Knobs for 1947 Admiral 30A12 Television

thingiverse

I am restoring a 1947 Admiral television, but the knobs were missing when I got it. So, I started working on 3D printing replacement knobs. When I was about half way done, I managed to source some original knobs, but I wanted to finish the 3D project anyway. I have posted plenty of photos, including comparisons with the genuine ones. But the photos don't do the 3D prints justice. In normal light, they actually look quite good. I will probably use the genuine ones, except perhaps for the channel knob, because the "genuine" one is actually from a slightly different model with a darker color. For all of the inner knobs, I used metal D-shaft inserts that can be purchased online. For the outer channel knob, I included a slanted flat printed feature as a spring-lever to give the proper tension (so it doesn't just fall off of the shaft). I speculate that perhaps if someone really wanted to push this to the limit, they could print these, coat them with a smoothing material, and then use them to make molds for resin molding. That would really come close to the original in appearance! Or, of course, if you have genuine knobs like I do, then you could just use them to make the molds.