[Hallicrafters] KNOBS

[Lee Bahr]

Well, I looked at all my Hallicraftes treasures a few minutes ago and am now
anguishing over the condition of many of my knobs on the radios.  What I
need all fall into the Main Tuning Knobs and the other smaller knobs that
are minitures of the Main Tuning knobs for the early 50s radios.  I'm
talking about SX-71 or S-38 type Tuning knobs with and without the metal
rings plus the smaller volume or band knobs for the S-38 series (A,B,C ).
These are the Large and Small black jobs with the narrow front flange that
likes to break off.

Has anyone reproduced them for themselves or for resale?  If you made them
for yourself, how did you address centering the shaft hole and how did you
address the mounting screw hole and tap?  Hallicrafters never used black
sleeves in the knob, but the resin they used was hard.  My concern with
molding them today is the potting material might be too soft to tap and the
threads would strip out.

Anyway, this is a real problem today.  I hate buying junker rigs at high
prices just for the knobs.  I sure wish we could make our own that would
produce a really nice reproduction unit. I have to believe I am not the only
one faced with this situation as the knobs I have described are fairly
fragile in their design.

What are the rest of you doing besides buying rally nice radios so you don't
have to face this problem?