Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

I have waited all winter to get my two power sanders out and get the Spare Parts Case worked on out in the garage, but the heat and humidity is still not cooperating today, so I dug out the trusty old hand sander and some 150 Grit paper, to keep the dust down and work in the basement.

I decided to pull the 8 metal corner guards this time around. This gave me larger surface areas to work with on the case lid, where I wanted to start this work and it also provided an opportunity to see if this would confirm when this hardware was fitted on the production line and also give me an opportunity to see if any makers marks of any kind for the guards might be found on the inner surfaces.

The corners of the case, under all eight guards, was bare wood, which confirmed the guards were fitted to the case around the same time as all the other metal hardware fittings that required wire riveting. No makers marks at all were found on any of the guards, anywhere. What was a surprise, however, was finding all eight corners had been hand trimmed by the points being cut back. Each corner was slightly different, with all of the cut edges being between 1/2-inch and 3/4-inch in length. Only one of the corners actually came very close to an equilateral triangle with each side close to the 1/2-inch mark.

The two longitudinal gaps in the lid are actually seams between the three panels making up the top board, the upper, wider one showed signs of the wood having curled up a bit along the edge of the middle board, but this sanded down easily. After the sanding and vacuuming, I did an initial putty fill of the wider gaps, holes and dents. The two larger holes at the lower side edges are where the original putty covering the countersunk screws securing the panel to the case had fallen away. These holes also had the wood chip out at the side so once this putty has hardened tomorrow, I can go back and build up the outer edges along the sides of the lid as needed before sanding back down to the proper profile. That sanding should also remove the last of the gloss from the paint, so hopefully the new paint can get a better grip.


David