Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

As Chris mentioned, the two power cable terminals inside the Bakelite Socket Assembly are a press fit into the Bakelite. They should press out relatively easily. The positive terminal I removed did not.

I first tried sliding a 4-inch piece of wooden dowel into the socket and pressing the assembly back with my thumbs, and then by putting the end of the dowel on the desktop and carefully pressing down on the Bakelite Socket assembly, nothing budged.

Next attempt was to hold the assembly in my left hand and tap the end of the dowel with a hammer. The terminal moved about 2 mm and stopped. A careful study of the terminal finally revealed what was going on. Decades of exposure to humidity had produced a build-up of salts on the surface of the terminal both inside the socket assembly and between the socket and the Bakelite tube the terminal was pressed into. Inside the Bakelite this was producing a lot of resistance. On the outside surface of the terminal, these salts had reduced the gap between the terminal, and what looks like a large brass flat washer in the photographs.

This ‘washer’ is, in fact, the ring portion of an intricate brass connector stamping. A pair of these, mirror images of each other, is used to connect the two Operator’s Lamp sockets to the main +/- 12 Volts DC Power Terminals to provide the power feed for the lamp. The ring portion of the connector was sticking to the salt build-up on the sides of the terminal and riding up with the terminal as it moved out of the Bakelite. It could only go so far before being stopped by the rest of the brass connector assembly, and it then jammed the terminal from moving any more. Once I realized what was happening, I could use the dowel to press the brass ring back down and then tap the terminal out a little further. Repeating the process several times eventually ended with the terminal popping free. I could then tap the brass ring back down in place.

The first photo shows the inside of the Bakelite Socket assembly with the positive terminal removed. Note again the dirt. The second photo shows the terminal assembly soldered in place on the end of the positive cable, Note the shoulder just below the soldered connection. It is this shoulder that makes contact with the brass ring portion of the Operator’s Lamp connector and holds it flush against the Bakelite when pressed carefully home. With the terminal out, I took advantage of the chance to clean all the excess salt build-up from the outside of it and also inside the hole it presses into in the Bakelite. Hopefully, it will press back in a lot more easily than it came out.

The last photo shows the interior of the Bakelite Socket assembly after cleaning. I was going to leave the Negative Cable in place in the socket assembly, but am now thinking I should also carefully remove it for cleaning as well.


David

[David Dunlop]

Hi Chris.

I thought of unwrapping that end but discovered this afternoon that the opposite (battery) terminal end of this positive cable needed attention.

In the photo, you will see that somebody cut away the cotton cording from around the base of the battery terminal just over one quarter inch and then just stuffed the end up under the lip of the terminal. So I will have to redo it completely and hopefully in the process will find some original colour.

I had to redo the unravelled negative cable at this end anyway so good thing I found this when I did.

Cheers,

David

[David Dunlop]

Here are a few photos of the cleaning work on the Positive Cable from the Connectors Assembly.

The first three show the start of the process using the more aggressive of the two cleaners I like to use. The surprise here was the emergence of an actual red colour tone to the cotton loom. Part of the original condition, untreated loom is shown in each photo for comparison purposes. The second and third photos show how this cleaner can deal with dark, heavy duty stains.

The last photo shows the entire cable completed with the first cleaner and the second one. The second is a much milder solution that is great for light stains, but I use it here primarily to remove the first cleaner residue.

Once the cable is fully dry, I will mask the end terminals and looming, and hang it for application of the red shoe cream.


David

[David Dunlop]

I was able to get the Positive Cable prepped and hung this morning and a first coat of red shoe cream applied.

It will sit and set up for at least an hour before I brush it. This will remove the excess dried shoe cream residue and definitely lighten up the colour. It will simply be a case of repeating the shoe cream applications and brushing until the colour tone I am looking for is reached. At this point, I have no idea how many coats will need to be applied to get there. Like me, it’s a work in progress.


David

[David Dunlop]

I decided this morning to bite the bullet and see how easily I could remove the Negative Cable from the Bakelite Socket Assembly. It came out surprisingly easy compared to the Positive Cable the other day.

One tap on the wooden dowel and it popped back about one half inch and I could easily grab it and wiggle it free. It had accumulated about the same amount of salts build-up on the plating but I think the big difference in getting the two cables free was they were very tightly pressed together and the cording on both was in tight contact, thereby adding significantly to the resistance load. So the Positive one being first put up more of a fight.

As per the first photo, the excess salts have now been cleaned from the Negative Cable terminal socket.

The other two photos show the Bakelite Socket Assembly before and after getting cleaned up. Note that you can now easily see the ribbed outside surfaces of the brass screw fittings that were pressed into the Bakelite to provide a secure threaded connection for the four mounting screws of the front cover plate. When those were pressed into the brand new Bakelite 80 years ago, you can be sure they added a stress load to the surrounding Bakelite that probably has not diminished much over the years. The Bakelite will have aged significantly and it might not take much additional stress load for it to break around these small brass fittings today. Always a good idea to keep that in mind when tightening those 4-40 x ½-inch screws.

The other thing I noticed is the central hole in the Bakelite Socket assembly the long Clamping Screw passed through. Note the rough, broken rim. I found a small piece of broken Bakelite inside this assembly and the only place it could have come from is that rim. I will post a photo of it later as I think that originally on these sockets a tubular shaft may have been caste to guide the Clamping Screw passing through the socket.


David

[David Dunlop]

Here is the little mystery bit of Bakelite that was found in the Connectors socket assembly.

The curve of the piece matches that of the shattered rim around the central Clamping Screw hole. The wide end is actually a finished rim and the overall length is very close to one-quarter inch.

If the central Clamping Screw hole was formed with a quarter inch long tube projecting towards the front cover plate, then the half inch long threaded tip of the Clamping Screw would actually enter this tube before the threaded tip of the screw exited the front cover plate completely. The Clamping Screw would then slide smoothly towards and into the front panel of the Supply Unit.

As it currently stands, once the Clamping Screw clears the front cover panel of the Socket Assembly, it wobbles around enough that getting it into the hole at the back of the socket can be a bit of a challenge.

Be nice to see the insides of some other Connector Socket assemblies to see if more parts or a tube have survived, or even, perhaps a complete tube.


David

[David Dunlop]

Things took an interesting positive turn while working on the Negative Connectors Cable this last week.

I started with the usual cleaning to remove the years of waxy dirt accumulation, which resulted in pretty much the same amount of filth on my cleaning cloth as I obtained when cleaning the Positive Cable earlier. The surprise was in just how good a condition the original black coloured cotton loom was under all the dirt. So nice was it, I decided against applying any of the black shoe cream to it. Just a light rub of the Kiwi Neutral Shoe Polish and I was happy with the result.

Another find, or discovery, with the Negative Cable I had completely missed since obtaining the CONNECTORS, Twin, No. 17, was two little electrical tape patches on it. I have seen so many tape patches on electrical cables over the years, I rarely ever give them a second thought. They are always the same. A circular wrap of any number of layers of tape carefully wound over the damaged cable. These two were brand new to me, however. See the attached pictures.

When I first noticed them, I was looking at the full tape side and what struck me was that a rather wide roll of tape had been used to wrap the cable. Then, when I rolled to cable over to check for any possible loose end to the tape, I discovered these two repairs were not the usual circular warp of tape, but a careful build-up of several layers of rectangular cut patches of electrical tape. This was a first for me seeing this kind of repair. At first I thought the patches had shrunk and split but a careful look at the two opposite edges on both patches showed they were not the same lengths, even down through the layers.

I have no idea when these repairs were done, either in Military Service or in civilian life, but they are unusual enough to me to warrant they be preserved as is on the cable.


David