Replacement Grill Cloth

[Ben Erickson]

Does anyone know where to locate this EH Scott style of grill cloth?   

[Russ Webb]

Based on all of that, it would be appropriate to charge more for it. After all, if you have a $1000 radio with old curtains for grill cloth you are probably more motivated than most.

I often get requests to sell Items I have manufactured and documented on my blog. I tell people that the $50 Radiola 7 light hood on e-pay is cheaper than I can make one. Besides, I just don't have time. Point is, hard to get parts can be more expensive.

[David Wilson]

Norm .... from what I've been to gather from talking to my friend, who has found over the years suppliers to reproduce grill cloth patterns for key jukeboxes, and from Kenny Richmond is that the old guard producers who ran the smaller fabric looms businesses mainly in the Carolina's, have been bought up or have closed as this industry has moved to other parts of the world. You are correct about the complexity of running these old radio cloth patterns. Kenny told me the younger people he was dealing on the Scott Aztec pattern who bought out the old timer loom operator he originally worked with on his Zenith patterns were looking for larger fabric runs and they did not have the skill or the patients to learn to run these older, more complicated grill cloth patterns in the original materials like Rayon. It is also becoming more difficult to get other key jukebox and radio replacement parts  produced for some of the same reasons unfortunately. 
Norman S Braithwaite said:

I'm not convinced there is a demand problem.  All reproduction runs have sold out in reasonable time with the original supplier producing and selling out of three runs.  I believe the issue is more along the lines of the complexity of reproducing the pattern and need to get it right.  The pattern was also used in some Stewart Warner radios around 1936 and in some musical instrument equipment.

Norman

[David C. Poland]

Given the lack of repo Scott cloth pattern, Michael Katz has something he calls Scott Philharmonic cloth.

Has some character whether front or back is mounted. Prices seem decent.

see #9 pattern at https://www.radiogrillecloth.com/products

I strongly discourage glue or staples for new cloth. Instead, remove the wood strips from the grooves securing the original cloth. Scrape the glue residue out of the grooves. Or for a new speaker board, with a table saw, cut four  1/4th inch deep grooves. Use the window screen spline from the hardware store and the inexpensive spline tool to install the new sloth. Easy to fine tune the cloth by pulling out the spline, shift the cloth a bit and reinstall the spline. the spline comes in 2 sizes, so use which ever diameter the fits the groove best.

[Tony Ellis]

I believe that the best of the reproduction cloths were made on a Jacquard loom process. More expensive and difficult  to replicate.  May explain the raised texture of the "chinese man"

[David C. Poland]

The challenges I recall from comments of John Okolowicz (spelling?) who made 3 versions of the Scott pattern:

- closing down of many US textile factories over recent decades.

- decreasing stock of those big commercial spools of proper yarns, and difficulty finding desirable colors.

- expense of making relatively small production runs,

- and reluctance of remaining textile mills for small jobs.

John's first early 1990's run used 3 threads of gold, olive and dusty pink - and was pretty true to original samples that had been protected from light exposure behind cabinet wood panels. John was disappointed in the demand, and eventually took an offer for his remaining stock from outside the radio community.

Second run a few years later was also 3 color, but  color limitations of  available yarns left him with a darker gold and a lavender yarn (instead of pink) producing a purple cast when installed. Still, a very decent cloth.

His third run was a 2 color (brown and gold) with much finer polyester (?) threads producing a proper pattern but much darker result with a very different texture. I found this version more difficult to handle, being more prone to snags during trimming and installation. Still, I think a much better appearance than the more recent version by Richmond Designs (two color, greenish cast and much smaller pattern), also now no longer available.

AS Kent suggests, try to work with and preserve the original cloth. Maybe even put a backing  to support and preserve weak areas. Very light weight cotton or the heat activated material sometimes used when cutting to secure pants legs cuffs or hem of a dress. I have used all these repo cloths.