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102 top and bottom panels are cardboard !

Wow, I never knew that! Always assumed it would be some kind of hardboard/plywood, something like that................

An Balores wrote: Wed May 01, 2024 6:59 am Wow, I never knew that! Always assumed it would be some kind of hardboard/plywood, something like that................

No, they were a definite step down in build quality from the 100 / 101, but then you have to remember they were also one of the first products manufactured under the newly formed EMI Group. It steadily went down hill in the decades following as even cheaper materials and streamlined manufacturing came into being, as austerity kicked in towards the war years and immediately thereafter.

The 101 also had a top and bottom made of a thick, dense card ('cardboard' is an unkind name for it, it's much denser than that. I have seen plywood, on a wartime 97, when perhaps the normal board was not available.) The sides of the cloth-covered portables were made of white wood, a smooth, close-grained type whose botanical name I do not know!

Oedipus wrote: Thu May 02, 2024 12:07 pm The 101 also had a top and bottom made of a thick, dense card ('cardboard' is an unkind name for it, it's much denser than that. I have seen plywood, on a wartime 97, when perhaps the normal board was not available.) The sides of the cloth-covered portables were made of white wood, a smooth, close-grained type whose botanical name I do not know!

HMV called the top and base material of the 102 "Essex Board". It is much harder than cardboard, more like thin plywood.

Barry

Ah, Essex Board - quick research shows "a sheet material made of compacted paper fibres. Lighter than mdf and hardboard it is easy to work with. It is commonly used in the production of pelmets." So a sort of tough 'super-cardboard'.....