Tolex tips for beginners

[rob11966]

Hi Folks,

I have just finished telexing for the first time. I think avoided many mistakes by reading some of the very useful information on this forum. I also discovered a few tricks which helped me as a beginner – they may be helpful to someone else?

1. Water based contact is good, it doesn’t smell it is forgiving and the tolex can be removed for a couple of hours afterwards if you make a mistake.
2. Water based contact takes a lot longer to dry than the label says.
3. Don’t over stretch the tolex when applying – it shrinks back overnight and wrinkles.
4. Don’t use an applicator for the glue – it‘s either too thin or too thick and not in the right place - grab a box of latex gloves and use a finger to apply.
5. Use pressure overnight – makes for a very smooth finish. I used a couple of sheets of ply with a towel between the ply and the cabinet with a couple of paving tiles on top. In order to apply pressure to all side I did the bottom (pressure overnight), both sides (pressure overnight) and then the top (pressure overnight).
6. When doing inside corners stick a strip of tolex on underneath first. You can then cut the ‘V’ without having to cut a patch afterwards. The end product actually looks quite neat.
7. When gluing adjacent pieces of tolex (joints) use super glue rather than contact. The contact tends to be a bit thick and the joins are neater with super glue.
8. Don’t over worry about telexing, it’s not so bad – it’s stretching the grill cloth that will kill you.

Hope this helps.

Rob

[rayandkerry]

Looks nice!

[Pressed_Rat]

That looks perfect .

[rob11966]

Thanks for the kind comments - I think it looks nice but it is not perfect unfortunately

The grill cloth is my biggest problem - it is crooked but I am probably the only one who cares so I am going to leave it. The baffle is completely removable, so I can redo it if it ends up bothering me too much.

Rob

[zappacat]

Very nice. Thanks for the tips too. Can you elaborate a little on the piping? Where did you purchase it?

[rob11966]

Very nice. Thanks for the tips too. Can you elaborate a little on the piping? Where did you purchase it?

The gold piping is just glued into the 3mm groove at the top. The white piping is tubular with a round bit on the front and a flat strip on the back, shaped like this in cross section 0-- the tail is then stapled around the border of the baffle board.

I got the gold piping off ebay (just search for marshall gold piping) and the white piping from Antique Electronic Supplies (http://www.tubesandmore.com). AES are great to deal with and have gold piping as well - I would have bought the gold piping from them but bought it earlier on ebay. AES also have the original Marshall tolex and grill cloth.

Cheers,

Rob

[SpentMusic]

Not sure what contact cement you were using but you should not have to apply pressure all night. I use a heavy duty veneer rubber roller with a long handle so I can use both hands. Bonds the two surfaces together perfectly and will not come off or loosen up. (of course you have to make sure you are happy with the fit first!!).

In the early daze I uses a piece of plastic pipe with a 2" ID and rolled with as much pressure as possible. For the bracing & inside corners I use a small hammer head that is squared off to set the tolex in place.

[Coco]

I've started a thread on this subject here: Tolex Tutorial You'll need to join the forum.

It might help people. I just started with a video of how I do a corner.
BTW, I only use the solvent based glue for speed. Water base takes too long for me!

I have hundreds of picture & plan to put some of them together in a slideshow.