John Chidgey's Page

"Excellent, Scott.  You helped out greatly!"

"Great video Scott!"

"WOW!! Awesome attention to detail!"

"Below is a video I made on setting the rivets on my Philharmonic.  It includes doing the brass eyelets and using a bar to reach into places where you can't get a hammer.  I use a cupped set to support the rivet head, and the flaring…"

"That's how I did my 16. I have several pieces of aluminum bar that I use on the rivet head.  The aluminum will form a divot that matches the head of the rivet.  I also use an aviation rivet squeezer for rivets that are on the side of…"

"I set nickel plated brass hollow rivets by hand using a hammer, rivet set, and aluminum mandrel plus a slew of other tools (levers, etc) for starting the set and for setting rivets in hard to access places.  I occasionally end up with a split…"

"Great info. I have a few short rivets of the type Scott used. I had limited success - by tapping with a standard hammer on a small ball peen hammer placed on the rivet flair against a metal plate, but access limitations galore. The flair is…"

"Thanks to all for the great infortmation."

"Hello- Commercial riveting in sheet metal, particularly in lower volumes like custom-built radios, is done with machines generically referred to as "C-Squeezes".  They are used extensively in aerospace manufacturing in general and at…"

"I have an AM/FM that I'm going to have to re-rivet.  Been thinking of building something that will handle the entire chassis.  Either a mechanical press or a hydraulic press."

"I've been searching for such a tool for years...not sure anything exists? What kind of tool did they use in the factory? I'm assuming it was some kind of large, bench mounted device..."

"Correct, the 24V transformer is always on, so when you want to turn on the set remotely, you can activate the volume control "up" to flip the switch."

"Not sure about  24 volt wiring on a pointer dial Philharmonic,  or model Sixteen. Power switches mounted on the side of the cabinet for these models. Later models commencing about 1939, the power switch relocated to the volume control. The…"