Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

With finally getting caught up on most of the yard work today, I was able to put some time in this evening to give the new tool box bracket an initial coat of Flat Olive Drab paint to start the process of hopefully blending it in to the rest of the tool box.

A bit hard to tell where this is all headed at the moment, with the paint still largely wet. I should have a much better idea tomorrow after its dry.


David

[David Dunlop]

As it turned out, there were just two small adjustments I felt were needed with the paint work on the replacement bracket, to make it look at home in the tool box,

I added paint to the left edge of the bracket as this paint had largely survived on the left edge of the surviving front bracket.

I also added some horizontal and vertical scuffs to the upper face of the bracket where tools moving passed it over the years would have worn away a lot of the paint. This also brought it more in line with the front bracket.

The enlarged hole I had drilled in the bracket did indeed come in handy when installing the bracket. It allowed enough wiggle room to get the bracket properly aligned with the original paint shadow on the back wall of the box, as well as get the flat of the bracket level.

So I now have a toolbox for the 52-Set with a complete pair of interior brackets and wooden partition once again in place.

The next step for this part of the project now will be to figure out how best to fill in the screw holes on the exterior where the original filler hiding the countersunk screws has either fallen out or worn away a bit.


David

[David Dunlop]

I picked up this small tub of Glazing Compound the other day to be able to continue work on the Tool Box. From what I can determine from the three wooden boxes/cases forming part of the kit for the Wireless Set No. 52, the Cabinet Division of Canadian Marconi Company were using a product in 1944 called Glazing Putty to backfill the countersunk screw holes in these boxes/cases, prior to final assembly and painting. I can remember my Dad and Granddad using Glazing Putty in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when single pane glass replacements in a house were still common household practises and you could get small replacement glass panes cut at your local hardware store. From what I remember, the Glazing Putty back then was a soft, pale beige clay-like material sold in either pint or quart tins, and at one point even in heavy-duty clear plastic pouches. It had a smell of linseed oil about it and could be easily formed into pencil-sized strings one would press into the edges of the glass frame and shape off with your wet thumb into a nice 45-degree angle. The oil would be drawn into the wood of the window frame as the putty set up and you could then paint or stain over it with the oil based paints back in those days.

Seems that original putty has gone the way of the Dodo Bird today. A search for ‘glazing putty’ now turns up this stuff and all sorts of automotive body shop ‘bondo’. But I think this product will work out OK. Once any loose paint is removed from any of the countersunk holes on the toolbox, this product will fill and sand nicely. A new paint top coat and it should all look fine.

Getting this bit of work sorted out has also given me a chance to better understand how Canadian Marconi fabricated these boxes/cases back in 1944. There were definitely specific steps to be followed on the line. For example, all the countersunk holes had to be filled prior to any of the metal hardware being fitted to the exterior of the box, as some of the hardware overlaps these holes. I will post what I have figured out the line work was shortly.

This has also been an interesting exercise in clearing my head of all things ‘Sender’. I needed to step away from that part of the project to better understand what the issues with the Sender might, or might not be taking place.


David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Dave, I just finished a complete window resto on our 1897 dated house. Glazing putty and me (plus the guy at the Home Hardware and his glass cutting table) know each other very well. My first few attempts at re-glazing went very badly but now I can do a smooth 45 degree putty job as good as the best of them (if I do humbly say so myself...).

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

I picked up this small tub of Glazing Compound the other day to be able to continue work on the Tool Box. From what I can determine from the three wooden boxes/cases forming part of the kit for the Wireless Set No. 52, the Cabinet Division of Canadian Marconi Company were using a product in 1944 called Glazing Putty to backfill the countersunk screw holes in these boxes/cases, prior to final assembly and painting. I can remember my Dad and Granddad using Glazing Putty in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when single pane glass replacements in a house were still common household practises and you could get small replacement glass panes cut at your local hardware store. From what I remember, the Glazing Putty back then was a soft, pale beige clay-like material sold in either pint or quart tins, and at one point even in heavy-duty clear plastic pouches. It had a smell of linseed oil about it and could be easily formed into pencil-sized strings one would press into the edges of the glass frame and shape off with your wet thumb into a nice 45-degree angle. The oil would be drawn into the wood of the window frame as the putty set up and you could then paint or stain over it with the oil based paints back in those days.

Seems that original putty has gone the way of the Dodo Bird today. A search for ‘glazing putty’ now turns up this stuff and all sorts of automotive body shop ‘bondo’. But I think this product will work out OK. Once any loose paint is removed from any of the countersunk holes on the toolbox, this product will fill and sand nicely. A new paint top coat and it should all look fine.

Getting this bit of work sorted out has also given me a chance to better understand how Canadian Marconi fabricated these boxes/cases back in 1944. There were definitely specific steps to be followed on the line. For example, all the countersunk holes had to be filled prior to any of the metal hardware being fitted to the exterior of the box, as some of the hardware overlaps these holes. I will post what I have figured out the line work was shortly.

This has also been an interesting exercise in clearing my head of all things ‘Sender’. I needed to step away from that part of the project to better understand what the issues with the Sender might, or might not be taking place.


David

[David Dunlop]

Most of the lower section of the content label that broke loose in the inside of the tool box lid survived as the three small pieces found in the bottom of the box when received. It is now time to glue them back in place.

I initially thought the original glue might have been mucilage but then realized that glue is always water soluble and the label would have been completely gone by now, had that been the glue used. Looking at some of the surviving glue, I now suspect Canadian Marconi used the same glue as they were using in their Cabinet Division.

I have decided to go with the Elmer’s Gel Glue for refitting the pieces of label. It is a water-based glue that stops being water soluble when cured. Being a gel it does not run and it has a nice working time so I can fiddle with tweezers for a bit to get the three pieces of paper properly placed before the glue sets up.


David

[David Dunlop]

The three label pieces are now back in place.

The exposure to moisture over the years has expanded the paper fibre enough that a perfect fit was not possible, but once dried, the sheen of the new gel glue matched up quite nicely with the surviving traces of wartime original glue still visible.

The smallest piece of the label turned out not to go in the bottom section but was a small part of the top left edge.

What I hope to do next with the tool box is carefully smooth down the blobs of modern NATO Green along the inside edges of the box and lid and give that edge a new coat of the original Flat Olive Drab. The rest of the interior will stay original.


David

[David Dunlop]

If you scroll back up to the photos in Posts #873 and #878, you will see a lot of blobs of NATO Green paint that had accumulated around the edges of the tool box and lid.

When this toolbox was given the NATO Green colour, it was likely in service with a 52-Set somewhere in the Canadian Army system and it was kept closed while painted. Excess paint on the brush got pushed into the seam between the lid and the box in a few locations and in some places even wicked along this seam before drying.

Some of this paint was quite thick and rough, but overall, about 80% of the original Olive Green paint had survived along these edges. The plan with all three wooden boxes/cases with this 52-Set is to return them all to wartime markings and the Olive Green paint, so I decided at this point to file down the blobs of NATO Green and give these two edges a fresh coat of the Olive Green.

In keeping with the overall plan for this 52-Set Kit to be restored to look ‘Gently Used and Well Maintained’, I tried to keep as many of the nicks, scrapes and gouges on the surface as practical.

Slowly, this toolbox is regaining some of its original look.


David