Fabricating replacement drawer trim for 1960s boxes

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cmb
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Fabricating replacement drawer trim for 1960s boxes

Post by cmb »

Many of the boxes built in the 1960s had chromed steel accent strips riveted to the front of the drawer pulls. These are often found to be in poor condition (or even missing entirely, if the rivets had failed.) My 1963 KRA-300B was missing one of its drawer accents and a number of the others were pitted or gouged, so I decided to fabricate a replacement set.

I made a drawing using LibreCAD and had Big Blue Saw cut the pattern with waterjet from 5052 aluminum at 0.025" thickness. I ordered 50 units and they cost about $2.10/ea. I then spent some time dressing the edges on a wheel to clean up the burrs. I've been polishing the raw aluminum using Simichrome and a felt polishing tool in a Foredom SR flex shaft motor. To shape the pieces, I made a die by cutting a length of 0.625" ID / 1.000" OD steel tube lengthwise to create a half-round channel, and matching it to a length of 19/32" rod stock. I sandwich the aluminum piece between the two and hammer it to take the shape. I haven't started attaching the pieces to the drawers yet, but I'll be doing that with 3/32" blind rivets.

Here's a photo of the aluminum trim pieces in different stages of production (dressed, polished, and formed):
so_trim_alum.jpg
so_trim_alum.jpg (187.19 KiB) Viewed 1461 times
Also, here's the .dxf CAD file that I created, in case anyone wants to make their own.

--Colin
Grant
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Re: Fabricating replacement drawer trim for 1960s boxes

Post by Grant »

Very cool. Can we see a pic installed? Thanks!
cmb
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Re: Fabricating replacement drawer trim for 1960s boxes

Post by cmb »

Here's a close up and the whole box.
Attachments
snap-on_kra-300b_restored_1.jpg
snap-on_kra-300b_restored_1.jpg (185.02 KiB) Viewed 1404 times
snap-on_kra-300b_restored_0.jpg
snap-on_kra-300b_restored_0.jpg (230.6 KiB) Viewed 1404 times
Grant
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Re: Fabricating replacement drawer trim for 1960s boxes

Post by Grant »

Very nice indeed! Shows well with the Vette!
spacedoutbob
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Re: Fabricating replacement drawer trim for 1960s boxes

Post by spacedoutbob »

I could use one of those for my KR300B. the others are in good shape. How much would you want for one? Thanks in advance for a reply..

Bob
cmb
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Re: Fabricating replacement drawer trim for 1960s boxes

Post by cmb »

spacedoutbob wrote:I could use one of those for my KR300B. the others are in good shape. How much would you want for one? Thanks in advance for a reply..

Bob
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Gregorygoard
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Re: Fabricating replacement drawer trim for 1960s boxes

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