The AM Forum

I’m a new AMfone member and starting to work my Hallicrafters sx 88. The most severe cosmetic problem with these radios is the sagging bezel as shown in the attached pictures. I been researching options to repair or replace for a while. The original zinc casting can be straightened but there is a (Lost) art to this, which may not work and could result in a lot of busted pieces. Pot metal casting have no ductility and very little strength and can turn into a puddle if overheated - In this case I loose my original pattern bezel. Remaining replacement options are 3D printing, casting or CNC machining from a plate. The problem with 3D printing or CNC machining is the time and expense to develop a correct CAD file of the part and then turning it into an acceptable machine language to make just a few bezels. The larger shops in this area had no interest in wasting their time with this small item - the smaller shop sited a high cost since the first and possibly the second part would require program modifications to make a correct part. The shops all recommended aluminum casting - especially for the small quality (5-10 pieces) I was interested in. I am currently working with a pattern maker and small casting shop to price out a small quantity of castings (the casting pattern to be of hardwood to be good for 50 or so castings). The machining work on the final casting would be limited to drilling holes for mounting screws and dial shafts. The final part would be powder coated with a lightly textured flat black coating to be close to the original. I will cover the cost for all this but am looking for sx88 owners looking for a new bezel to replace their deformed ones. A Little Background: My first step in looking for a replacement was to bring the entire radio into a small CNC capable shop - they said they could make the bezel out of a 1" alum plate for around $200. I then brought the removed bezel in to have one made - do to the complexity of the part they turn the job down. The casting foundry and pattern maker I am working with now are very experienced and have no issues with making the bezel, So here I am looking for any interest so that I can amortize the cost and help out some sx88 owners who need a bezel.
Give me a shout if interested. Thanks, Bob 860-535-0242 (KC1AEW)

Bob, I moved your topic away from Restoration as that's for completed projects.

Best of luck in this endeavor - I know there are guys out there with bad bezels.  Thankfully the bezel in my SX-88 is FB, hope it stays that way!

Bob, your pix were not attached.
Below the area you type there is a thing that says:
Attach [Browse]
Where the [Browse] is a greyed button to click on.
Then you can upload ur files.

I am interested in your project, but unfortunately I do not own such a radio! :(

Mostly interested in the casting, and who you found to do that job. Feel free to PM me
or email me from this site, and we can discuss offline?

Fwiw, I'd offer them up on ebay and via various other sites, and maybe put up a simple
website as well. Not sure though how many SX-88s actually exist, or how many have
problems with the Bezel...

Sure would like to see clear pix of the problem(s).

                         _-_-

There was a run of CNC machined bezels about 15 years ago - I got one to replace my grotesquely warped original. I dunno what happened to the CNC files though.
http://www.redwaveradio.com/2_1398dd78c56e65b8_1.htm

I understand those were done on a 3-axis milling machine so the fillets weren't quite right, but way better than mine that didn't even fit to the front panel any more. I'm sure there will be people interested in a good quality casting. WA4KCY's SX-88 owner's list is at
http://173.230.252.58/~wa4kcy/page11.htm

Those were the ones that Hank/KN6DI made up with Gary Harmon. Not perfectly accurate as you pointed out Nick, but better than the ones that were falling apart (as you also pointed out).

I'd suspect that if the shop can turn out an exact/accurate duplicate, some of the owners with Hank's bezels would upgrade to the newer version. I think the price is comparable.