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Northstar Horizon wood cover replica

T

Teletech

Experienced Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2022
Messages
202
I notice there are a lot of Horizons where the cover didn't survive at all or is in deplorable condition.
I've got at least a couple that need covers. If someone could provide some pictures and dimensions, I could investigate making a couple.
If there were interest, I could make some more while I was at it.
So, drawings, dimensions, and pictures would help me out.
thanks,
 
The wood case isn't anything special--just a veneered plywood "U" shaped affair. Anyone with a table saw and reasonable carpentry skills can duplicate it. It might be interesting to construct one of some solid species, say oak. Found only on early runs--since it didn't satisfy FCC Part 15 for EMI, it was dropped for a metal one.
 
I know it's nothing fancy but at the same time, but when trying to work up a replica details matter:
How thick is the cover?
How much overhang on the front?
How much on the back?
How much does it hang down?
Are there grooves to capture the front and back panel?
Are the screw holes countersunk or counterbored?
How deep and to what diameter?
Is there a metal or plastic insert in the hole?
If so, what color is it?
What direction does the grain go on the veneer?
If the grain does fall off the edges, is any effort made to match the grain?
Is it only the front that is edge-banded or did they do the sides and back as well?
Is the plywood cut on a mitre, butt joint, etc.?
How many layers in the plywood stack?

Then the finish:
Stained?
Clear finish, what is it and how thick was it applied?
 
You can see some detail Here. Looking at various photos on the web, grain patters are front-to-back in some cases or side-to-side in others. Finish seems to be tinted lacquer, but could also be clear lacquer over a light stain. In the images just cited, you can even see the edge of a "football" patch in the rear view. Joints appear to be simple 45 degree miters. The mitered joints appear to be reinforced with splines. At least in these photos, the rear view discloses that there are no grooves to engage the case sides.
 
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Chuck(G) said:
You can see some detail Here. Looking at various photos on the web, grain patters are front-to-back in some cases or side-to-side in others. Finish seems to be tinted lacquer, but could also be clear lacquer over a light stain. In the images just cited, you can even see the edge of a "football" patch in the rear view. Joints appear to be simple 45 degree miters. The mitered joints appear to be reinforced with splines. At least in these photos, the rear view discloses that there are no grooves to engage the case sides.
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Thanks, those aren't quite enough but they are a good start. I imagined they were a bit crude, but dang, those are *very* basic.
I wound up with several machines from someone who worked for N* back in the day and I'm guessing he grabbed some chassis without lids, including what appears to be an engineering prototype or something as it's metal is just slightly different.
 
Well, as has been pointed out by many others, the wood top, while interesting, fails both fire standards and Part 15 requirements. I wonder if N* just had some local cabinet shop run up a bunch of these for the base units they had in stock.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Well, as has been pointed out by many others, the wood top, while interesting, fails both fire standards and Part 15 requirements. I wonder if N* just had some local cabinet shop run up a bunch of these for the base units they had in stock.
Click to expand...
Oh, I'm sure it was some local shop or they just bought a tablesaw or had one of the guys do them at home.
I agree the metal covers are superior in every technical respect, it's just that people don't really recognize a N* without the wood cover.
 
I have a Horizon with the wood cover. It's made of stained plywood. It looks OK, probably better when new, but it's not that great quality. The unit didn't seem particularly abused, but the mitered joints were starting to split, so I decided to make a replacement using solid maple, and I created a VCarve design to make a new one on the CNC machine at the Makerspace. Yes, it's not hard to make by hand if you are handy enough to make a nice picture frame. But even so, the digital file will have all the dimensions for you, including the slots. I tested the design out on some 1/2" plywood and it works fine, but I think I can improve the design by adding a some pockets and rectangular pieces reinforce the corners and hold the parts in perfect alignment during glue-up.

I can post the VCarve file, but I don't have access to VCarve at the moment to check out the file first. I will also export to DXF, which will be more generally useful, even though not as flexible as the VCarve files.
 
If you use 1/2" plywood, go the extra mile and use the AA cabinet grade stuff. Or use a softwood plywood and veneer the face yourself. In a sense, I prefer the veneer route because applied veneer is much thicker than the face on hardwood plywood, so will take more abuse (Kitchen remodelers often use this to re-face cabinets, rather than replace them--stick some new doors and hardware on and Bob's your uncle".
I tend to shy away from solid wood for projects like this because, compared to good plywood, solid wood is less stable dimensionally.
 
Chuck(G) said:
If you use 1/2" plywood
Click to expand...

FWIW, I just put a ruler up to my NorthStar and it looks like the original top (at least for mine) is 7/16" thick. I'm going to wager it's roughly 3/8" plywood with a veneer on it but I might have to take it off to know for sure. The woodgrain on the edges perfectly matches the top and the seams are nearly perfect if it's veneer, I'll give whoever made it some credit.

EDIT: I looked at the specimen in the aforementioned link and the top on mine is completely different. Not only is the wood thinner the woodgrain is oriented differently (it's going long-ways curled around the case, not front to back) and, again, it has matching grain on the edges, no plywood layers are evident. If both of these are "original" cases they apparently contracted them out to different sources.


woodgrain2.jpg
 
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... Of course, a takeaway here is if the original cases varied this much then it's that much less critical that you get a replica "right". A Google image search seems to show a roughly equal number of instances where the top looks mostly like mine (long-way grain) vs. the other link (slightly fatter looking wood? and front-to-back grain), and the color seems to vary significantly as well. (Mine has a mostly "walnut" looking stain, but other examples have a blonde-er or redder finish.) It shouldn't be hard at all to slap together something that passes the "10-foot" test.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Looking at your photo, I see what appears to be definitely an edge-veneer separation line on the top. What does the rear of the case look like?
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Yeah, the jig is up if you look at the back, they didn't bother with the edge veneer so you can see the plywood layers.

The veneer lines *are* visible in the corners/edges on the front when you blow it up as much as that photo, but from any distance the fit is really convincing. Gold star to whoever was manning the saw that day.

Dimensionwise, if this helps at all, the lip on the front is almost exactly the thickness of the wood so it looks very "square". On the back it's deeper, about 3/4" or so, and it also feels like there isn't a notch in it, it's just press-fit against the metal. (IE, it feels like the metal back panel is slightly smaller than the front's. The machine is sort of buried under a stack of WIP stuff right now so I can't easily pop the top without a little hassle.
 
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Chuck(G) said:
Just a FYI. ½" plywood isn't a half-inch thick, but rather 15/32".
Click to expand...

I read the total thickness as 7/16", including the veneer. Here's a picture, I'm measuring from the 1/4" mark to avoid the ambiguity the kind of strange ends on this novelty folding ruler would otherwise introduce.

thicc.jpg

Edit: I suppose it's possible they sanded the beejeezus out of stock that started out 15/32"; with modern plywood I'd think you'd be in danger of getting all the way through the pretty layers...
 
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The veneer is applied after the plywood parts have been cut to size and assembled. Let's assume that the veneer is 1/16", that would make the plywood 3/8", more or less ) ±1/32".
 
Chuck(G) said:
The veneer is applied after the plywood parts have been cut to size and assembled. Let's assume that the veneer is 1/16", that would make the plywood 3/8", more or less ) ±1/32".
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was my guess. There are those versions of the case that look thicker to me in photos, those may well have 1/2" if it's not just my eyes tricking me into thinking they look fatter.
 
I don't even slightly doubt there were different batches of covers made by different people or shops. It's also not unlikely that some of the tops we see are themselves replicas after someone dragged a terminal across it where the feet had come off or any of the multitude of things that can happen to a barely finished bit of plywood.
I appreciate all the detail. I still would love to know what the sides look like so I can get the fastening right.
 
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