01-15-2012, 01:38 PM
Hey everyone.
Just taking a break from my 90 resto. After looking it over, my guess is that this set has seen a long life! The tuning shaft and hole are both worn, the up and down play was close to 1/8th of an inch! Many of the cap blocks showed signs of melted tar leaking from them and most of the resistors are way out of tolerance. One I measured was over 40%!! Not to mention someone's half arse'd attempt at repair.
I've decided to do a major restoration on this set, which I am working at now. I've rebuilt all the cap blocks and am replacing all resistors (save the BC) with 1 watt flameproof units, which kind of bothers me. I'm a purist at heart, and I love the look of those old dogbones in there. I tried ways of bypassing them so they could be left in place but it was just too much work!!!! I've also decided to replace all the wiring with new cloth covered wire. My goal is to make this set as good as, if not better than, new.
I guess my point here is that after several days of work, I've gained a new appreciation and respect for these old sets. I've always loved antique radios, but by doing all of this,( especially the wiring) I've realized that even though these sets were mass produced they are almost completely hand built!! Nowadays, all of our electronic gadgets are produced by robots and after a couple of years are meant to be thrown out due to obsolescence or cost of repair. no sense of character or quality remains. These old radios were built by people installing wires and components one by one, and so many are still doing there jobs 80 years later and sounding so much better than their modern cousins! How much "progress" have we really made?
It was just a thought that really struck me. Well, back to work. I've still got a couple of miles of old wire to replace.
Kevin
Just taking a break from my 90 resto. After looking it over, my guess is that this set has seen a long life! The tuning shaft and hole are both worn, the up and down play was close to 1/8th of an inch! Many of the cap blocks showed signs of melted tar leaking from them and most of the resistors are way out of tolerance. One I measured was over 40%!! Not to mention someone's half arse'd attempt at repair.
I've decided to do a major restoration on this set, which I am working at now. I've rebuilt all the cap blocks and am replacing all resistors (save the BC) with 1 watt flameproof units, which kind of bothers me. I'm a purist at heart, and I love the look of those old dogbones in there. I tried ways of bypassing them so they could be left in place but it was just too much work!!!! I've also decided to replace all the wiring with new cloth covered wire. My goal is to make this set as good as, if not better than, new.
I guess my point here is that after several days of work, I've gained a new appreciation and respect for these old sets. I've always loved antique radios, but by doing all of this,( especially the wiring) I've realized that even though these sets were mass produced they are almost completely hand built!! Nowadays, all of our electronic gadgets are produced by robots and after a couple of years are meant to be thrown out due to obsolescence or cost of repair. no sense of character or quality remains. These old radios were built by people installing wires and components one by one, and so many are still doing there jobs 80 years later and sounding so much better than their modern cousins! How much "progress" have we really made?
It was just a thought that really struck me. Well, back to work. I've still got a couple of miles of old wire to replace.
Kevin