Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

After taking the time for a closer look at the bend in the lower section of the front panel of this Supply, I have decided it is not as sharp a crease as I originally thought. I am now of the opinion it can be carefully tapped out with a bit of careful hammer and dolly work.

That being decided, the next task in this project will be removing the front panel and getting said task completed. The end goal, in addition to the removal of the crease, will be a new coat of Gloss Navy Grey for the panel itself and the cast zinc Handle. This will bring these two pieces back in line with the fact they never got an overcoat of varnish at the factory as no decals were involved in their assembly on the line.

It will be a simple disassembly. Only two SEMS Self Threading Screws, just below the Handle, and the Handle itself, fasten the front panel to the chassis of the Supply Units, Vibratory.

One point of caution with the Handle on this Supply Units, Vibratory. It is meant to remove this sub-assembly from the Supply Unit of the 52-Set only. The Supply Unit is a heavy bit of work, Yes! The Handle mounted centrally on the front of the Supply Unit was designed to get the complete Supply Unit out of the Carriers No. 4. If you find you need extra leverage, it is best to undo the two Cowl Fasteners holding the Supply Units, Vibratory in place and pull it and its Case out first. Then you can reach in with your hand and grab the Supply Unit Chassis to help pull it out of the Carriers No. 4. The Supply Units, Vibratory is only held into the Supply Unit by two VERY TINY pins on the ends of the Cowl Fasteners and they are sitting inside a pair of very thin, spring steel receptacles. Those receptacles are ‘unobtainium’ at the moment.



David

[David Dunlop]

With a few errands out of the way earlier this afternoon, I settled at the workbench to remove the front panel from the Supply Units, Vibratory, No. 52, which was a straightforward task.

First item to remove was the Handle which only needed the 3/8” box end wrench from my Ignition Wrench Set to hold the hex nut behind the lower chassis while I unscrewed the Handle with my other hand.

With that out of the way, the two SEMS Screws could be removed and off came the front panel assembly. Next came removing the pair of SEMS Screws securing the two Clips, Metal, U-Shaped, 2-inch long (ZA/CAN 4576) from the upper section of the front panel. These are the two clips that hold the pair of Drop Leads for the Headgear, when not in use. They appear to be nickel-plated, so should clean up quite well. If not, then I shall be following Jordan Baker this time and brewing up a batch of nickel electroplating solution to replate them both.

The front panel now just has the two Shakeproof Cowl Fasteners still attached to it. I have a bit more research to do on them before removing them. I thought there might have been some factory markings on the back of this panel but found nothing.


David

[David Dunlop]

A little, but productive, task today.

I cleaned up the heads on the two Studs, Cowl Fasteners, Shakeproof while they were still attached to the front panel of the vibrator supply. I have been very curious about these parts for some time. I will also be asking Shakeproof about these items in the New Year to see if more answers can be found and some ideas confirmed.

In general, these Wing Head Cowl Fasteners, like their larger ‘AirLoc’ cousins, which are also used on the 52-Set, come in various stud lengths. These lengths are typically number coded and I do not as yet fully understand how that coding is based. In general, I believe the larger the number, the longer the stud length and the stud length is determined by the distance, or space the stud needs to pass through in order to have the small pin at the end of it engage and lock into its spring steel receptacle.

The 1945 Issue 1 of the Illustrated Parts Manual that Canadian Marconi created is assembled in sections and that makes it very easy to find things once you become familiar with the layout. The down side to this, however, is this manual results in a lot of repetition. Any parts used in the Receiver, will also show up in the Sender Section and the Supply Unit Section and anywhere else they were used. The 1949 Issue 2 of this manual removed all that duplication so it is a smaller size, but in some circumstances more vague to work with when trying to sort parts out. These Shakeproof Cowl Fasteners are a good example.

A pair of these Shakeproof Cowl Fasteners is used on the Receiver Vibrator Supply, and another pair on the Blower Access Door on the Sender. The two sets are different sizes.

When I was working on the Sender, I found the upper cowl Fastener was a Shakeproof 18. It locked, but the pin in it was bent in a ‘V’ towards the end of the stud and it looked like only the very tips of the pin were engaging the receptacle. The lower Cowl Fastener was not a Shakeproof product at all. It was a Dot 230, noticeably smaller and flimsier in design than the Shakeproof one. One half of its pin was broken away, but it seemed to be engaging its receptacle just fine.

When I was reassembling the Sender, I had to install new pins into the two cowl fasteners in the Blower Access Door. With them installed, I discovered the upper Shakeproof fastener did not reach its receptacle at all, the pin spun freely in front of it. Initially, the lower Dot 230 cowl fastener seemed to be working, but it was only catching one half of the pin between the receptacle and its mounting plate. So again, not the correct size on a number of levels. I then started a closer look at the 1945 Parts List. It showed that Shakeproof No. 18 Cowl Fasteners were used on the Sender Blower Access Door and Shakeproof No. 21 on the Receiver Vibrator Supply in the Supply Unit. That struck me as odd since the one No. 18 on my Sender was clearly too short. Hence my heightened curiosity about the two cowl fasteners on my Supply Unit.

It is hard to see because these items are so small, but both fasteners on the Supply Unit are Shakeproof No. 18’s, and both work perfectly. In the first photo to the left of the wing head, a classic, typewriter style lower case ‘i’ (without its dot) is stamped on the stud head. To the right is stamped an ‘8’. In the second photo, ‘SHAKEPROOF IND’ is stamped across one side of the wing head.

So my conclusion in all this is that when the 1945 Illustrated Parts List was assembled, the data for the two Studs, Cowl Fasteners, Shakeproof on the Sender and Supply Unit got reversed and the proof reading did not catch the error. Hopefully, Shakeproof may still be able to provide some information on this product regarding the size codes, and perhaps more.

David

[David Dunlop]

This part of the project was starting to raise my eyebrows and heart rate more than I felt was attractive.

Andoc-C was discontinued 15 to 20 years ago and from reading between the lines of the limited documentation on line, the main reason seemed to be that by that time, most smaller, electric high speed motors had switched to sealed bearings. If they failed and the motor died, there were no bearings to repack.

I ended up contacting ExxonMobil directly, the original makers of Andoc-C to find out what replacements they could recommend and they were very helpful.

Andoc-C (ExxonMobil refer to it as ‘Andok-C’) was discontinued without a direct replacement. It was a very firm NLGI 4 grease with a sodium complex thickener and a mineral base oil with a viscosity of 93 cSt at 40 degrees C. Based on the data I provided them for the 52-Set Dynamotors, they recommended a pair of NLGI 3 grease products that are currently available, the specifications of which come pretty close to the original Andok-C.

The first is Unirex N 3. This is a grease with a lithium complex thickener, for higher speed bearing applications as in smaller electric motors, using either roller or deep race ball bearings (as are in the two Robbins & Myers Dynamotors) and if the motor is mounted in a vertical position, the grease will not leak out the seals.

The second recommendation was Mobil Polyrex EM 103. This grease comes with a urea based thickener, a slightly narrower operating and spec range than the Unirex N 3, and is designed more for much larger, industrial electric motors. This latter focus shows up when you start pricing both greases on-line. Mobil Polyrex grease is very hard to find in quantities less than 15-kilo pails. On the other hand, the Unirex N 3 is readily available in standard grease gun cartridges.

So I am going to go with the Unirex N 3 product. The one other thing ExxonMobil commented on was I need to be sure to clean out all the old grease before repacking with either new grease. The sodium based Andok-C will not be compatible at all with either current grease as far as water/moisture is concerned.

One more step closer to being able to restore the main Supply Unit assembly.


David

[James D Teel II]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

I ended up contacting ExxonMobil directly, the original makers of Andoc-C to find out what replacements they could recommend and they were very helpful.
David

It's pretty sweet that this corporations are willing to help. So many this days would just ignore you or tell you that you're out of luck.

[David Dunlop]

I finally got the available data on the Shakeproof Washers sorted out and into a spreadsheet, copy attached.

I am sure there are a lot more Shakeproof washers out there, but this list was assembled simply from the washers identified in the Hardware List for the Wireless Set No. 19 Mk III Cdn and the Hardware List for the Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian.

The Shakeproof washers found in the 52-Set have been highlighted for quick reference but please bear in mind, many or all of these highlighted items can also be found in the 19-Set Mk III Cdn.

Hope this helps a bit.

David

[David Dunlop]

I removed the two Shakeproof No. 18 Cowl Fasteners from the front panel this evening, so this panel is now free standing and ready for restoration.

The tricky part of removing these fasteners is getting the old Cross Pin out of the stud. I have found a two-step process that works pretty well when the Cross Pins are intact and straight. I manoeuvre the panel and fastener over one end of my bench vise such that the stud rests along the opening of the jaws, which are open only enough for the pin to fir into the gap. While holding that all in place, I then tap one end of the Cross Pin gently down until it is reasonably flush with the stud. I can then put a small set of vise grip pliers on the exposed end of the Cross Pin and tug it straight out. The current maker of the Cross Pins does not recommend twisting the pin as you pull, as you run a really good risk of snapping the pin and will end up trying to drift it out with a small pin punch. Doing that runs the risk of oversizing the hole in the stud and the replacement Cross Pin will no longer stay put.


David