Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

The Leads is all jigged up now and ready to see if 50+ year old Letterset will still work on a soft squishy substrate.

David

[David Dunlop]

When I found the sheet of Letraset I was looking for, I found the original Sales Slip still in the bag. 1976 at a cost of $18.12 for one 10” x 14” sheet. The sheet holds four full sets of upper and lower case fonts, with numerals and an assortment of punctuation. Purchased at a local, long since gone, drafting supply shop.

The lettering is definitely more challenging to work with these days. It has a tendency to lift off the backing too easily, and shatter a bit more than I would have liked. Trying to apply it to a soft material did not help, but as I progressed, I began to like the tatty look quite a bit.

I definitely have to give the lettering a protective topcoat now. I have a jar of yellowing clear nail polish I want to test. Not sure, but I suspect the acetone in the polish will not be kind to the lettering. I will see what happens with the test.

David

[David Dunlop]

My suspicions about using the old nail polish as a clear top coat for the lettering on the Leads, Aerial 25-3/4 inch ID Sleeve were correct. As per the first photo attached, the lettering smeared instantly with the first stroke of the brush across them.

I went to Plan B, a can of satin finish clear acrylic Urethane, I had on hand to see what it would do with the lettering, being water based. This top coat worked a treat, as per the second photo, so that is what I used yesterday on the ID Sleeve.

David

[David Dunlop]

Here is the finished Leads Sub-Project finally, temporarily installed on the 52-Set, along with a comparison photograph from the Working Instructions manual.

I have no idea when the last time was that this 52-Set had one of these Leads fitted, but it sure feels great to have one ready to go now.

David

[David Dunlop]

Nearly a month ago, I had noted the meter readings on the Main Set Receiver were running low at 10 Volts DC and 130 Volts HT.

Since then, I have been running the set several nights a week for 15 to 20 minutes. Basically until it has warmed up and stabilized. During this process, the meter reading for the HT has settled in at a steady 125 Volts.

While killing some time this evening, I was reading through a few sections of the Operators Manual while the set was idling and noticed the comment in the Maintenance Section about checking the Meter from time to time to ensure it was correctly reading Zero when the Receiver was shut off.

I could remember checking the Zero Setting of the Meter on the Remote Receiver when I went through it, but could find no reference in my notes to doing so for the Main Set Receiver. The only references I had were to the fact the meters in both receivers were from two different makers. So I switched the set off. Sure enough! The meter needle pinned itself well below the Zero Mark. A quick adjustment of the Zero Set Screw at the bottom of the meter brought the needle spot on the the Zero Mark centre and I fired the set back up. I am now getting a steady 11 Volts LT and 135 Volts HT. A closer look at the resisters in the Meter Circuits will still be needed as that is the next likely point of issue. Some or all of these resisters may have finally gone off normal specifications.

David

[David Dunlop]

Back in Post #570, I had noted the LEADS, Aerial, 25-3/4 inch was temporarily installed on the 52-Set. This was basically to get the Leads in its final, correct position while the paint, lettering and clear coat were still relatively soft and uncured. I wanted that large lazy curve on the Receiver end of the Leads to get established so the Leads will be comfortable in that position down the road. Hopefully it will take on the nice aged look of the one Bruce has in his possession.

Since this was a temporary install (I still have the Receiver work to finish and have not started work on the Supply Unit) I had not bothered connecting the Sender end of the Leads to its terminal. I got to that point yesterday to find the pin terminal on that end of the Leads would not seat properly in the Sender AE Terminal Post. A closer look showed that when I was doing the final tightening of the AE Terminal when aligning the pin slot in it with the stem of the last Eye Screw, the AE Terminal must have shifted about 5 degrees clockwise. Just enough to jamb the pin from sliding all the way into the slot.

So out of the Carriers No. 4 the Sender came once again yesterday afternoon so I could realign the AE Terminal once more.

Getting the Sender in and out of the Carriers No. 4 is an interesting exercise. With the four mounting bolts out of the way, the two Handles at the lower centre of the Sender are definitely down where most of the mass of the Sender is located, but most of the resistance is in the upper left corner of the Carriers No. 4, where the two, 8-pin Connectors are located.

The Sender will slide out it seems, just until the four angle brackets are free of the Carrier. Then, the pulling force seems to have an upward element to it rather than straight out the front of the Carriers. This loads the contacting surfaces of the two 8-Pin Connector assemblies and they start to bind. Not a great thing for 75+ year old Bakelite. So to counteract that load, I now open the Blower Door so I can grip under the upper Sender Chassis lip with the fingers of my left hand and my thumb on the upper face of the Carrier, gripping that part of the Sender towards me while trying to put straight out as much as possible with the right hand Handle down low, with my Right Hand. The Sender pops out quite easily doing that.

To go back in, I find the Sender will slide relatively smoothly up until the two 8-Pin Connectors make contact with each other when significant resistance is met. At that point, I switch from pushing with the two Handles to placing Left Thumb centre top of the Blower Door and fingers down the left side of the front panel, above and below the Mounting Bracket. Right thumb on the right side Mounting Bracket. Applying pressure at those two points gets the two 8-Pin Connectors sliding into each other smoothly and alternating between those positions and the two lower Handles gets the Sender snugged home safely.

CMC did not expect the 52-Set Operators to have to pull the individual components out of the Carriers No. 4 at all. Unlike the classic 19-Set, all Operator valve servicing could be done via various removable panels, or the Sender Blower Door. As a result, there is no real information supplied in the Operator’s Manual regarding technique fro removal and installation. I thought this might help somebody sort it out sooner or later.

With the AE Terminal on the Sender now correctly readjusted, the Leads slides into place just nicely.


David

[David Dunlop]

A little bit of a spinoff from my last Post.

While temporarily having the Leads, Aerial 25-3/4 inch installed, I am not yet able to feed it through the Eye Screw located at the top of the front panel of the Supply Unit, because this particular Eye Screw has had the eye loop crushed in on itself.

If you look at the upper panel edge in this photo, you can see a set of four angled gouges in it, running from the right side to directly over the Eye Screw located at the upper right corner of the Sender Heaters decal.

When Jacques and I got our first close looks at the Supply Unit, we thought somebody had used a heavy screw driver in the upper panel edge to try and force the Supply Unit out of the Carriers No. 4 at some point in time. A close look at the inner face of the Carrier No. 4 in those four locations shows absolutely no damage at all.

So my current theory is that at some point in time, the Supply Unit had been removed from the Carriers No. 4 and was sitting on its own somewhere when a pair of Idle Hands came along with nothing better to do and decided to give the top edge of the panel several whacks with a ball peen hammer, or chunk of heavy bar iron. The one blow directly above the Eye Screw caught it and bent the eye closed.

Now noted for future repair.

David