21-04-2012, 09:02 PM
Hi,
Thanks Mark. I met Henry only a couple of years before he sadly passed away but we became good chums and Bron would accompany me over to Leeds to visit him. Henry was an expert on valve testers and this is how I met him. I was warned that Henry had no time for fools but we hit it off right from the start. Henry had been a bachelor all his life and died a sad lonely death being found in his flat a week after he died of an heart attack. A great chum and sadly missed.
Good luck with your Maestro John and I hope the notes will be of some help; please post the work in progress as these are lovely sets and there must be others with a Maestro to restore. I found this picture showing my home made bar clamp in action securing the corner joints after glueing; gently does it with the power of this clamp or it will crush the cabinet.
Corner joints re-glued.
Many thanks Paul and believe me I'm no expert on radio repairs in fact I struggle a great deal and still need to spend time using both my signal generators and both scopes. I've repaired in excess of 100 radios but still feel very much a novice so you are not alone; what I don't know is made up by determination and patience and I'll stick with a chassis until I finally get it working. I'm pleased to include a picture of both my scopes powered up with the sig gens coupled just to experiment with.
Scopes with sig gens connected.
One thing I would suggest Paul for when you do completely strip a chassis try to remove the items as units rather than individual components; drill out the eylets or rivets and drop out the tuning coils and valve holders where possible with the leads still attached; this saves a tremendous amount of time and work later; I also devised my own method of re-installing the eyelets using two silver steel rods aligned in my big drill press; this gave the depth to secure the eyelets over the tuning coils; it actually worked very well. The picture of the chassis is of a Philco 84B and shows the tuning coils etc after being pulled through the chassis from below after drilling out the eyelets and the method of re-installing new eyelets.
Philco chassis and eyelet punches set up in drill press.
Thank you Alan & Steve for the good wishes which I've passed on to Bron. You are both most welcome to drop in to see us if ever you are nearby again; I hope the Mullard radio is still pleasing you; it will make a wonderful restoration project.
Thanks ever so much Tony for your kind sentiments. Coming from such a well known expert on the subject as you I feel truly humbled and hope I'm deserving as really I know very little about the magic of radio although I am making decent progress with the cabinets; Woody's that is. The hardest part of any restoration or project is making a start; once I make a start then my enthusiasm kicks in and the more difficult the restoration the better; I love a basket case to play with knowing whatever I do to it I'm not going to make it much worse so I can relax and enjoy myself.
Kind regards, Col.
Thanks Mark. I met Henry only a couple of years before he sadly passed away but we became good chums and Bron would accompany me over to Leeds to visit him. Henry was an expert on valve testers and this is how I met him. I was warned that Henry had no time for fools but we hit it off right from the start. Henry had been a bachelor all his life and died a sad lonely death being found in his flat a week after he died of an heart attack. A great chum and sadly missed.
Good luck with your Maestro John and I hope the notes will be of some help; please post the work in progress as these are lovely sets and there must be others with a Maestro to restore. I found this picture showing my home made bar clamp in action securing the corner joints after glueing; gently does it with the power of this clamp or it will crush the cabinet.
Corner joints re-glued.
Many thanks Paul and believe me I'm no expert on radio repairs in fact I struggle a great deal and still need to spend time using both my signal generators and both scopes. I've repaired in excess of 100 radios but still feel very much a novice so you are not alone; what I don't know is made up by determination and patience and I'll stick with a chassis until I finally get it working. I'm pleased to include a picture of both my scopes powered up with the sig gens coupled just to experiment with.
Scopes with sig gens connected.
One thing I would suggest Paul for when you do completely strip a chassis try to remove the items as units rather than individual components; drill out the eylets or rivets and drop out the tuning coils and valve holders where possible with the leads still attached; this saves a tremendous amount of time and work later; I also devised my own method of re-installing the eyelets using two silver steel rods aligned in my big drill press; this gave the depth to secure the eyelets over the tuning coils; it actually worked very well. The picture of the chassis is of a Philco 84B and shows the tuning coils etc after being pulled through the chassis from below after drilling out the eyelets and the method of re-installing new eyelets.
Philco chassis and eyelet punches set up in drill press.
Thank you Alan & Steve for the good wishes which I've passed on to Bron. You are both most welcome to drop in to see us if ever you are nearby again; I hope the Mullard radio is still pleasing you; it will make a wonderful restoration project.
Thanks ever so much Tony for your kind sentiments. Coming from such a well known expert on the subject as you I feel truly humbled and hope I'm deserving as really I know very little about the magic of radio although I am making decent progress with the cabinets; Woody's that is. The hardest part of any restoration or project is making a start; once I make a start then my enthusiasm kicks in and the more difficult the restoration the better; I love a basket case to play with knowing whatever I do to it I'm not going to make it much worse so I can relax and enjoy myself.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
