[morzh]

Yes, I use my heat gun. Gut'em, stuff'em, pot'em.
I first grab a lead with needlenose pliers, heat it on low (or else it might burn it) 'till it melts and bubbles, pull one side, heat another side, pull it, and then push out the roll if it did not pull with the second lead.
I thought of using the colored hot glue for potting but then called the Hobby Lobby and their glue sticks are 1/4" diameter while my gun is 1/2". So I settled for my usual milky white; still looks good.

[Eliot Ness]

I have both sizes of glue guns...... I saw some of the mini glue guns for only $3 at Hobby Lobby.  That's where I found the amber colored wood glue sticks in a large size.  I found some brown mini glue sticks on Amazon, a dozen for $6.

At Hobby Lobby I also bought some beeswax and heavy brown paper to make a square cardboard capacitor that is missing in my Majestic Treasure Chest radio...... the filter caps were replaced, but they discarded the original square cardboard capacitor.... which for some reason bugs the crap out of me whenever I look at, or think of that chassis

[morzh]

It's called OCD, John

[Phlogiston]

I use any hot glue (clear) to hold the cap in place and then fill the end with the original wax - or other colored wax.

OR in some cases, I use the original wax ends. This requires a specific method of disassembly and won't work for all types of paper-cap construction, but the results look like the original.

[morzh]

yes it would be easy. Usually the wax comes out (in my cases) as a block or large chunks so it would not be difficult to fill the space with a little of the hot glue, let it dry and then put in some small chunks of the wax and melt it with a heat gun.

[morzh]

Here it is. Own native wax over plastic.

   

[morzh]

These below are the pics with and without buttons assembly with something that looks like a coax cobductor in a GNDed tube.

Had to take it off to get to some caps.

Speaking of which: some tubular caps (look different from the usual ones: not potted with wax for instance) are 20pF or 55pF ones. Are they mica or what kind could theybe?
They do seem to measure ok.


   
   
   
   

[Mondial]

The small pF value tubular caps are most likely early style ceramics. They were usually temperature compensating types such as N750, and first appeared in the early 1940's.

[morzh]

So far they are OK.
I am not replacing them.


Boy this one is a PITA, the royal kind.
Even with the assembly removed, I was only able to restuff 2 caps there today (the last ones) as the access sucks there. Spent 6 hrs.

Good news is, all caps have been restuffed and connected.


Still lots of wiring to replace, sone with difficult access.

[KCMike]

Sounds like your making progress Mike. Changing wires can be a pain at times.
Least I know what to expect now, when I start on mine.

[morzh]

Expect pain.


[Video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lSPNQ82Sq4E]

[KCMike]

  I believe you.

[KCMike]

How is it going with the Zenith "Spinet"?

[morzh]

Mike

The last weekend, though I finished the recap, I found myself out of solder and so could not continue. I still have some wiring to replace, mostly the one that goes from under the chassis to the top to the keys' assemblies and such.
So hopefully this weekend I will be able to proceed, now that I restocked my solder supply.

Plus it is going to be a warm weekend and it hopefully will be more pleasant to work in the basement.

I usually combine working on the radio with transferring my vinyl collection to the tapes of which I have just bought another 150 pieces (found a company that is selling cassettes with BASF chrome super tape in them at $0.45 each which is incredible price; you also need to buy the cases separately plus J-cards but still runs you about $1.30 apiece compared to even old store prices of $2-$3 or today's ebay prices of $4-$5 for a good grade) - I have a nice deck, Nakamichi ZX-9 so the quality of records justifies the time and money spent.
So while I am restuffing the caps, I am listening to nice classic collection

So, mixing pleasure with another pleasure.

[morzh]

Not a lot of action this fin de semana, but I finished the recap (found a cap I missed) and am done with wiring other than three shielded wires going to the keypad assembly, as I need to get some shielded wire.
Oh my.This is one tedious SOB chassis.

BTW does anyone know that the PDP-11 computer had an assembly command called SOB which stood for "Subtract One and Branch".
DEC folks had some good sense of humor.