11-04-2013, 07:21 AM
(10-04-2013, 09:34 PM)pwdrive Wrote: Have a go... If I was having a go and assuming the whole thing can't be dismantled I would try to "fuse" some copper wire between the ends or just on top of the ends, don't know if copper will fuse to the resistance wire? If not try fuse wire? It's a try it and see job. If bridging then you need a good contact anyway.
Lawrence.
Lawrence, don't forget (perhaps not obvious as I photographed the pot with the wiper round the other side out of the way) that the wiper has to travel over the 'short ends' which remain on the top edge of the former the track is wound on, so there can't be a step there. The adjacent undamaged turns are accessible for only about a sixteenth of an inch down the back, but are accessible on the outer face. I need to both restore continuity of the track, and stabilise the 'short ends' so the wiper can run over them without dragging them aside.
Looking on ebay for 'conductive paint' I see that there some which look more like 'conductive epoxy' - I wonder whether this might be mechanically stronger than paint.
The problem is that any repair is in all honesty going to be a bodge, but this pot is such a custom-made item that finding another is most unlikely. They no doubt all ended up in landfill after people bought these units from the surplus shops to recover the more useful switches, bulbholders, relays etc! So there will inevitably be a discontinuity in the behaviour of the pot after repair.
There's no rush for a hasty repair, this will be part of a long-term job, so keep thinking, please!
Andy
