Beogram 4000: Installation of a New Precision Machined Solid Teak Frame

I recently received a lovely new CNC machined solid Teak plinth from Christian Hakansson, to be installed on the Beogram 4000 that I recently functionally restored.

Unfortunately, this Beogram had an original plinth that was damaged at the corners (please, watch out for door jambs when you carry your Beograms around!!...;-):

I removed the plinth:

If you do this at home, please, note that there is a 5th bolt under the keypad, i.e. the keypad needs to be removed before the plinth can be extracted. 

The deformed particle board under the veneer suggested that this plinth not only had damaged corners, but also had been in contact with too much moisture at some point in time:

The installation of a new plinth requires that the metal fixtures be removed from the old plinth to be transferred to the new one. I usually wrap the plinth in aluminum foil and then I put it into the oven for an hour at 200-250F. Once it comes out the metal parts can be separated with a suitable spatula or similar:

Once the parts are off, the residual contact cement

needs to be removed. I usually soak paper towel with isopropanol or goo gone and wrap the metal parts in it:

I put aluminum foil around it to prevent evaporation:

After 24 hrs the glue can be rubbed off with the drenched paper towels:

This shows one of the cleaned metal fixtures:

I use ultra thin 3M 300LSE adhesive tape for the installation. This makes the process much cleaner than with contact cement. The tape can be cut out with a razor blade to match the frame shape:

It is important to not cover the little spring tabs that are in the back of the frame:

Otherwise they can get glued to the wood and are not able to perform their duty (holding the plinth in place once it is pushed back) anymore.

Now comes the moment where the metal parts are glued to the wood. This is probably the most difficult task since one only has one try and the parts need to be placed precisely at the right level on the frame. This is greatly simplified by using the aluminum panels of the Beogram. They have the right thickness and can be used to align the metal parts with the frame.

It can be challenging to get the metal parts all the way into the corners since there is adhesive on both sides. I usually deal this issue by using some parchment or wax paper to prevent one side from sticking, while I push in the part all the way into the corner:

This shows one side glued while the other still has the paper in:

Sometimes the metal parts are not entirely conform with the frame in the corners. Many Beograms actually came with this issue 'factory installed'...;-). I sometimes use tongue-and-groove pliers to help seating the metal parts in the corners. Be careful not to damage the frame if you do this at home: 

This shows the new frame with installed metal parts:

And here a couple happy shots of the Beogram 4000 with the new frame installed. Beolovely!!:

Beogram 4000: Installation of a Brand New Beautiful Solid Oak Plinth! - Very Beolovely!!

Another Happy Day in the Beolover's life! Recently I received a shipment with two new Beogram plinths from Matt Spangler in Oregon, who is the owner of Vintage HiFi Nut. He specializes among other things in restoring/replacing wood cabinets of vintage HiFi. 

A while ago I sent him each a Beogram 4000 and a Beogram 4002 plinth. Both had been mashed up during shipping due to poor packaging. Unfortunately, this is a common issue since many people underestimate the raw forces in play during the handling of packages in sorting centers and on trucks etc...

Anyway, I received these two plinths back a few days ago. Today I had a look:

The top one is the 4002 type and the bottom one the 4000 type. Wile they look very similar, the metal frames are different in 4000s and 4002/4s due to the different size of the keypad clusters and aluminum plates. Here is a detail shot of the very well defined corners:

The top frame was made from solid Granadillo (aka 'Mexican Rosewood'), while the bottom frame was made from solid Oak. The original hardwoods that B&O used, Brazilian Rosewood and Teak are protected species these days due to over-harvesting, and so one has to use alternative hardwood types if hardwood looks are desired.

B&O did use oak in 'the day' on a smaller number of Beograms, i.e. an oak replacement can be considered 'original'. Personally, I think with wood cabinets one can have a bit of an open mind, and whatever looks great on these iconic vintage designs is great!

This is the sad look of the Beogram 4000 that I received recently:

I bought this Beogram 4000 from a seller in Germany. Unfortunately, despite pointing him to my packaging video, he did not believe in double-boxing and foam padding, and so the unit got mashed up a bit on one corner. The padding he used was less than an inch and so this was almost predictable.

While the right side only came unglued, the left was damaged beyond repair:

So when I received Matt's new frames, I decided to try out the solid oak 4000 frame on this unit. I removed the aluminum panels, platter and keypad to be able to remove the damaged plinth:

Then I installed the solid oak one that carries the 4000 metal frame. Here are a few impressions of the awesome look of this new plinth:

I absolutely love this fresh and happy oak look! A perfect complement to the bright aluminum plates. In my opinion it looks better than the original teak frame (oh, what heresy!!...;-). Matt really did a wonderful job with this cabinet! I cannot wait to install the Granadillo frame on a needy 4002.

This Beogram 4000 is on its way to a like-new look and performance! I will fully restore it and then it will be available to another B&O enthusiast! Stay tuned!

Beogram 4002 (Type 5513): Restored Keypad and Plinth, a New Hood and Installation of the Beolover Commander Remote Control

A few weeks ago I completed the functional restoration of a Beogram 4002 (Type 5513). This post reports the work that was done. This is how the unit looked like at that point:

While performing like new again, there were two main cosmetic issues: The plinth had a strangely bleached area upfront. Also the keypad had the usual damage from touching the coating with bare fingers. The acids and fats from the skin seem to have adverse effects on the coating material:

My customer decided to let me replace this keypad with a refurbished one. Unfortunately, the plastic inserts that clamp the RPM panel down had cracks. This is a relatively common issue, causing the RPM panel to pop out occasionally. The cracked parts are shown on the right:

On the left are replacement parts that have become recently available at the beoparts-shop. They are exact reproductions of the original shape. All one needs to do is to remove the springs from the original parts and clip them into the replacements. This is shown here:

This shows the new parts installed on the left

and right side of the keypad frame:

This shows the restored keypad and the Beolover Commander Remote Module installed.

This shows the cosmetically restored Beogram. The plinth is the original plinth. The bleached area has completely vanished! Very awesome. This work was done by Vintage Hifi Nut. I am really impressed by his work. This plinth looks like new, like it never happened!

Upfront you can see the Apple Remote that can now control this deck via the small IR receiver that pokes out below the plinth. You can see it in the photo to the left of the remote if you look carefully.

I decided to celebrate this successful cosmetic restoration by playing a recently acquired CTI record from 1974, "Freddie Hubbard / Stanley Turrentine With Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, Eric Gale – In Concert Volume One" (CTI 6044). Of course, this record was thoroughly cleaned on a CleanerVinyl ProXL System combined with a UC-3360 multi-frequency ultrasonic cleaner before listening. This restored the sound of this record to its original glory.

The final step of this project was to install the new hood. It also came from the Beoparts-shop in Denmark! These hoods are manufactured via injection moulding, exactly like the original hoods. This means there are no seams like you find them on previously available hoods made by fusing laser cut panels together. These hoods look exactly like the original ones.

This shows the new hood together with a new aluminum trim:

I used my recently developed alignment jigs to get the strip precisely centered. I usually align the strip, then make a small pencil mark across strip and blue tape that I put on to protect the pristine plexiglass while working on it:

The pencil mark allows an easy alignment once the glue has been applied and things need to proceed quickly.

The next step was to remove the hinge from the original scratched hood. In order to get to the screws one needs to lift the sides of the aluminum trim. I usually do that with a razor blade that I carefully insert between trim and hood:

This shows the removed hinge:

Then I bolted the hinge into the new hood and applied the aluminum strip:

Beautiful! This Beogram is ready for duty again and will soon be reunited with its owner!

Beogram 4002 (5523): A New Arrival from Colorado - First Impressions

I recently received a Beogram 4002 (Type 5523) from Colorado for restoration. It arrived well-packaged in a Beolover issued double-box. This is how the deck looked like when I put it on my bench:

The hood is pretty scratched up, but it seems the hinges are still o.k, and most of the scratches are on the outside. This means it could be polished back to a decent state. I removed the hood and found nice aluminum surfaces and a keypad that only shows light use-traces (the coating of the touch areas is slightly shinier than the rest).

The plinth corners are near-pristine:

The next step was removing the aluminum plates. When I pulled the plinth forward for their release, it turned out that the metal frames that are glued to the plinth are coming loose (a frequent issue due to decaying contact cement):

I also found a single spring, which is from one of the hood-mounting bolts (these springs keep the bolts propped up for easy mounting of the hood):

After removal of the hinge bar in the back of the deck it turned out that the second spring seems missing. Luckily, there are suitable replacements available.

Below deck this Beogram appears mostly original without obvious traces of previous 'human interaction'. This is the best state for a restoration, since it makes it much less likely to run into unexpected problems.

I plugged the unit in and pressed start. The carriage started moving and the platter motor spun. The carriage stopped at the LP setdown point and the solenoid actuated for arm lowering. Then I pressed Start once more and the carriage traveled to the inner turnaround point, and then returned to its home position. All good signs!

In summary, this unit is a pretty good starting point for a restoration, which will return this Beogram to a like-new functional condition.

Beogram 4002 (5513): New Arrival from Arizona - A First Look

I recently received a Beogram 4002 (Type 5513) from Arizona for a complete functional restoration. The unit arrived without its hood. It came in a Beolover shipping container. An excellent approach for trouble-free shipping. 

This is the unit as extracted from the packaging:

A bit dirty, but overall not too bad, except for the completely worn keypad:

I hope we will soon be able to professionally restore these keypads. On the positive end of things, the plinth is in a pretty good condition. The corners are almost pristine:

I removed the aluminum plates and had a look below deck:

This unit looks mostly unadulterated, a perfect starting point for restorations. There are fragments of decayed transport lock bushings all over the place, nothing unexpected in this vintage:

As usual the plastic pulley on the carriage spindle is cracked and my customer said he glued it to the shaft (shudder!...;-). It will be interesting to remove it from the shaft for installing an aluminum replacement. The belt definitely also looks 'end of life':

I was told this unit did some traveling in an RV for a few years (that is what I call 'roughing it'!...;-). Maybe this is the reason that the floating chassis springs are pretty rusty:

This is nothing really worrisome, just looks a bit, well, rusty!...;-).

After this first inspection, I plugged it in and pressed START. The carriage sluggishly started moving and the arm found the LP setdown point and - nothing! No solenoid action. I pressed STOP and waited for the return of the carriage to its home position. Then I manually operated the arm lowering mechanism a few times and tried again. This time the solenoid acted. So it seems there are just the usual hardened lubricants at play, and a thorough cleaning and re-lubricating should do the trick. The DC platter motor made some noises while the above happened. This is also not unexpected. These motors usually have dry bearings and they need to be re-infused with oil before the deck can be used again.

In summary, this is a pretty decent starting point for a full restoration, and I expect this Beogram will soon play like-new, and hopefully also look like-new after installation of a refurbished keypad!