06-05-2019, 06:52 PM
The consensus on 3 forums is that I should restore this basket case set, Pye 19A are not too common it seems.
Biting the bullet today, strip out the cabinet and clean it out. The speaker was half full of fluff, cleaned and resprayed black. Straighten and respray the grill in gold. The glass will have to be left as is, if I remove the gooey rubber strip from the back it will take the screen printing with it.
Woodwork is sound but stained on top, may need to be refinished in colour as a last resort, it will be different anyway. Will have to make a back and find the 2 larger outer knobs. One felt foot is missing
So to the chassis. A rewind on the original output transformer later, remove the second imposter. Removed all the valves and dusted it, reveals a clean blue painted chassis with no damage, its the best part in the set! Turning it over I hear the dreaded click of loose IF cores. Time to find out how hard it is going to be to fix them, this could right the set off.
The second IF has been unsoldered at some time and the Phantom Twiddler has been here before me. They come out and apart easily, the construction is 2 paxolin discs, thin paxolin tube former and 4 through stiff wires, quite fragile.
This afternoon's angst is to see if I can fix them. The brass threaded adjusters are in brass knurled bushes pressed into the former tube, a wire spring retains and locks the adjuster.They will not pull out without being loosened a bit first, tried heat, squeezing etc. no go. As a last resort I cut down through the tube where the bushes are with a sharp knife letting the tube open slightly, they come out with a good tug. I find 3 of the 4 of the slugs are loose, having broken off the brass adjusters.
Stuck them back on with superglue ensuring they were as concentric as I could manage. Followed up with a fillet of epoxy. Found some peeling inside the former tubes, this is probably what caused them to break off. Reassembled, tested and refitted onto the chassis.
That took a full afternoon. Glad I don't do it for reward! Committed now, will have to finish it.
Biting the bullet today, strip out the cabinet and clean it out. The speaker was half full of fluff, cleaned and resprayed black. Straighten and respray the grill in gold. The glass will have to be left as is, if I remove the gooey rubber strip from the back it will take the screen printing with it.
Woodwork is sound but stained on top, may need to be refinished in colour as a last resort, it will be different anyway. Will have to make a back and find the 2 larger outer knobs. One felt foot is missing
So to the chassis. A rewind on the original output transformer later, remove the second imposter. Removed all the valves and dusted it, reveals a clean blue painted chassis with no damage, its the best part in the set! Turning it over I hear the dreaded click of loose IF cores. Time to find out how hard it is going to be to fix them, this could right the set off.
The second IF has been unsoldered at some time and the Phantom Twiddler has been here before me. They come out and apart easily, the construction is 2 paxolin discs, thin paxolin tube former and 4 through stiff wires, quite fragile.
This afternoon's angst is to see if I can fix them. The brass threaded adjusters are in brass knurled bushes pressed into the former tube, a wire spring retains and locks the adjuster.They will not pull out without being loosened a bit first, tried heat, squeezing etc. no go. As a last resort I cut down through the tube where the bushes are with a sharp knife letting the tube open slightly, they come out with a good tug. I find 3 of the 4 of the slugs are loose, having broken off the brass adjusters.
Stuck them back on with superglue ensuring they were as concentric as I could manage. Followed up with a fillet of epoxy. Found some peeling inside the former tubes, this is probably what caused them to break off. Reassembled, tested and refitted onto the chassis.
That took a full afternoon. Glad I don't do it for reward! Committed now, will have to finish it.
Boater Sam.
