02-18-2018, 12:46 AM
There is one habit that a lot of hack "restorers" use that is almost a calling card, that is to cut out the old caps and "J" hook and solder the leads of the old cap onto the leads of the new cap. That is something I just can't bring myself to do, same with just tack soldering things in place unless it's a temporary thing. Another thing I see a lot lately are people adding things like automotive fuse holders, the inline type, under the chassis, those are for hooking up a 12 volt car stereo, not for 120 VAC, and certainly not for B+ voltage, not only are they not rated for this they look like crap since they are usually made out of white plastic with 12 gauge wire leads. I've even seen this done in AC/DC radios, which are series string, and often have a small chassis, why bother? Another mark of a hack repair are those automotive crimp connectors, the ones for splicing wires, along with using half a roll of electrical tape on tattered wires, why not just run a new wire? Then you have the nylon cable ties, please stop using those, even bands of tape looks better, or bands of heat shrink tubing, to hold wires in place.
Then you have the silliness over the line voltage, for some reason people think that all old radios were designed to run on 110 volts, when the truth is that the only 110 volt power grids were the DC ones, so that they need to add stuff in series with the power line. In some cases this is a good idea, to a point, such as if the radio is a gift to someone, but they should use a bucking transformer to drop it down, not big power resistors outside the chassis, and certainly not pilot light bulbs.
I got into re-stuffing caps in recent years, though I won't do it in everything. Such as if its a common post war AC/DC set, or a common pre war set where most of the caps have been changed already. But I've found it's very easy to do once I did a dry run on one set, which was a more collectable model to start with, I melt out the wax in a toaster over, wipe off the residue whilst they are still hot, and clean them up with lacquer thinner if necessary. Then I wrap the new yellow poly film cap in a strip of corrugated cardboard, sometimes I will tack the ends of the strip down with hot glue, stuff the new cap into the tube, centering it between the ends. Then I take the whole assemble, and stand it on end in a vice or whatever, and fill the end with hot glue, let it cool, then turn it over and repeat. Granted the hot glue isn't the same colour as the old wax but it does turn opaque, and the re-stuffed cap looks much nicer in a pre war radio then a bright yellow cap. I've even done this with the toilet roll style electrolytics used in AC/DC radios, it makes for a much neater install then trying to mount radial lead caps somewhere under the chassis.
Regards
Arran
Then you have the silliness over the line voltage, for some reason people think that all old radios were designed to run on 110 volts, when the truth is that the only 110 volt power grids were the DC ones, so that they need to add stuff in series with the power line. In some cases this is a good idea, to a point, such as if the radio is a gift to someone, but they should use a bucking transformer to drop it down, not big power resistors outside the chassis, and certainly not pilot light bulbs.
I got into re-stuffing caps in recent years, though I won't do it in everything. Such as if its a common post war AC/DC set, or a common pre war set where most of the caps have been changed already. But I've found it's very easy to do once I did a dry run on one set, which was a more collectable model to start with, I melt out the wax in a toaster over, wipe off the residue whilst they are still hot, and clean them up with lacquer thinner if necessary. Then I wrap the new yellow poly film cap in a strip of corrugated cardboard, sometimes I will tack the ends of the strip down with hot glue, stuff the new cap into the tube, centering it between the ends. Then I take the whole assemble, and stand it on end in a vice or whatever, and fill the end with hot glue, let it cool, then turn it over and repeat. Granted the hot glue isn't the same colour as the old wax but it does turn opaque, and the re-stuffed cap looks much nicer in a pre war radio then a bright yellow cap. I've even done this with the toilet roll style electrolytics used in AC/DC radios, it makes for a much neater install then trying to mount radial lead caps somewhere under the chassis.
Regards
Arran
