Bush VHF64

[Tedzed1]

Another busy day, and the radio is finished, the exponential cone speaker worked fine from the donor set after gluing the cone,
a couple more coats of rustins scratch remover, followed by a couple of coats of french polish.
Dial reflector resprayed and assembled, plastic trim cut back with T-cut, before treating with car wax polish, speaker cloth washed and dried then restuck to baffle, but the longest part was the brasswork, rubbing down with wet and dry pads, and finishing with fine wire wool.
New Magic Eye also fitted, (Russian manufactured), but does not show up well with flash photos.

All now reassembled and playing away as I type, must say it sounds superb,

[Mark R]

Nice one Paul, good job!

cheers Mark

[Yorkie]

A wonderful transformation Paul! It's a good example of a cabinet where - if the sanding is a bit too enthusistic - you can cut through the veneer on curve of the cabinet at the top front down to the base wood, but you've obviously guarded against that. The gold banding looks excellent. There are two places I never walk past without the opportunity to pop in - one is a toilet, the other, Poundland!

Looking forward to the next installment

[Tedzed1]

Thanks Mark & David for the comments.

At no time did an electric sander touch the cabinet, all sanded by hand, I used double sided abrasive pads and wire wool to achieve the finish of the wood, (the abrasive pads also came from Poundland David )

Next radio to go on the bench will be a Philco 100, also known as the Philco Century.

[tiv48]

a fantastic job
rob t

[Andrewausfa]

Obviously I can't tell if it sounds superb but it certainly looks superb!

Well done

Andrew

[Geaney]

Excellent job - looks terrific. One more saved for posterity - and many years of listening enjoyment!
Cheers, John

[boater sam]

I'll tack this post onto this old thread as the title is correct and it is of similar content.

Acquired a fair VHF64 last winter whilst I was away and having looked at it sitting on the to do shelf for long enough decided to make a start on it last week.

Both brights were missing off he knobs but I can soon knock out 2 from brass sheet and the hardwood dies that my mate Brian produces. Both scale lamps are missing.
All 3 speakers seem to be in good order, cabinet is very good, no worm. The rubber wiring is also good enough to leave intact. The 2 core mains lead will be replaced with 3 core and a proper earth made to the chassis.
All the valves look like the originals, there is no sign of any repairs having been made. The FM aerial plug on the back was squashed as is usual but it has straightened out OK. Tuning cord is fine.

So a quick check over with the ohm meter, transformers OK, no shorts, spider skeletons evicted and on to the variac for some power.
No drama, filaments all up, Hum on the finger in gram position, some good reception on L, M, and S AM bands. Check the EL84 grid, whoa, 7 volts! So its that cap out off the tag board, gut it and fit a new one into the sleeve. Refit and test, that's better, only 0.06v, good for an old EL84.
Ah, totally useless on FM, motorboats like  a good 'un as soon as the volume pot comes off the stop.
That will be capacitors I assume. Magic eye fully driven on FM so chances are that its IF instability not audio stage. Eye looks good and bright too.
So I started disconnecting the Hunts caps from the front end, ECH81. Mmm, as expected, every one of the first 5 are useless, reading just a few pf. So start replacing with new, 0.047 uf, 0.01uf 0.022uf etc. Try it on the mains after every 2 or 3 replaced, still motorboating.
Then, eureka, 1st EF89 IF transformer decoupler to chassis, it has never been soldered to the IF transformer pin! There are 3 HT wires on this pin, the cap is the lowest wire ie first one fitted when it was built and the solder has just not made it down far enough.
Power up and all is now quiet on FM even with full volume. No popping but I can hear the electrons hissing through the valves, no reception even with an aerial fitted.
Check valve voltages and find that the ECC85 in the FM head is drawing next to no current on either triode. A substitute produces a good clean reception across the FM band. Success!
So it will be complete the  re-capping and clean and polish to finish, another lovely Bush preserved.
I do like these sets, not difficult to work on, well engineered, but what a shame about Bush using the Hunts. Cost engineering I assume.

[AlanBeckett]

but what a shame about Bush using the Hunts. Cost engineering I assume.

I expect it was what was readily available at the time, and no-one was thinking about what they'd be like in 60 year's time.
Still, a good result, and good news about the Magic Eye.

Alan

[boater sam]

Alan, with your long experience with vintage radios, perhaps you could work out how long these Hunts caps did last when the sets were current/younger?
Did they start to fail 5 years after manufacture? Or 10, 15, 20 years?
My experience has a large gap between the mid 60s and 2013 so I have gone from working on 30s and 40s sets with only wax and mica caps when I was young to having to replace plastic potted foil caps like Hunts in my dotage.
And Aye Eye!