m using postimage.org which is what usually does the trick. I’ll keep trying.
Ok, think I got it. You can see the c clip around the shaft. The good news is during the last few days, I figured out you need a very narrow pair of snap ring pliers to get them out. The first pair I bought were too fat. The second pair just barely got in there enough to bend the clips apart.
Can anyone speak to the liklihood of removing and washing that embroidered grille cloth? Would it shrink? Would it disintegrate? Could I dye it or spray it?
I guess he doesn’t have a web site but he is an easy guy to work with. I got his business card from my last order of knobs. Here is his contact info.
“Gobs of Knobs”
Mike Koste
606 Zucksville Rd.
Easton, PA 18040
gomike@gmail.com
From your following posts, It looks like you removed the chassis without destroying the knobs. Now the fun begins… It is very unlikely that you could remove the grille cloth without damaging it and even more unlikely that you could clean it. You can buy grill cloths online for about $20 but probably won’t find an exact match. You’ll have to settle for ‘close enough’. ‘Antique Radio Forum’ is a great web site to show you how to replace grille cloth.
Tim McTusty
@radiokaos Hi, looking at the (last) picture above it looks like you have managed to remove the knobs (in the end) but I’m not sure if they came off in one piece or not 🤔 but hopefully they did.
I was just about to show you that one way of doing it is: to use a few drops of penetrating oil (give it a rest for about 30 minutes or so) and then carefully push/wedge a flat screwdriver that is (a tiny bit) wider than the gap of the @clip@ and angle the driver left and right (as the picture shows while with the other hand try to pull the knob out (toward you).
As for the grille cloth… well, as ”Frogman” (above) has said, the chances of removing and washing that cloth material without damaging it are extremely slim (to none) at this point, but you can find replacements that will be ”close enough” to look legit. Good luck.
Thanks for the updates. Yes, I bought a second set of snap ring pliers that did the trick but agree that a flathead screwdriver with just the right width might have worked as well. I was worried about cracking the faceplate so felt like the pliers approach was less risky.
The original embroidered grille cloth looks good but I’m not surprised to hear you say that it will likely just disintegrate once I remove it, let alone try to clean it. Maybe a guitar amp covering or something with a pattern would look ok. I just don’t think a solid modern speaker grille fabric would look right.
It’s been a while since I last checked in, so I’ll update for anyone still following with my progress to date.
Gave up on trying to wash the embroidered speaker grille cloth and ordered some new material. Unfortunately, it was too sheer and you could see right through it. So, I picked up some standard black speaker cloth and covered the board, then tried the sheer material again.
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