THE RADIO WORKSHOP

The pictures below show part of one workshop. It isn't posh, it isn't tidy, it isn't very well organised... Why? Because it's a working workshop. When I walk into the workshop in the mornings, ready for a day's work, I breathe in the aroma of the old radios and components. There's something special about the smell of vintage radios. I can't describe it, but I love it. The workshop is now air conditioned which takes away that aroma to an extent. But the air conditioning isn't just to keep me cool during the summer months, it's there to lower the humidity and preserve the radios and the thousands of vintage spares I have in stock.

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Servicing a Dansette record player.	Vintage Radio Spares.
More spares.	Test gear.

Waiting to be tidied up. I'm not sure what happened here. It's become a sort of dumping ground.	Test equipment next to one of the radio repair benches.
Some of the thousands of vintage valves I have in stock.	The office... slowly being taken over by the valve tester and spare parts.
Part of the stores... Mains and audio output transformers etc. I'm in the process of moving spares and components into the new stores.	Valve bases, pots and other bits and pieces in the stores. Soon to be moved, and organised.

THE WORKSHOP IN ACTION

The radio restoration work bench.	A cabinet after restoration.
Preparing new speaker cloth.	New cloth in place.
Looking good, ready for the chassis.	Ready for the customer.
Another radio restored and ready for the customer.

In a workshop with thousands of spares, it’s not always easy remembering exactly what's in stock. I’ve made a list on the computer of items such as mains transformers. The list tells me what transformers I have in stock, and where to find them. For example, mains transformer, 5v, 6.3v and 0-250v taps – in the stores, shelf B. All my valves are listed on the computer and, although it was a lot of work compiling the list, it’s very easy to keep it up to date. It now takes a minute to find a valve rather than half an hour.

The workshop is a mess, I admit that. But it's a working workshop. It's not a tidy place that's suppose to look impressive to visitors. I've seen photos on the internet of radio workshops and they look so neat and tidy that I wonder whether they are actually used.

If I need an octal valve base, I know exactly where to look. Heat resistant sleeving, dial drive cord, mains dropper sections, audio output transformers... A place for everything and everything in its place. Well, that's the theory.