Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

I think this Case, Spares is in such great shape because it was fortunate enough to have been stored somewhere very dry for most of its post-service life. The last known owner only ever used it to store spare valves in, in their original cardboard covers, and the case saw very little use once full, before passing it along to me. There has been some shrinkage of the Pine boards over the years, but nothing at all alarming, compared to my other grey Case, Spares that shows significant swelling and heaving of joints due to exposure to excessive moisture over the years. In fact, the shrinkage of the boards on this case ended up revealing a design feature I was not expecting at all, which was fun to discover.

The first photo of the lid shows some fine splits across the length of it, but these do not appear to have made it all the way through the wood.

The next two photos are of the back panel of the case. It was here that I first noticed the shrinkage had taken place. Note the four 1-inch Finishing Nails used to secure the partition board inside the case, at the left side. The wood has pulled back from around them a bit and it is just paint on the ends of these nails, no filler at all. This is consistent with what I suspected with the Box Tools when replacing its missing partition. The Finishing Nails were simply run flush to the wood and painted over to save time on the production line. I will have to tap these all flush again before I start sanding, however, or I will be shredding a lot of sanding materials.


David