Dave's Crystal Radio Set #8

You can tell that this set was built in the summertime. I decided that doing all the photos in the house became pretty boring, so I went outside for these shots. I found this 8-sided box online and I knew I had to put a radio in it! I stained the box with Minwax Red Oak stain and put several coats of spray shellac to give it a little luster. Besides the octagonal shape of the box, the main feature of this set is the coil being placed on the outside of the set. I did this on my first set with a nice outcome. This one turned out even better because I used a coil form that Antique Electronics Supply offers. It is more substantial than my beer coaster coil forms. Before I wound the coil, I painted it with black lacquer spray paint. I fastened the coil form to the panel with an angle bracket and three screws. The coil sure looks cool.

I used 1/8 inch thick Garolite as the panel material. It looks really nice on these old sets. I am not trying to recreate any particular set, only the general look of the radios that were made in the 1920's.

The circuit is much like my first set. The exception is a variable capacitor replaces the two fixed capacitors in the antenna circuit. I also took out the switch that lowers the frequency. At my location, there isn't many stations that come in well below 800 khz. So I have not made a lot of effort to make these radios tune the low end of the band.

I am very happy with the way this turned out. Besides working ok the first time I fired it up, the stain job came out well, and my quickie job of cutting the 8 garolite edges turned out ok, not perfect, but ok. I just kind of fired up the chopsaw, lined it up and closed my eyes.