NVCF 2016

[Old Sparky]

One thing surprised me in a way is the number of stalls devoted entirely or mainly to selling records, mainly LPs, but a large no. of 78s. The latter I can perhaps understand, and of course many people restore record players, etc., so the two things are connected.

[Radio Fixer]

Yes! for me it was a great day out as well.  Got up early and the M40 was a joy, little traffic, lovely scenery and sunshine.  Good homeward as well,  more traffic of course but not a single holdup.  Become a real fan of cruise control and fluent at using it.  Helps particularly on a long stretch of "Average 50 mph" near home.

Managed to collect all my pre-arranged radios early which helped getting away as I couldn't stay long.  Even did a part swap for a Zenith 7-A-23A  which cleared one at the same time.  I have always wanted a large black dial Zenith although it needs a lot of work but that's OK.  The cabinet needs a new piece of veneer on the small side of the stepped top.

Also thinking for a change as I have too much on of getting it Pro restored ?  Does anyone know someone who is really good; I would hate to pay a lot of money and be disappointed.

Bought nothing from the stalls other than a reel of solder.

Great seeing old friends and having a chat.

Is that silk covered wire £1.25 a metre David?  Wonder how easy it is to strip?  Does the silk run back and fray out and then its melty PVC.  Be hard to persuade me away from the silicon rubber.

Gary

[ppppenguin]

Gary, you were lucky with the M40. I left rather later than you and it went all horrible between J5 and J4 (Wycombe). Usual symptoms of getting near capacity, traffic slows to a standstill for no apparent reason, then speeds up again. Rinse, repeat. The loss of a lane (as an exit lane) as you approach J4 doesn't help but that didn't seem to be the real problem.

I suspect that my main alternative, the M1, would have been rather worse than the M40 as there are major roadworks near Luton.

[Yorkie]

Is that silk covered wire £1.25 a metre David?  Wonder how easy it is to strip?  Does the silk run back and fray out and then its melty PVC.  Be hard to persuade me away from the silicon rubber.

Gary

Yes, £1.25/Metre (No VAT to add). It comes in 17 colour options and I was able to get all seven colours that I need for the wiring loom on the Ekco A77 that I'm restoring (at a snail's pace!). You'll know that the loom connects the PSU/Speaker etc to the Receiver chassis, which sits above it. It looks very similar to the Ekco original wire, which has of course faded down the years. I'd had to devise a colour scheme to use Phil Marrison's excellent vintage coloured silicone rubber wire which isn't available with tracers as shown below, but I've now ordered a metre of each of the colours that I need from Mullard Magic. If it does indeed fray at the ends, I've got some silicon sleeving that I can fit over the ends, so I'll see how it is when it arrives. (I do now want to press of with the A77 - I'd had it for 35 years before I set about it!).

[Brianc]

If you put a drop of very thin superglue on the silk where you're going to cut it, it spreads bit and it's possible to strip it without fraying. The other way is to strip it and immediately superglue it. It doesn't look as clumsy as a Hellerman sleeve.

[Joe]

That's what I do, Brian, when I'm making my own plaited telephone handset cords. I use silicon insulated extra-flex and then feed that through paracord from which the nylon inner strands have been pulled.

— Joe

[Radio Fixer]

Forgot to say thanks to the BVWS team for a wonderful display of radios. The Voight speaker always impresses me on the output and bass with about a watt or 2 from the amp. The Rodgers Majestic is an all time favourite and it was a pleasure to see it again.

Gary

[Yorkie]

Thanks for the tips about overcoming fraying of the braiding guys. (I've also seen the ends of braid 'lashed' with button cord to prevent fraying).

Incidentally, the braided wire isn't current production - it's 1955 vintage, made by a firm called 'Concordia' in Long Eaton, to the west of Nottingham. To quote Mullard Magic's site:

"This exquisite wire dovetail's quite nicely with our Telcothene sleeving beautifully and by using it, you can get a real vintage look in any restoration or new build project.  
Hardly surprising really as this wire was spooled in 1955 by the Concordia Electric Wire & Cable Company Ltd of Nottingham".

Quote:

In 1938. the first cable insulated by Telcothene was manufactured by ‘The Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company.’ Telcothene is their company name for polythene as discovered by ICI in 1933 - real cutting edge stuff.  This sleeving material has an internal bore to suit most passive componentry and has a pleasing woven finish similar to Oilsocket and Systoflex. This material comes from a supply laid down in the early 1940s and liberated from a store in Wiltshire where it was used by EKCO for radio and radar equipment manufacture. Telcothene was used by many manufacturers including EKCO Ltd, the Admiralty and the Air Ministry.

Unquote.

As can be seen from the picture on the website' the sleeving has an Ekco label on the reel, and like the braided wire, when it's gone, it's gone.

http://www.mullardmagic.co.uk/telcothene...-oilsocket

[pamphonica]

Just a quick thank you from me to three forum members (from here and on other forums) - Graeme, Edward and Chris.
All these fine folk came and helped out on the B&B at various times at NVCF, which was most kind, as they were reducing their bargain-hunting time!
I had a lovely day out as usual. Very hectic, but worthwhile.
All the best from all the B&B team.

[Radio Fixer]

With you now David: you are not going to use the silk stuff for a complete re-wire just for the harness. Not too bad that, I to use superglue on the ends of fibre glass sleeving, works OK.

For my Ekco harness I used the cloth covered cable from AES, excellent stuff, no burn back from the insulation, not easy to strip but just for a between chassis harness its fine.

Have fun

Gary