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Rehabbing my FUTURA VI CABINET

Wow, that came out nicely...looks like a different unit than before:thmbsp:

You mention steaming, is that just applying steam to a small nick, and the wood fills it up from the humidity?, sounds like a neat process.

Gorgeous work:thmbsp:, and the speaker grilles look great, probably less restrictive than the original tweed-type as well.
 
Steaming as in steam iron. Medium heat, and high steam. hold the iron over the dent just touching the wood, and move the iron in a circle for about 10 seconds. Remove and let cool. The steam and heat swells the wood fiber. Old wood boat hull trick only they used a steam jenny.



Larry
 
For ALL that have FISHER CONSOLES. If you do nothing else, CHANGE THE XOVER CAPS and the resistors.

I just got finished 1/2 hour ago doing the FUTURA VI. OH MY GOD!!! The Change in tonal quality and presence is absolutely STUNNING!!! The Mids and Highs were muddy, had no staging. everything was all muddled up. The change is 180 out from what it was. Playing DSOM right now. ALL CONTROLS CENTERED and volume at about 10:00. I used to have to turn up the treble to 3:00 or more, and the bass to 2:00. Even with the controls @ 12:00 the bass is just a bit much, 11:00 sounds much better. The Highs are controlled, not piercing, and the mids are clear, and vocals now sound like they are standing right in front of you about 4 ft away (8 ft from console). I had a pair of WS-1's hooked up as fillers, but now it sound better without them.

Ain't no more to do to this one except roll some tubes, but that is even pretty much done. All the tubes are in the PRE and the tuner. 1 12ax7 in the amp as a voltage controller.

It sounds like my 400 only hopped up a bit. DAMN! AVERY FISHER had it all figured out.

Larry
 
Since the last installment, I swapped out the ELAC Miracord 50H, put the plinth board with the 10F in a bag, and made a board for a DUAL 1009 and installed it. The 1009 was Original equipment in the 1966 FUTURA so I figured what the heck. It needs an idler wheel, but other than that it works and looks like it was supposed to be there in the 1st place. The Futura is still kicking butt in the house, (except the Executive's)with a mixed bag of tubes. Tele's Mulards, RCA's, Jan GE's, Jan Sylvies, Westies, and FISHER Branded. And that's all of the 12AX7's. Not a matched manufacturer pair in the bunch. But sounds surprisingly good. It's a bit shy on the Bass unless I crank the Bass past 2:00. It's more the speakers, and the amp being hybrid than anything else. If it had matched tubes in it, I'd say it would be pretty good for a console for critical listening, but with the mishmash in it, it's good for background and non critical listening. Better speakers would help it immensely. i hooked up some NLA's to it and the difference was almost night and day. Better highs and lows, midrange opened up some too. (yes I recapped the xovers on the console). I may steal all the Tele's and Mullards out of the wife's E-490(stored in the basement) and see what's what. Give me something to do tomorrow. And measure out the cab's to see how big I can go on woofers and stuff. I've got a pair of Bozak woofers with the dual tweeters in a pair of Japanese (Kanazawa) boxes. They'll probably end up in either the Executive or the Futura.
 
Gotta find the Pics of the KANAZAWA CABINETS. They turned out really nice. Might be on my other Desktop in the shed. All the rest of the pics are up on here now. No need to go to Photoscrewed to try and hack the 3rd party jpg.
 
larryderouin said:
I know. I could sand down the right top, (swirls), BUT, my shoulder has enough problem handling the Orbital, much less hand sanding. I just got out of a hot shower, after a cold soak in ice, it feels much better. small tear on the rotator cuff when I was 16, never had it worked on.

I really like the KONA Brown against the Gold tone faceplate. It just looks good together.

Larry
Click to expand...
Larry;

I understand about the effects of using muscle power to do things. Every time I do so I pay for it afterward with pain and recovery time. I have one of the hand orbital sanders and I do use it, but after an hour or so of use my hands wind up tingling for quite a while before they feel normal again. I always wind up having to finish with straight back and forth hand sanding before applying stain and finish - such is life!

I agree about the English Chestnut stain being a close match. It looks good! Kudos!

Joe
 
Thanks Joe; I now get the vibrational neuropathy, so an orbital is out. But a back and forth 1/3sheet sander is now in inventory. Takes a lot more grits so I can actually get down with Wet/Dry and do some wet/dry sanding with 1500 grit. Small areas get a 2x4 block.
 
Just for future reference. I nixed the idea of waxing the cabinet, and went with Tung Oil every 2 years or so. Worked out really good.
 
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