Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

While taking photos of the inside of the grey Spare Parts case, I noticed one of the staples for the Kimpak padding on the back wall of the right side compartment was visible where the padding had been torn away. It shows as a shiny bit in the first photo.

I carefully extracted it from the rear panel and straightened it out. In the second photo, it is sitting on a paper with 0.25-inch grid squares. The staple looks to be 1/4-inch but in fact is a tad narrower than that in all reality. I did just not want to risk breaking it by overworking it back to full true dimensions. It does, however, help document the materials used in the fabrication of these cases by Canadian Marconi Company.



David

[David Dunlop]

I feel like I have a mini Production Line going in the basement shop for 52-Set Cases, Spare Parts with two on the go now.

There were the usual civilian service paint blobs on the lips of the case and lid present on the grey case. Mostly grey, but a few yellow/tan showed up, which are probably late military in nature, in one front corner. These have now been sanded down and a new coats of Flat Olive Drab applied to these surfaces.

A closer look at the damaged Kimpak in the grey case seems to confirm there are a number of tears in this padding but no bits missing. I doubt I will ever find the correct stapling tools to reattach this padding but as an alternative, I am now looking at possible ways to carefully glue the various bits back in place down the road in the restoration process. I am still not sure if any oils were involved in the manufacture of the Kimpak padding, and that may influence how well glues might work in the long term.




David

[David Dunlop]

While carefully vacuuming out the dust from inside the grey Case, Spare parts last evening, something shiny caught my eye tucked in a bottom corner of the right side main compartment, hidden in the 3/4-inch gap below the side padding.

I fished it out with a pair of tweezers and it turned out to be a dirty, but working, Spare Bulb for the Pilot Lamps and Operators Lamps on the 52-Set. As far as I know, there was never a small tin issued for any of the spare bulbs in the 52-Set kit. they must have been individually wrapped in tissue paper when the Case Spares parts was stocked originally. The bulb has a blue Filament Insulator and I know these are colour coded. White is another common colour found in these small bulbs.



David

[David Dunlop]

I am still working away on sanding down the grey Spare Parts Case and getting it ready to repair holes and cracks in the exterior wood, prior to repainting.

It revealed another of its secrets last evening when I was working on the lid. A large white painted ‘R31’ came to light on the front edge of the lid, directly on top of the factory Flat Olive Green paint and right underneath a coat of NATO Green and what is likely the civilian grey paint. I seem to recall these sort of numbers were applied to Signals equipment, during Military Exercises here in Canada, to help the various units keep track of their stuff. I can now add this Cases, Spare Parts number to the red ‘R22’ that was on the front of the main set Sender and the yellow ‘J15’ that was on the Coil, Aerial Tuning Assembly I received from Bruce Parker.

This grey case has also revealed another mystery, or perhaps more correctly, has just added another piece to a mystery it first revealed back on Page 6 of this thread in Post #168.

At that time, I noticed the left hand Handle Bracket, factory riveted to the lid, was actually a right hand Handle Bracket, properly drilled to fit the holes in the lid. As assembled, the handle works correctly, but it was odd at the time, the correct part was not installed.

While cutting back more of the grey paint on the front of this case last evening, more of the factory original stencil became visible, to the point where is looked to be a larger stencil font than what was on my green Cases, Spare Parts and the tool box. Putting a tape measure up to the two spare parts cases this morning confirmed the stencil on the grey case is indeed 3/4-inch, whereas the green case and tool box are both 1/2-inch. Both stencils are five lines in height, with each line holding the same characters. The top of the first line of each stencil starts exactly one inch below the lip of the case and the first lines are both centred between the two latches. However, because of the larger font size on the grey case, the fifth and last line ends up one inch lower on the front of the grey case than the last line on the green case does.

So now I am wondering. The green Spare Parts Case probably came out of the normal wartime production run of the 52-Set. There is nothing unusual about it. As far as the grey one goes, however, could it have been assembled at the end of the production run, at or very near to the end of the contract for the 52-Set using whatever available parts were still on hand on the assembly line? Not an unusual thing at all with various CMP production lines at the end of the war.


David

[David Dunlop]

I got the last of the initial sanding completed this afternoon and discovered another bit of the Service History of this case, roughly dead centre on the front. A yellow 'R15' sitting on top of the NATO Green and under the grey paint. This case was found in the Edmonton area so likely was surplus through the Edmonton offices of Crown Assets. Not guaranteed by any means, but there is a good chance the Service Life for this case was with a Regiment somewhere in Western Canada. Too bad these three digit alphanumeric numbers cannot be traced back to specific Regiments.

New putty has also now been put back into the various countersunk screw holes on the lid of the case and a few cracks in the wood filled. as soon as this cures, I will flip the case over and fill the holes and larger gaps in the wood there.


David

[David Dunlop]

A couple of weeks ago, when the manual for the 52-Set surfaced on eBay, a second one was brought to my attention, off eBay but on the web. I eventually tracked it down and it was still available, so purchased it.

The manual arrived in the Post this morning from Northern England. It is in vastly better condition than the one I have been working with, no water damage at all and the spine is still stiff. The old manual will continue to be my working manual for the project. The schematics and most of the technical information is still readable, however, I will be rereading the dozen or so parts from the new manual which were damaged to the point of questionable reading in the old manual, to make sure I have everything straight. The new manual will then sit quietly in its receptacle on top of the Carriers No. 4 as. a permanent part of the set.

I did a similar thing back in the 80’s with my 19-Set Mk III, when a worn manual became my working manual and is close to being in loose leaf format today, while a much nicer manual became part of the set kit.

The photos show the old and new beside each other and one of the damaged set of pages from the two manuals for comparison. The last photo is the name and date found on the inside of the front cover of the new manual. Not sure at this point if this individual was a British Army member who worked with a 52-Set back in 1962, or if this might be the name of a British civilian who bought the manual in 1962. Perhaps even a British Amateur Radio operator back then.



David

[David Dunlop]

The putty filling and sand down of the grey case was completed this evening. The bulk of this work was on the top and bottom of the case.

I now have to test each metal corner guard for fit before remounting them as a few are bumped around a bit and some sides do not sit flush with the wood anymore. In fact, gap quite noticeably.

Once that is all done, the green and grey cases will both be up to date with each other.



David