Recreating a Philips Iberíca 104a 1948 Radio Dial:

ID: 702874
Recreating a Philips Iberíca 104a 1948 Radio Dial: 
20.Sep.25 12:40
14
Lincoln Garfirth (E)
Articles: 5
Lincoln Garfirth

Recreating a Philips Iberíca 104a 1948 Radio Dial:

PHILIPS IBERÍCA 104A ON RADIO MUSEUM

The Philips Iberíca 104a (and a few similar models) are unique because the tuning dial is mounted on the top of the radio cabinet and lit up from the bottom corners of the glass.  In the darkness it has a very earie effect of making it look like the dial is almost floating.  The dial indicator, mounted behind, painted black with a luminous line appears to move almost like magic.

The problem, however, exposed to the elements and with cleaning, the paint of the dial gets worn off – in my case, the image had totally disappeared; so this part of the 104a restoration project was to try to recreate the dial.

Thanks to Juan Jose Roncal Melero and Miguel Bravo I had been sent a really good photo of an original dial.  Getting a good scan / photo is not easy, this dial is wider than a standard A4 scanner and taking a photo is also a challenge, because you have to somehow light up the dial to easily see the information which was originally screen printed in gold paint.

Since the photo did not have sufficient contrast / resolution to print directly, I opted to re-crease it as closely as possible using desk-top-publishing software with the original image behind as a guide.  In this case I used Microsoft Power Point 2019, several litres of tea and a lot of patience.  After, it took a few test prints to get the sizing and position 100% correct.  In this case I am printing on an Epson XP-970, A3 Photo printer (214€ from Amazon Warehouse), compatible inks (5€ per set from QueCatutcho.es), using Hayer A3 Waterslide decal paper for inkjet purchased on Amazon (30€).

Within the printer settings, A3 Rear Load, Epson Inkjet paper, standard quality, smooth fine edges, enhance text more, print mirror image.  Got me the best results.

The print has three copies of the dial to fill up the A3 page and to give you several goes at doing the transfer correctly; applying such a large decal without distortion takes a bit of practise!

Once printed and left to dry in a clean dark place (for about a week), print side up, nothing on top – or the ink sticks to whatever it is and damages the print.

I then used a DAHLE 508 A3 paper trimmer, again from Amazon (60€);

If you are starting to think that all this sounds expensive – you are not wrong; I love this radio.

I have the file as a .pdf that anybody can use (if you have access to an A3 printer).  Or I could send you a finished decal (lacquered), if you cover the costs.

This is how I produce and apply the decals:

Once totally dry, spray the printed side with several very good coats of clear, solvent based varnish.  This is to make the water-based inkjet ink totally waterproof.  If you used a laser printer to print, this step should not be necessary.

After applying the varnish, I suggest that it is again left for about a week to allow the varnish to be totally dry and hard.

To apply the decal, after washing the dial with soap, water and then isopropyl alcohol, fill a container with distilled water.  The container must be big enough to fit the whole dial horizontally about 6cm deep with water.  Place the dial glass in the water up-side-down. 

Then, put the cut decal into the water print side up, the paper will try to curl-up, gently keep it flat.  After about 30 seconds you’ll notice that the backing paper can be slid away.  Once removed, the decal will be floating in the water.  Gently lift the glass under the decal and when it is in the correct position, lift it out of the water.

Resist touching the decal, or trying to move it outside the water – this causes it to distort and introduces air bubbles.  Set it aside to air dry to about 10-15 minutes.  If you are happy with the result move to the next step, if not put it back in the water, remove and dispose of the wasted decal and try again.

When you are totally happy, preheat an electric convection oven to exactly 110ºc (so a gas oven is no good) and put the glass on a cloth in the oven.  The fixing process will take about 15-20 minutes.

Remove the glass from the oven and place with the cloth onto a wooden surface, or cooling rack to cool down (do not put it on a cold surface while hot, the glass is tempered and can explode).

Now, if you are totally happy, the job is done.  If you think you can do better, the decal can be removed by putting it back into warm soapy water for about 30 minutes and then repeating the process.

The decal can be fixed permanently by leaving it to dry for several weeks and the applying another few coats of clear solvent-based varnish.  But a word of warning, once you lacquer the finished dial, that decal will not ever come off.  I did not lacquer my finished dial.

Recreating a Philips Iberíca 104a 1948 Radio Dial:

PHILIPS IBERÍCA 104A ON RADIO MUSEUM

The Philips Iberíca 104a (and a few similar models) are unique because the tuning dial is mounted on the top of the radio cabinet and lit up from the bottom corners of the glass.  In the darkness it has a very earie effect of making it look like the dial is almost floating.  The dial indicator, mounted behind, painted black with a luminous line appears to move almost like magic.

The problem, however, exposed to the elements and with cleaning, the paint of the dial gets worn off – in my case, the image had totally disappeared; so this part of the 104a restoration project was to try to recreate the dial.

Thanks to Juan Jose Roncal Melero and Miguel Bravo I had been sent a really good photo of an original dial.  Getting a good scan / photo is not easy, this dial is wider than a standard A4 scanner and taking a photo is also a challenge, because you have to somehow light up the dial to easily see the information which was originally screen printed in gold paint.

Since the photo did not have sufficient contrast / resolution to print directly, I opted to re-crease it as closely as possible using desk-top-publishing software with the original image behind as a guide.  In this case I used Microsoft Power Point 2019, several litres of tea and a lot of patience.  After, it took a few test prints to get the sizing and position 100% correct.  In this case I am printing on an Epson XP-970, A3 Photo printer (214€ from Amazon Warehouse), compatible inks (5€ per set from QueCatutcho.es), using Hayer A3 Waterslide decal paper for inkjet purchased on Amazon (30€).

Within the printer settings, A3 Rear Load, Epson Inkjet paper, standard quality, smooth fine edges, enhance text more, print mirror image.  Got me the best results.

The print has three copies of the dial to fill up the A3 page and to give you several goes at doing the transfer correctly; applying such a large decal without distortion takes a bit of practise!

Once printed and left to dry in a clean dark place (for about a week), print side up, nothing on top – or the ink sticks to whatever it is and damages the print.

I then used a DAHLE 508 A3 paper trimmer, again from Amazon (60€);

If you are starting to think that all this sounds expensive – you are not wrong; I love this radio.

I have the file as a .pdf that anybody can use (if you have access to an A3 printer).  Or I could send you a finished decal (lacquered), if you cover the costs.

This is how I produce and apply the decals:

Once totally dry, spray the printed side with several very good coats of clear, solvent based varnish.  This is to make the water-based inkjet ink totally waterproof.  If you used a laser printer to print, this step should not be necessary.

After applying the varnish, I suggest that it is again left for about a week to allow the varnish to be totally dry and hard.

To apply the decal, after washing the dial with soap, water and then isopropyl alcohol, fill a container with distilled water.  The container must be big enough to fit the whole dial horizontally about 6cm deep with water.  Place the dial glass in the water up-side-down. 

Then, put the cut decal into the water print side up, the paper will try to curl-up, gently keep it flat.  After about 30 seconds you’ll notice that the backing paper can be slid away.  Once removed, the decal will be floating in the water.  Gently lift the glass under the decal and when it is in the correct position, lift it out of the water.

Resist touching the decal, or trying to move it outside the water – this causes it to distort and introduces air bubbles.  Set it aside to air dry to about 10-15 minutes.  If you are happy with the result move to the next step, if not put it back in the water, remove and dispose of the wasted decal and try again.

When you are totally happy, preheat an electric convection oven to exactly 110ºc (so a gas oven is no good) and put the glass on a cloth in the oven.  The fixing process will take about 15-20 minutes.

Remove the glass from the oven and place with the cloth onto a wooden surface, or cooling rack to cool down (do not put it on a cold surface while hot, the glass is tempered and can explode).

Now, if you are totally happy, the job is done.  If you think you can do better, the decal can be removed by putting it back into warm soapy water for about 30 minutes and then repeating the process.

The decal can be fixed permanently by leaving it to dry for several weeks and the applying another few coats of clear solvent-based varnish.  But a word of warning, once you lacquer the finished dial, that decal will not ever come off.  I did not lacquer my finished dial.

In the case that you need to replace a broken glass, the dimensions are shown. 

Attachments:

To thank the Author because you find the post helpful or well done.

 2
Recreating a Philips Iberíca 104a 1948 Radio Dial: 
20.Sep.25 13:27
14 de 269
Michael Watterson (IRL)
Editor
Articles: 1126

Brilliant, though Powerpoint seems a strange choice compared to Inkscape or The GIMP/PaintshopPro/Photoshop. Inkscape preferred, though I've done many scales for radios and meters in The GIMP.

To thank the Author because you find the post helpful or well done.

 3
Recreating a Philips Iberíca 104a 1948 Radio Dial: 
20.Sep.25 13:45
20 de 269
Lincoln Garfirth (E)
Articles: 5
Lincoln Garfirth

Although PowerPoint is mainly meant for presentations it is in itself a very powerful DTP.  I think that most people disregard it or don't know how to use it well enough.

In my opinion, it is more adept at drawing lines and shapes than Painshop and aligning them or distributing automatically.  It is certainly more than capable of printing at very high quality or converting directly to Adobe Acrobat.

Additionally, it can still be got with a permanent licence (no subscription) for a fraction of the cost of others.

As for GIMP, Photoshop, Inkscape – I don’t have copies of those and I certainly wouldn’t have the same skills with those, as I do with PowerPoint.

I will reinforce my reply by adding, that this was a text mainly exercise, rather than graphics and PowerPoint did the job very well indeed.

To thank the Author because you find the post helpful or well done.