8U 19" Rack table top cabinet wanted

Have you tried EBay? The BBC auctioned off the equipment from places like TV centre and Bush house, and lots of these sorts of things end up on Ebay.

Something from Ikea cut to size and some rack strip?

Owain

Those were the days when comms folk actually their own measurements and companies like Imhofs supplied them at silly expensive prices. Brian

Good heavens NO, the poor RA17 would curl up in shame !

Andrew

hah! I just finished converting a piece of not very antique furniture to house some audio gear.

It's actually relatively simple to make 19" cabinets out of wood, hard or soft, MDF and what have you.. and fix stuff in with BIG woodscrews.

e.g.

softwood works just fine with reasonable self taps instead of bolts

It's basically how they're made for areas where they need to look 'pretty' like the control room of a recording studio. Veneered MDF etc with steel mounting strips.

I recall reading an article somewhere - almost certainly online - where somebody found that an Ikea table had legs exactly the right distance apart for a 19" rack conversion!

Oh, yes - googling ikea 19" rack brings up lots of suggestions using Lack and Rast tables. The Rast needs the addition of metal 19" rack mounting frames but the Lack can be used from the instant you put it together! See:

Just noticed a link to a different method at the bottom of the first one!

Absolutely NOT Terry !!!!!

This is an iconic British communications receiver that actually put the Racal company on the map. It deserves far better than a cobbled together bit of Ikea tat !

Here is but one of many accolades:

. . . but thank you for your suggestion

Andrew

I still think the cirrect retro approach would be a mahogany case with fretwork edges.

If Sir doesn't want to lash something up out of Swedish offcuts then Messrs Canford Audio, Ltd., offer the discerning customer some lusciously British-built (I'm fairly sure - they used to make their own studio furniture) cabinets in oak and ash, with a variety of door options, from £121 plus the VAT.

I've got a glass fronted one but that's no good is it? It's about two foot high.

Bill

There's a well-known hack for turning an Ikea Lack coffee table into a rack. Here's one set of instructions, but there are lots of better looking ones on the WWW.

IME the distance between the LACK legs is a bit, er, lacking. Also they are made of not very dense material (honeycomb paper), and won't take strain if things are hanging rather that being stacked on each other, and IF things are stacked then it is a nightmare moving things out.

I wouldn't rule it out - how deep is it front to back? The RA17 is 21" front to back and weighs 67 lbs

Andrew

We put two of those tables in our holidays cottages here on the farm. They lasted a matter of a few weeks before they went on the fire - they are rubbish and the thought of hanging 68 lbs off their legs is frankly a none starter from a practical viewpoint ignoring any other considerations.

Andrew

I wanted one so much when they first came out! I expect they are not cheap now, even though they are no longer the best possible.

Their performance still compares very well with 'modern' equipment in terms of selectivity, signal to noise ratio etc IF the various components that degrade are replaced. Mine was made in 1957 and is currently on it's second round of replacement of capacitors, last done in the 1970's. It's also having all it's carbon resistors replaced which results in lower noise figures than when originally made :) The Wadley Loop relies on accurately adjusted and aligned band pass filters, the setting of which requires test equipment that I no longer have, so I've 'outsourced' the job this time

Andrew