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September/October 2020 35TV MINIBAR
The Builder: Dean WilburAs an auto mechanic in Milwaukee,
Wilbur spends his days fixing other
people’s prized rides. By night,
however, the lifelong DIYer gets
his hands dirty with his own proj-
ects, from building furniture out
of odds and ends, to restoring a
’71 Camaro.
For Pop Mech’s Reader Chal-
lenge, Wilbur retrieved a find that
he’d been sitting on for some time:
a Capehart television console
from 1951 that his wife scored
from eBay in hopes of convert-
ing it into a cabinet. “Timing was
everything,” says Wilbur. “This
project has been on my mind for
a while, but the deadline of the
challenge definitely helped wrap
this thing up, and the theme
was perfect to describe what we
were doing.”
First, Wilbur stripped the set,
which proved to be the trickiest
part. “It was so well-built, with a lot
of glue, nails, and screws that were
pretty well-hidden,” he says. “It was
fascinating to see the level of detail
and quality that went into manufac-
turing back in 1951.”
Once he cleared that hurdle,
Wilbur grabbed a piano hinge and
magnet latch to rebuild the front
of the TV set so it could swing
open to reveal the inside stor-
age space. After building a lamp
from the TV tubes to illuminate
the shelving, Wilbur recruited his
son, Dylan, for the last major step:
designing and printing a vintage
test pattern—please stand by—to
adorn the cabinet.
Now, Dylan proudly displays the
finished product in his apartment,
with a toast to his dad’s ingenuity.
“This was a team project—I relied
on the creativity of my wife and
son to make this happen,”
Wilbur says.