Thought it would be useful to have a standing thread on what folks are working on at the moment. Photos welcome.

==========================================

I have recently finished repairing the electronics and restoring the case of my Kriesler Duplex model 11-41 (1953/4).

I had to replace the power supply electros and the 6M5 output valve, fix a small tear in the speaker cone, and replace the rubber dial light holder which had gone as hard as rock. The dial light on this model travels across the top of the chassis highlighting the station with a vertical band of light, so rebuilding a holder was quite necessary.

The plastic case was dull on the ends and the transparent dial plastic was quite cloudy on both sides. I took to the plastic with wet and dry in soapy water and finished it off with Autosol metal polish. Result was very good. I was delighted that I could get the dial plastic clear again.

All I need now are the correct knobs, which I gather had a habit of breaking.

---------

On the bench at the moment is my favourite of all the Airzone 5A1A2 (1954/55) as depicted in my avatar. It was working fine, then suddenly lost volume. Using the finger test on the the gram/pickup input at the rear and switching to gram shows that the issue appears to be in the audio stage.

Upon removing the base I found a blob of wax on the inside just below the only paper cap that hadn't been previously replaced. Said cap has a choke wound around it, which probably explains why it didn't get replaced. The cap and coil form what appears to be an IF/RF trap across the B+, so it isn't the cause of the audio problem.

Anyway, I managed to carefully gut out the old cap and slip a new one into its shell without disturbing the choke.

Put the first AF and Output tubes into the valve tester and they are pretty ordinary, but not fails.

Out with the VTVM to quickly measure the usual suspects. All is spot on more or less except for the output tube. The 6V6 plate is reading high, and the grid a tad low. Guess I'm going to have to start lifting ends. I'm hoping it's not the output transformer.

The rubber insulated hookup wiring is in generally poor shape. Oddly enough, all of the yellow wires are beading, all of the brown wires are splitting along their length, and the black ones are so so. I intend to replace the worst of them before putting the set back together. May not be strictly necessary, but for peace of mind I may as well attend to this while it's on the bench.

I am doing some work on this website at the moment although I am halfway through restoration of two AWA Radiolettes. One is a timber R27 and the other a black bakelite R29. The R27 has been in pieces for a long time due to the fact that I never seem to get time to make a new speaker grille for it. The original one is made of plywood with a veneer thick enough to allow the 2mm high flutes it comes with and this is going to be very difficult to reproduce.

At work we have a laser cutter and even with access to that it'll be hard going. I don't suppose that anyone has the thicknesser/finisher that AWA used in 1934?

The R29 is also hard yakka. Someone painted it to cover up some cracks and over the years it's received more than a dozen coats of full gloss enamel. I've been using paint stripper on it though even when it is done the cracks will have to be filled correctly.

R29's have a dull finish which can be seen here but a shine can be extracted with a light rub with Tonezone (a Mr Sheen-like spray).

Back in fffff ...cccccold Melbourne after a few weeks in sunny Queensland ......trying to get my '67 MGB back on the road .....then maybe finish the IF & RF alignments of a Quad AM tuner ......then to have yet another crack at my old Ferris car radio (transistorized).

I did some more work on this New Zealand Philco

Did a full recap, wax paper caps and the filter electroytic. Old caps were "Ducon" and one "TOC" brands. Radio works better, but still not as good as a typical AA5. The alignment was a little off, and a bit touchy (IF tended to go superregenerative). It uses a kind of vacuum tube I've never seen before, 8 pins, about the size of a 9 pin miniature tube, and they have a little bump on the side to act as a key to engage a slot on the tube socket side wall can. ECH42, EAF42, EL41 and EZ40
like my Aussie radios it's being powered by this outlet/power point. 240VAC60Hz which it seems quite happy with.

G'day WA2ISE,

I had to shrink your photo a bit so the site's frame doesn't expand. If you want me to host the file here and link to a larger one let me know - it's easy to do.

Just started on a GE 11" Compactron valve set. Service access is never good with the Australianised version of these, but they make a nice change from the usual predictable locally designed sets - and they aren't full of paper condensers!

Wa2ise, those 8 pin valves that have you curious are 'Rimlock' types. Standard types in Europe and very common.
Numbering system follows the standard European pattern, with the'4' meaning 8 pin Rimlock base.
As NZ had much closer British ties than Australia, Rimlock types are often seen in their radios.
Australian design did not use them; we went down the Philips "Innoval" 9 pin path (introduced in 1948) and the well known American 7 and 9 pin types for our miniatures. Interestingly, many European valves were given RMA type numbers in this country, and some of those type numbers are unknown (or are used for totally different valves) outside Australia. Eg. 6M5 (EL80), 6CM5 (EL36), 6N3 (EY82), etc.

I think I've found the Airzone's problem. I blasted the radio/gram switch with CRC CO contact cleaner and the signal came back. I had suspected that switch initially, but twisting it back and forth didn't make any difference to the problem so I went looking elsewhere. Bah! In future, I'll do a contact clean as a matter of course.

Okay, after a bit of rewiring to eliminate some nasty perished rubber stuff, onto the 30 tube 1959 Hammond organ resto ...

A friend once asked me to look at her hammond organ. So did some googling to learn about it. Then her family had to move suddenly with a change of job, so the job fell through.
However the links remain. Hope they are of some use.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/hammond.html
http://www.sympac.com.au/%7Eretrojet/hammonds.htm
http://theatreorgans.com/hammond/faq/files/faq.txt
http://www.tompetro.com/HAMMOND/SERVICE/

^ Thanks for those Hammond and Leslie links.

I have a copy of the original service manual and I'm in contact with a guy in Illinois who bought all of Hammond's spares when they sold out to Suzuki in the mid 80s.

Unlike the B3 and its cousins, which use tonewheel generators for that characteristic Hammond sound, the little S-6 is fully electronic.

The major task ahead of me is a potentially large re-capping exercise followed by a re-tune. Apart from that and some rewiring, the cabinet needs some restorative attention. I'm also considering installing a 240v/50Hz transformer so that I can get rid of the big step down unit.

There are some 200 caps and 300 resistors. The valve line up is:

5U4 x 1
6BA6 x 2
6BJ7 x 1
6C4 x 1
6V6 x 2
12AU7 x 18
12AX7 x 2
12BH7 x 3

I'm hoping that the plastic film caps in the oscillator sections are still largely within spec as they were matched with their associated coils at the factory.

Hi, total newbie here with no idea.

Just got my hands on a Philips Glidomatic RF 8, beautiful old machine but it has some issues.

When I plugged it in it started to smoke from a small part on the circuit board labeled R33.

After scraping some of the corrosion off it stopped smoking but then I noticed the power supply got very hot and was making a crackling noise like it could burst into flames at any second!

One valve labeled 6v4 was the only one glowing.

The turntable spins and some of the lights work but it makes no sound at all other than the power supply crackle.

I have the original circuit diagram but it is in poor condition and I wouldn't know what I am looking for anyway.

Does anybody know where I can get a replacement power supply and valves if it needs them and some pointers for a total dummy?

One word of caution here - keep that one away from a powerpoint until it's received a full overhaul.

There are a couple of reasons why the transformer will be getting hot:-

1. The transformer has a short circuit in one of its windings.
2. There is a short circuit (or big overload) in the radio's circuitry.

You won't know which until the receiver has been thoroughly tested. If the transformer is not faulty it may have survived the overloads placed on it but applying power again before an overhaul may well subject it to certain destruction. Very few old radios were fused and relied pretty much on good workmanship to remain safe for use.

There will be between 700 and 1,000 volts under the chassis - unless you have some training or experience I would recommend that you get someone with some experience to look at it for you. This is definitely not a simple valve replacement job.

Don't worry I won't be sticking the fork in this toaster.

The transformer is in bad shape and I want to replace it no matter what.

I was hoping it would be an easy fix, it looks very basic inside.

If it's the same model as the one in this video (complete with the usual collection of inarticulate YouTube comments), it's indeed a good looking unit and worthy of restoration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVl1fK98IjM.

Looking at the schematic, R33 appears to be a 200 ohm trim pot across the filament on valve #3 (12AX7). If there's a problem in that region then I'm guessing the transformer is experiencing a short or very low resistance on its filament winding.

The transformer has been stressed, possibly past its breaking point and replacing it would be a good idea. Googling around on that model I note that it comes up for sale or spares a few times, so you may be able to find a "junker" for salvage.

The capacitors, especially electrolytics, in old gear are usually past their prime and can also be the source of shorts.

I'll email you the schematic.

There is a Phillips Glidomatic at the Salvation Army Store in Gladesville [Ryde]. It looks to be in beautiful pristine condition, I couldn't test it as it was in the window display with records all over it,
but the lady said "make me an offer!" so it can probably be had cheaply if anybody wants it. I am just in too much of a cramped space, and I wouldn't be able to take care of it.

Beautiful thing though.