Hi everyone,

I have recently restored the receiver in my 1950 cabinet. It has a door which you pull open to expose the controls and radio dial. Inside the cabinet is what looks like an old screen door closer which is meant to slow down when closing preventing it from being slammed. As expected the closer is totally inoperable. I've tried buying one from bunnings which is the same length but different mountings. I have tried mounting it in every way I have been arable to think of but have not had any joy, it just will not co-operate. Would any of you know about this sort of thing. I guess the original closer was designed for use in a cabinet and not on a screen door.

There is something on the draws of the island bench here that slow them down as they as they are closing. Never really bothered to inspect.

It may be some form of gas strut. Might be an idea to post a photo of it in toto. Some things can be modified or re-made: A lot of that goes on here.

Ben, the Healing 667G radiogram I am slowly working on has exactly that to control the swinging radio set.
Have a look at the photos in post#1 and you will see a door closer used for the purpose.

I am rebuilding the cabinet as a vertical assembly with the changer at the top having a heavy top lid that uses a similar door closer, so it does not drop on fingers.
That will be in a Part 3 when I get to it.
I'll take a picture of what I have done so far to make it work smoothly and send that to Brad to pin to this thread.

With a bit of wangling it works well dropping smoothly and relaxing just as lid closes.
Still in the process of design though as I have to add an auto prop to lock the lid in the open position.
I have a fitting that does just that in a box somewhere.
These thing used to be standard cabinet fittings back in the Jurassic time.
To cycle it you just lift the lid a bit past the lock position and it rotates and dislodges the prop and down she goes under the cylinder control.

The new picture will explain the cylinder bit.
The internal spring of a normal door closer is removed, the cylinder just uses the rod and end seal to operate as a piston in a cylinder.
Fred.

Removing the spring sounds brilliant, the only problem is opening the thing up without damaging it. I'll wait for you photo to be uploaded.

The cylinder will probably be too long to fit in where you are going.
I cut the tube at the end opposite the bleed screw to pull it apart.
Some of the real old door closers had a screw or pushed on end cap, not this one.
It was swaged over permanent.
With me nothing is permanent!
I could then chuck the spring, and shorted the tube and piston rod to suit what I was doing.
Then I had to make something up to re-cap the end.
I found a Jaycar alloy knob that I drilled out the centre to take the rod diameter.
The knob was a bash fit over the tube end.
The cylinder is then just a pneumatic shock absorber, the weight of the lid drives the piston down.
The air bleed screw is then the descent speed adjustor.
Fred.

For the up you merely have to introduce a mechanical valve I just put a new set in a Spitwater washer from 1992 24mm high 21.8mm dia. Possibly too strong but that, or a flap valve (swing check) would sort that opening issue.

"Simplesness"

Marcc

I solved the problem. It is the same length as a standard closer. The original can be taken apart. I ripped apart the new one and removed the rod and seal assembly and then put into the old original unit and it is now working very well. No more slamming the radiogram shut.

Thats the way to go!
I guess the old piston and seal were shot.
New parts = refurbished.
Well done.
Fred.

The rubber seal in the old one was hard as a rock. Looks like new one has the same diameter tube. I would have never found a replacement rubber seal for the old one but the new one uses an O-ring which should be easer to replace in future.

Photos uploaded to Post #3.

The door closers have a different mechanism inside to the struts on a radiogram. Door closers have a constant negative pressure on them whereas the struts don't. All the struts on a radiogram do is allow a soft close - the chassis is mounted on the bit that moves, so slamming it shut will cause problems.

The mechanism on a drawer track is similar in how it works but is not really suitable for this purpose and would take a great deal of skill to make work in this situation.

If the strut can be disassembled and refurbished, that is the best option I reckon. It's been a long time since I have seen one of those so I am not sure whether they can be successfully reassembled or not.

Thanks for sending in your images. Mine was very fiddly and took many attempts until I got it to work. It is close to vertical but had to be angled a little. also the entire length of the pump was required which helped make things difficult. It's all working well and hopefully it will stay like that for a long time.

Mechanical things are great fun are they not?
You can see by the hack marks, glued back on bits and holes drilled in the wrong place that I had quite a few goes at making a simple thing work!
All it has to do is lower the lid gently and simple tho it is, tis not a simple thing.
Yes, the current crop of engineers would cad-cam the thing, I like to cut things up and go by eye.
The thing is, it is the simplest solution now, I just have to go through all the hard dumb solutions to get there.
That's applied engineering.
Wait till you see the lid holder upper.
Fred.

Yeah Fred, I like to make things by hand too.
Trouble is, I'm really crap at it! Borderline hereditary Parkinsons doesn't help. Getting worse with the years.

So these days I design it on a computer and get someone with a suitable machine to make it!

PCBs are really easy these days, you want a few boards for a prototype, just design it and send the Gerbers off to China by email or via a web interface that lets you see what you'll get and what it will cost before you pay.
Boards arrive in less than a week, they are great quality and really cheap.

I wanted a plug that I could use to make a 110 degree CRT extension cable. I drew it up in Fusion 360 and had the grandkids print some on their 3D printer. A great result, locating spigot and all.

Ian I hear you loud and clear. I have Parkinsons as well, makes things that much harder.