Creating a vintage style tv, help needed

[jbivy]

So I slipped and knocked a cute little early 80s quasar 7 inch color tv to the ground. It still works but the case is cracked. As im bored and ive an old radio cabinet that id bought for a buck. Ive cut the face out to match the screen and am making a round (flat on top and bottom) trim piece to cover the front. I still need to make some kind of gasket for it to mate up with the wood.

As for the rest.. well its digital so, im trying to figure out how to modify the buttons to work on a switch for the volume and on/off. Any ideas how to? Ive a piece of bakelite im going to use on the left side of the screen and add switches to it. Going for that "experiementaL" tv look.

I realize it would be far easier to do this on a set with knobs but.. im trying to rescue this bpc set.

That and im debating using a one tube amp i have and hooking this up, so i could power a set of speakers ive got. I know thats pretty simple, and it would be neat to incorporate some tube technology in it. The speaker it came with is really tiny, literally a 1 1/2" round one.

[ChrisW6ATV]

The first ideas I have are regarding making a rotary volume control with on-off switch work with a device that has volume up/down and power buttons. Basically, you get a rotary encoder and rig its shaft to the shaft of the volume pot. It would take some tinkering to make it work. For the power switch, some type of SCR-trigger pair of devices or similar might be able to work the button. Or, find out if shorting the power button will make the TV go on as soon as it is plugged in, and if so, just wire the pot's switch to the TV's cord.

[jbivy]

Thanks for the rotary encoder tip. Im checking them out now.