Finished Arvin 444... - Printable Version

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Finished Arvin 444... - camateg - 04-01-2011

I recently acquired an Arvin 444 for < $30. It is a 4(!) tube superhet with a single oscillator can, which I thought was pretty neat, to cram everything in there. It was originally white, but I believe they made them in red as well. I am not much of a "purist" in any situation, so I chose Rustoleum "cherry" for the final 2 coats.

I recapped it and did a a good cleaning and alignment. I also added an antenna, which I believe is a requirement, as it doesn't have any kind of coil or loopstick. There is a sort of inductor at the base of the antenna to "load" it I believe.

To clean it, I used a non-metallic (but still quite abrasive) drill attachment for light sanding on cars. It was very rusty, but this made quick work of it. I used this method on the chassis and the case.

Mistakes I must learn from? I would sandblast the case in future metal radios. I could not get all the paint out of the cooling fins on the front and you can tell. :-( Still, this is my first time painting anything except perhaps a model car in my youth, so I am pretty happy! Also, I need to be more careful about dust and temp control on painting. The other mistake I made several time was ripping the speaker cone. On such a small chassis, that is not much space to grab and I have bigger hands. Fortunately, I was able to patch it sufficiently.

The hardest part, electromechanically, was adjusting the ganged capacitor adjustment screw. I could not get all of the dirt out of it for the life of me and had to settle for "good enough." Once it is set, it is good, but getting to that point requires a steady hand!

I am impressed at how loud this little thing is!

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Re: Finished Arvin 444... - camateg - 04-01-2011

Here is a pictorial "history" of the project, if you'd like to see that it's actually better than when I got it! :-)

http://camateg.posterous.com/tag/arvin444

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