Removing Leatherette Surface
 

I sometimes repair and refurbish Roberts DAB radios as a sort of hobby.
I do a few minutes a day while waiting for simulations to finish, or
just thinking. There are a few fairly common faults and I have the gear.

These are covered in a sort of leatherette, I suppose. This is of
appalling quality and is usually very badly worn and torn, even after a
couple of years of just sitting on a shelf. This is good, it makes them
inexpensive.

It usually scrapes off easily, there's some sort of nasty sticky thin
foam underneath which rubs and scrapes off too and then a fabric backing
which is pretty robust. The fabric takes paint very well and makes an
attractive textured finish.

However one I've just repaired has some areas where the covering is very
difficult to remove, and I don't want to damage the fabric.

If it's sunny tomorrow, I'll see if a bit of UV exposure helps, but any
other suggestions?

--
Cheers
Clive

Removing Leatherette Surface
 

On 12/04/2021 18:24, Clive Arthur wrote:
I sometimes repair and refurbish Roberts DAB radios as a sort of hobby.
I do a few minutes a day while waiting for simulations to finish, or
just thinking.Â* There are a few fairly common faults and I have the gear.

These are covered in a sort of leatherette, I suppose.Â* This is of
appalling quality and is usually very badly worn and torn, even after a
couple of years of just sitting on a shelf.Â* This is good, it makes them
inexpensive.

My "real" analogue Roberts from the 60's still looked good after 30 years.

Removing Leatherette Surface
 

On 12/04/2021 18:24, Clive Arthur wrote:
I sometimes repair and refurbish Roberts DAB radios as a sort of hobby.
I do a few minutes a day while waiting for simulations to finish, or
just thinking.Â* There are a few fairly common faults and I have the gear.

These are covered in a sort of leatherette, I suppose.Â* This is of
appalling quality and is usually very badly worn and torn, even after a
couple of years of just sitting on a shelf.Â* This is good, it makes them
inexpensive.

Rexine?
https://www.martrim.co.uk/car-trimmi...oth-rexine.php

Around £15 per square metre.


--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Removing Leatherette Surface
 

On 12/04/2021 21:02, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2021 18:24, Clive Arthur wrote:
I sometimes repair and refurbish Roberts DAB radios as a sort of
hobby. I do a few minutes a day while waiting for simulations to
finish, or just thinking.Â* There are a few fairly common faults and I
have the gear.

These are covered in a sort of leatherette, I suppose.Â* This is of
appalling quality and is usually very badly worn and torn, even after
a couple of years of just sitting on a shelf.Â* This is good, it makes
them inexpensive.

My "real" analogue Roberts from the 60's still looked good after 30 years.

Yes, I have a pre-DAB FM one and an old MW/LW RT1 from Harrods both of
which are good. The problem was with the RD-50 and RD-60 models. This
one is typical...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roberts-R...53.m1438.l2649

....some are much worse. I had one which was an expensive gift, and
after a couple or three years it looked like that, though it had hardly
been touched. Roberts deny it's a manufacturing fault, but they're
clearly lying. Even some of the circuitry looks like it's been designed
by someone on work experience.

They lost their way, I don't know if they're any good nowadays.

--
Cheers
Clive

Removing Leatherette Surface
 

One assumes that is the one in the wooden box?
Most of the later ones seem to be akind of plastic wood, well you know what
I mean, with that stuff glued on top. So if its a plastic one, using solvent
to remove the cracked and scuffed pretend leather might be dangerous.


I think its made of a form of pvc, so if one knew what adhesive was used it
still might be possible to get it off. Old Hacker radios were much the same.
I have to say that although the latest Roberts are undoubtedly made in
foreign parts they do seem to be very robustly built.
Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"newshound" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 12/04/2021 18:24, Clive Arthur wrote:
I sometimes repair and refurbish Roberts DAB radios as a sort of hobby. I
do a few minutes a day while waiting for simulations to finish, or just
thinking. There are a few fairly common faults and I have the gear.

These are covered in a sort of leatherette, I suppose. This is of
appalling quality and is usually very badly worn and torn, even after a
couple of years of just sitting on a shelf. This is good, it makes them
inexpensive.

My "real" analogue Roberts from the 60's still looked good after 30 years.

Removing Leatherette Surface
 

The dab fm one I bought a year back has kind of removable rubber bumpers all
round that can be replaced. I think the build quality is very good, but as I
say, its not made in the uk. It does have a dry and rechargeable battery
switch and comes with a pretty good charger/mains unit that does not create
huge amounts of interference unlike some of the others I've tried.
Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Clive Arthur" wrote in message
...
On 12/04/2021 21:02, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2021 18:24, Clive Arthur wrote:
I sometimes repair and refurbish Roberts DAB radios as a sort of hobby.
I do a few minutes a day while waiting for simulations to finish, or
just thinking. There are a few fairly common faults and I have the gear.

These are covered in a sort of leatherette, I suppose. This is of
appalling quality and is usually very badly worn and torn, even after a
couple of years of just sitting on a shelf. This is good, it makes them
inexpensive.

My "real" analogue Roberts from the 60's still looked good after 30
years.

Yes, I have a pre-DAB FM one and an old MW/LW RT1 from Harrods both of
which are good. The problem was with the RD-50 and RD-60 models. This
one is typical...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roberts-R...53.m1438.l2649

...some are much worse. I had one which was an expensive gift, and after
a couple or three years it looked like that, though it had hardly been
touched. Roberts deny it's a manufacturing fault, but they're clearly
lying. Even some of the circuitry looks like it's been designed by
someone on work experience.

They lost their way, I don't know if they're any good nowadays.

--
Cheers
Clive

Removing Leatherette Surface
 

On 12/04/2021 23:05, Clive Arthur wrote:
On 12/04/2021 21:02, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2021 18:24, Clive Arthur wrote:
I sometimes repair and refurbish Roberts DAB radios as a sort of
hobby. I do a few minutes a day while waiting for simulations to
finish, or just thinking.Â* There are a few fairly common faults and I
have the gear.

These are covered in a sort of leatherette, I suppose.Â* This is of
appalling quality and is usually very badly worn and torn, even after
a couple of years of just sitting on a shelf.Â* This is good, it makes
them inexpensive.

My "real" analogue Roberts from the 60's still looked good after 30
years.

Yes, I have a pre-DAB FM one and an old MW/LW RT1 from Harrods both of
which are good.Â* The problem was with the RD-50 and RD-60 models.Â* This
one is typical...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roberts-R...53.m1438.l2649


...some are much worse.Â* I had one which was an expensive gift, and
after a couple or three years it looked like that, though it had hardly
been touched.Â* Roberts deny it's a manufacturing fault, but they're
clearly lying.Â* Even some of the circuitry looks like it's been designed
by someone on work experience.

They lost their way, I don't know if they're any good nowadays.

Years ago my mum was throwing out an old AM tranny radio whose case was
getting like that - i seem to remember it featured red velvet that had
all worn off. I built a wooden case for it and veneered it and bought a
strap to complete it. She loved it and used it another ten years or so.

Ah. This was it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1...s/274753914426

--
"The great thing about Glasgow is that if there's a nuclear attack it'll
look exactly the same afterwards."

Billy Connolly