Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

With the three boxes/cases finished for the 52-Set, the remaining details for them is to try and sort out how each was packed at the factory. Of these three items, the Tool Box comes closest to being self evident to where most of the tools were fitted. What is not clear is if each individual hand tool was wrapped in tissue when pack to reduce them sliding and rattling around during shipping.

For the two remaining cases, packing becomes more of a mystery. Since the Cases, Operating, Remote Receivers was the last of these items I finished, it has been on my mind the most. The easy bit, and most obvious is that the Supply Unit for the Remote Receiver must go in the central compartment. When located there and one picks up the case by its handle, the shear mass of the Supply Unit tilts the case to the rear and the Supply Unit ends up sliding to the back of the compartment, so it makes sense to snug it up, centred against the back wall, when you place it in the case. Once the Supply Unit is in the case, it becomes evident quickly that the cables to operate the supply are not all going to fit into the left hand compartment which already holds two sets of headphones and assorted aerial gear. That got me wondering about why the two internal partitions for this case stick up into the lid of the case and why both are notched back at both ends. Then I remembered a comment on Page 115 of the Working Instructions Manual which said:

“When space must be conserved, the Supply Unit may be used in the Case, Operating.”

Things started to make more sense after that. All the controls required to configure the Remote Supply Unit for AC or DC operation, are contained under its metal cover. When the cover is in place, this just leaves the terminals for the battery cable, the ON/OFF Switch and the socket for the power cable to the Remote Receiver exposed along the front edge of the Supply Unit.

The Connectors, Single, No. C3, used to jumper the two 6 Volt Wireless Batteries up to the required 12 Volts just slide nicely between the front wall of the case and the base of the Supply Unit. The Connectors, Twin, No. C1, which are the battery cables feeding into the Supply Unit remain connected to the front left corner of the Supply Unit and wrap around the notches in the left partition with the Meuller Clips coming to rest in the space in the central front of the Supply Unit. The Power Cable to the Remote Receiver says plugged in at the front right corner of the Supply Unit and wraps around the notches in the right partition with the connector plug also resting in the central front of the Supply Unit.

The photos in this Post and the following one will illustrate how all this comes together.


David

[David Dunlop]

Remaining photos for preceding Post.

David

[David Dunlop]

If you look at the Contents List for the Case, Spares in Post #1050, a couple of items are worth pointing out, particularly if you have not read through the manual for the 52-Set for a while.

The list shows three spares for the 813 Transmitting Tube are packed in the case, but two spares of this valve are normally what are kept on hand. The 813 is a very tall, heavy valve and even though it is clamped in place when installed in the Sender, this valve is not installed in the Sender at the factory to avoid damaging the valve. When the 52-Set arrives at its destination and is unpacked to go into operation, one of the three 813’s packed in the Spares Case is actually the operating valve and must be installed in the Sender, the remaining two becoming the spares. Replacements for those two are drawn from Supply thereafter, as needed.

This makes perfect sense to me now. When my Sender was shipped to me from Montreal, my friend Jacques bench tested the 813 in it and found it in perfect working order. It was left in the Sender when shipped and even though the Sender was surrounded by 4 inches of foam insulating sheet on all sides, the 813 arrived with an internal rattle in the upper crown of the glass envelope. Fortunately, I had a couple of NOS spares on hand so simply swapped one out for the damaged one.

You will notice also, that three different Bulbs are listed. Only two types will be supplied in any given Spares Case. The six WB/C1490’s are the standard bulbs used in all the indicator lamps on the 52-Set, the Lamp, Operator, No. C6 and the Wireless Remote Control Units. These are always part of the spares supplied.

The three WB/C00004’s will only be supplied if the 52-Set to which the Spares Case belongs was equipped with an Eveready Torch in its Tool Box. This is an inline, black adonized brass torch, Model Number as shown on the List.

The last three unmarked Bulbs (WB/C4687’s) will be packed if the related 52-Set was equipped with a green plastic, L-Head Torch, Model TL-122-B made by GITZ.

The one remaining mystery with this list is why the VAOS Stock Numbers were not provided for the last six items. If anyone is trying to identify these items today to complete a Case, Spares of their own, I have noted them below:


WB/C4706. LUGS, SLOTTED, LARGE
WB/C4707. LUGS, SLOTTED, SMALL
ZA/C4694. PLUGS, CONNECTING, No. 2
ZA/C4821. WASHERS, KEYED, No. 1
ZB/C1056. NUTS, WING, NO. 1
ZB/C4399. WASHERS, FLAT, 1/4”



David

[David Dunlop]

It is unfortunate that little of the actual production records from Canadian Marconi Company have survived for the 52-Set. They would probably make our understanding of what took place. lot easier today.

A good example is the presence of the two optional Torches listed in the Tool Box Contents List and the corresponding presence of the two optional sets of Bulbs in the Spares Case. In all likelihood, there was some sort of supply issue with one of the torches that prompted CMC to source an alternate early on, but we have no idea how long this issue persisted.

It would be interesting to find a surviving Eveready Torch to see it it has any markings showing where it was made.


David

[David Dunlop]

Well after a number of weeks of working to replicate this list via a modern spreadsheet equivalent, I decided it was the end of the year and the idea should also end accordingly.

There were just too many variables to sort out and the last straw was realizing that I needed to start the project with a height to width ratio for the spreadsheet replacement that was proportionally equivalent to the original list. if this was not done, scaling the new version to the correct size was next to impossible.

So I starting playing with the original photo Reg sent me of his Contents List since it could be resized without losing the correct proportions. Over the last 24 hours, I figured out how to erase the background and retain just the list image, I then got the image cleaned up as much as possible and finally was able to adjust the colour of the image to get an acceptble match to the other two lists I have.

After that, a little trial and. error with the printer and I was able to match the original list width and height by using a 42.5% sized version of Reg's photograph.

A little cutout work and trimming and I can start 2024 off on a good footing finally. Next challenge will be sorting out waterslide transfer decals for the Supply Unit and Coils, Aerial Tuning front panels.


David

[Bob Carriere]

.... the same trick on a fifty dollar bill?????

Let me know if it works as I could use some........ I keep wishing people "Prosperity for the New Year"..........

[David Dunlop]

No I have not, Bob, but for what it’s worth, way back in 1952-53, there was a printing issue with the very first run of $1.00 Paper Bills under Queen Elizabeth II.

The ink the two printers in Ottawa were using on the reverse side of the bills was the wrong formula. If the reverse side of these bills was washed with HCl Acid, the green ink turned the same blue as the $5.00 Bill of the same new series.

Don’t ask me how I know.

All the Best to You and Yours in 2024!

David

[David Dunlop]

The start of a new year and the start of another segment of this project today; creating a set of Waterslide Transfer Decals for the Supply Unit and Coils, Aerial Tuning front panels of the 52-Set. And to add a little extra excitement to the task, I am working towards having these decals fully functioning Luminous Green as per the factory originals, The postwar rebuild replacements from 1966 were Luminous Yellow on the Supply Unit, using too small a font and installed in a very sloppy manner. The decals used on the Coils, Aerial Tuning were Non-Luminous, with white borders and adhesive in application.

There is an excellent photograph on Page 60 of the Operator’s Manual for the 52-Set, Fig. 17 Supply Unit Front View, that shows what the factory original decals looked like and how they were placed. The problem with this photo is it is too small to work with for establishing the original dimensions of the decals, so the first step was to scan the photo from the manual and then print an enlargement of it with large enough dimensions to work with easily.

The second step was to dust off my High School Math Knowledge from the 1960’s, on the use of and working with ratios. The beauty of ratios is that with three known dimensions, it is easy to determine an unknown fourth. It is also easy to proof all of your known starting dimensions against one another so you know your starting data is correct.

To get things rolling, I needed to determine the actual height and width of the Supply Unit Front Panel in my 52-Set, and then the height and width of the image of the Supply Unit Front Panel from the manual. Hence the need for a clear enlargement of the photo from which to easily obtain measurements. The attached photo shows the end result with the actual panel measurements along the top and left side of the photo in blue ink and the photo measurements of the panel along the right side and bottom in red ink. An interesting discovery at this point was that the two SENDER HEATERS decals on the panel are different. I was expecting them to be the same as per the 1966 remakes, but as per the factory originals, the one at the top of the panel above the Indicator lamp for these heaters is chubbier than the one above the ON/OFF Switch for the heaters (second from left).

The other nice thing to see was the clear image on the left hand drop lead of the red RCA stamp on the rubber plug. I will be able to size a rubber stamp for that detail later on quite easily now.


David

[David Dunlop]

It took a little while to shake loose all the cobwebs in my head related to Ratios, but everything started to come together as the week progressed. I now have a set of measurements for all the decals on the front panel of the Supply Unit.

Interestingly enough, when I compared the values obtained to the surviving postwar decals on my Supply Unit, the overall sizes of each decal were identical, so that felt very good, and was a bit of a surprise in the process.

The font size for the lettering on the postwar decals is definitely smaller than the wartime originals, giving a larger black area on each decal which may be making them look smaller than they actually are to the eye. It is still odd, however, that the chosen postwar luminous colour for the remade decals was yellow. When I was researching phosphor luminous paints for the 52-Set Project a few years ago, I learned that yellow and orange coloured phosphors are very expensive, so the corresponding paints are not typically 'off the shelf' items, but more in the realm of custom orders. On that basis, it is very surprising the Canadian Army went with a yellow phosphor luminous paint colour, rather than the wartime, very common and cheap, green. I wonder if the purchasing department was taken to the cleaners by a decal supplier telling them they could save money with a smaller font in yellow?

Now to see what I can do to replicate correct decal sizes on the computer.


David

[David Dunlop]

In addition to the 11 decals I need to replicate for the front panel restoration of my Supply Unit, I need to replicate two more decals for the front panel of the Coils, Aerial Tuning No. 2A. That sounds and looks like a lot of decals but one can pack a lot of them onto one 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, so I figured I might as well get the work done for all of them at once.

A bit of a trickier challenge for the decals on the front panel of the Coils Assembly. There is a photograph of them on Page 76 of the Operators Manual, but it is an angle shot taken from the upper front left of the Coils Assembly. This makes working with any dimensions off this photo, to establish the factory original measurements of the decals, pretty much impossible, or at the very least, very much beyond my humble means. The first photo in this Post is of this Page 76 image from the 52-Set Manual.

With this project, I have been fortunate enough to have a complete Coils Assembly as part of my Main 52-Set. For whatever reason, when this item was rebuilt in the 1960’s and the new remakes of its two decals applied, the front panel was never revarnished to protect them. Photo 2 attached. The lettering and borders on them are still bright white and the overall paint on the Coils Assembly front panel, bright Gloss Navy Grey.

I also have the remains of a parts Coils Assembly, bearing the same postwar remake decals, but the front panel of it was revarnished. The colouration of the varnish is very evident on both the top of the Gloss Navy Grey panel and the white areas of the two decals, as shown in the third photo. I have not yet had a really close examination of these two pairs of decals, but something about them so far gives me the initial impression they are not traditional water slide transfer decals but probably more modern ‘peel and stick’ type. In any event, I would like to get more factory original looking replacements on my Main Set Coils Assembly.

Earlier this morning, something prompted me to take a look at the front panel of the Sender again. The decals on it are all factory originals in very good shape, once they were carefully cleaned up a few years back. I was thrilled to rediscover a pair of LOCK decals still sitting right under my nose. The LOCK decal originally on the front panel of the Coils, Tuning Assembly from the factory, would have been a match to these two. A very nice rediscovery as I can now calliper the width and height measurements from the Sender LOCK decal for the one on the Coils Assembly. A little bit trickier for the AERIAL TUNING decal. The first half of this decal exists on the Sender; ‘AERIAL’ decal and the other half, ‘TUNING’ covers the same amount of space in characters, so it as well can now be replicated.

The final really interesting thing for me to find with this mornings examination of the Sender decals also relates to these odd, black and white bordered postwar remade Coils Assembly decals.

I can understand from a cost saving perspective the Canadian Army in the 1960’s would spend less money getting simple black, peel and stick decals with plain white lettering, rather than the more expensive production of luminous paint decals, but why the white borders? They simply do not exist anywhere else on the entire 52-Set. Then my eye caught the decals on the Sender. This will show in Photo 4 today but you might have to enlarge the images to see what I mean.

With a water slide transfer decal, it is common for there it be a thin trim strip of clear backing surrounding the entire decal. This is small enough to be of little concern because as soon as the decal is mounted this thin trim strip essentially disappears into the background colour of whatever the decal was just mounted onto. However, with these military decals, once all of them are mounted, a thin coat of varnish was applied to the decals to protect their painted surfaces from getting rubbed, or scratched away. So after a fresh application of decals has been completed, one sees nice crisp colours with clean white characters resulting from the dormant luminous paint sitting there. Then this top coat of varnish starts to yellow and eventually turns the crisp white characters yellow. Now take a look at Photo 4. It seems this yellowing process also shows up on the clear trim tabs surrounding the water slide transfer decals. You can see these yellow borders surrounding every decal in this photograph.

So what I suspect has happened back in the 1960’s is that some company was awarded a contract to replicate the original Coils, Aerial Tuning decals and was given access to an original front panel to establish/confirm the required specifications for the contract. When examining the original two decals, they would have noticed the original white characters had all turned yellow from the aging of the varnish. They probably also saw the same yellowing phenomenon on the trim strip bordering each decal and simply assumed a thin white border strip was present on these two decals and reproduced their interpretation accordingly. I will see what measurements I get from putting the callipers on the original LOCK decal on the Sender when compared to the 1960 remake specifications.


David

[David Dunlop]

My Gosh, I have not pulled out my Drafting Set for decades and had to think a bit regarding where I had tucked it away, but it holds a selection of tools that will prove most helpful for measuring up the Sender decals I now need to copy.


David

[David Dunlop]

Good progress so far this week.

The first great bit of news was that the spreadsheet image on my iMac screen was true dimension and that the default Row Height was 0.250 inches. The 11 Supply Unit decals turned out to be 0.250, or 0.500 inches in height. The printout sizing also turned out to match the screen image. Bonus!

From there, it was simply a lot of careful calliper measuring, and trial and error changing the Point Size of the cell dimensions in the spreadsheet to duplicate the remaining odd sized decal dimensions.

I now have a working sheet of the basic, black decal blocks for the Supply Unit decals and just need to experiment with finding an appropriate style and size of Font to add to these blocks. Because of duplicate block sizes among the 11 decals, only 7 basic blocks will be required, hence only the seven columns set up. The two decals for the Coils, Aerial Tuning will go on a separate Sheet later.


David

[David Dunlop]

It took a bit of fine tuning between, font and cell sizes over the last two days but the master for the set of Supply Unit decals is finally done.

In the process, another new observation was made regarding the factory original decals still on my Sender. There are three different sized fonts used for the Sender decals. In general terms these relate to the steps in the tuning process. The largest font is at the first tuning stage for the Sender, basically band selection. This determines which tuning coils will be used, the second stage with the next size down font. The last set of decals are the smallest font, basically equivalent to the ones used on the Supply Unit, Receiver and Coils, Aerial Tuning No. 2A, essential the standard controls identification font found on the bulk of the 52-Set and very similar to the font found on the 19-Set.


David

[David Dunlop]

Trying to fine tune the two different sized decals on just one sheet from the database proved a bit too challenging, so I split the two sizes out to two separate sheets. That made getting the background blocks to match the original size specs so much easier, and once that was done, I used a simple light table to overlay my decal sheets on to of the true size photo I had of the Supply Unit front panel from the manual and brought the font size from the computer down in size to match the size from the original illustrators work.

The black surround is now much more like the originals and gives be a bit more comfortable wiggle room for when the time comes to sort out the luminous paint blocks on the front panel.


David

[David Dunlop]

Once I had the Supply Unit Decals sorted out, I set up a third sheet on the database to work on the two decals for the front panel of the Coils, Aerial Tuning No. 2A. This went rather smoothly now that the bugs in the process had all been dealt with during the Supply Unit work.


So both pieces for my 52-Set will eventually get more correct looking decals on their panels.


David

[David Dunlop]

Actual, physical work on the 52-Set has been limited recently. I have spent most of my 52-Set time planning what needs to be done when I start work on the Supply Unit, making sure I have all the tools I need on hand before I start.

I am normally quite comfortable with disassembling a piece of wireless equipment on the bench and hunting down faults for repair, but I have come to realize with this 52-set Project that a huge portion of that comfort comes from knowing in the back of my mind that replacement parts for what I am working on are relatively common and easy to find. That concept held very true right up to working on the restoration of the two Receivers for the 52-set. With patience, original parts for the Receiver are easy to track down. the receivers are common. My level of concern shot up dramatically when I was working on the Sender, which also carried over to the Supply Unit. The Vibrator Supply Section of the Supply Unit that feeds the receiver is pretty basic electronics and quite similar to the remote Supply in design. The Sender Supply section, with its two big Robbins & Myers Rotary Transformers, drives the whole concern level back up to new heights. I am fortunate that testing to date indicated both sections of the Supply Unit are in pretty good working order and current indications suggest some careful inspection and cleaning of the Sender Supply Section will be enough to keep it happy for another 80 years, The Vibrator Supply for the receiver has a faulty component bleeding off 1.7 Volts DC somewhere, with a resulting proportional drop in the HT1 and HT2 Outputs for the Sender, so should not be too difficult to isolate and repair. The rest will just be physical repairs and replacements, but the shorter I can make the bench time, the happier I will be.

I recently obtained a new grease gun and mechanics stethoscope. I tossed my old grease gun some years after I stepped away from MV restorations. It was last loaded with Sodium grease that had badly broken down to a leaky oil and tossing was easier than cleaning at the time, as I had no real use for it.

The stethoscope was an odd purchase case years ago, but proved itself several times in finding the locations of sticky valves, tappets and blown cylinder head gaskets. I have no idea what happened to my original, but it likely got lost in one of several moves in my life. I have another high tech tool on order and currently in transit and have my eye on one more to get, when the price is right. With them all in hand, and with a couple of cartridges of grease yet to purchase, I should be good to go with restoring the 52-Set Supply Unit finally.


David

[Bob Carriere]

......... and I can hardly find the parasitic drop in my CMP....... what patience you have........

Looking forward to your next chapter...... Sherlock and the elusive volts!!!!!

Bob C.

[David Dunlop]

A new addition to my 52-Set Project tools arrived last week, a Cricut Maker cutting system.

This particular model now has 2 and 3 upgrades but the original Maker is still the powerhouse worker. The problem was, here in Canada, this product currently runs over $600 Cdn after taxes. Several years back, I had chatted with Tony Baker on his 1/4-Pounder Thread about the merits of this type of equipment in our restoration hobbies for stencil and letter cutting, but the price always kept it on the back burner.

In order to replicate the original front panel decals, and more importantly, get them in the correct spots on the Supply Unit, I will have to cut a very precise stencil. Not something I am keen on tackling by hand and eye alone anymore. This Maker accepts Vector graphic software instructions, along with several others, so getting a drawing up to the correct size is easily doable, once you master the machine and programming.

I was trolling the Cricut Canada website a couple of weeks ago and was stunned to discover Cricut finally adopted the Apple approach to selling stock returned on either consignment, or from shuttered 3rd Party Vendors. Like Apple and Lego, Cricut has iron control over their products. Nothing ever goes on sale or gets cleared out without their approval, so they get a lot of returned goods back at their warehouses where they are opened up, reinspected and repacked in ‘White Box’ packaging. And they are then resold with full warranty at impressive discounts. This Maker, by comparison to its actual book value price was available all in, with taxes and free delivery, for $257.60 Cdn.

Let the Learning Curve begin!



David

[David Dunlop]

Back on December 23rd in Post #1055, I showed the final printout for the replacement Contents List I had to replicate for my Spare Parts Case. The next step at that point was to add a coat of varnish or lacquer to it to match the appearance of the list in my Remote Receiver Case and a friends Spare Case in Edmonton. There cases seem to be the only ones with this type of treatment. All four Tool Boxes I have seen are all clearly plain paper Content List labels.

The finish on these Lists is definitely not a high gloss and of the Matte and Satin clear spray lacquers I had on hand, the satin gave the closest look to the originals I had seen. So yesterday I did the spraying on a couple just in case I botched one.

Today I did a rough trim down and will do the final trim in a week or so, once the stench of the spay has died down a bit more.

These lists were originally glued to the insides of the various boxes and cases with good old mucilage glue, which LePages and the other glue makers stopped making a few years ago. On the bright side, yellow carpenters glue dries with a similar colour to the old mucilage which always seems to have oozed out from under the lists when they were glued in place, so I should get a similar effect using the yellow glue as a replacement. Somehow, however, getting sloppy with the glue application goes against the grain with me a bit.


David

[Wayne Hingley]

Nice looking results David. Well done.

[David Dunlop]

It is great when Time is your friend.


After applying the spray lacquer to the Contents Lists for the Spare Parts Case, I had set them aside to fully dry and finally got a chance this morning to get out and pick up a bottle of Yellow Carpenters Glue to mount the lists to the inner lids of the Spare Parts Cases. When I took the glue to my work bench, I glanced at the lists and was stunned at what I saw. All traces of the Sepia Tone in the paper had been bleached out by the lacquer. They were now a very tired looking grey colour. Not acceptable at all.

I had used the Krylon spray lacquer of the two I had available and clearly, one or more of the compounds in its composition did not like the dyes in laser printer toner that was not black.

Fortunately, the other clear spray lacquer I have is a Rust-Oleum product and a careful comparison of the two cans revealed it has a completely different makeup to the Krylon product. So, I have now printed out a new set of Contents Lists onto a tan coloured paper and I shall apply the Rust-Oleum to these later this week and monitor what happens with it as it cures.



David

[David Dunlop]

The second time was a charm! With some amendments.

I started thinking about the two clear spray paints I had on hand last week and after triple checking both the Krylon and Rust-Oleum cans, I could find no direct confirmation that either product was acrylic, so I started thinking about that and realized the most likely place to find what I hoped would work was at an automotive supply shop selling clear coat automotive paints. Off to the local Canadian Tire Store I went and 45 minutes later I came home with a 340 gram spray can of Dupli-Color Acrylic Lacquer Clearcoat, for just under $22.00 Cdn.

The formulation for this product was different again from the other two I had on hand, but the instructions were encouraging. It is a rather fast drying product and they recommended applying two light coats first, allowing them to dry before adding what they call a “wet coat”. I added to this process a bit by deciding to use the two stage hair dryer we have on hand for bath days for our puppy. I felt this would accelerate the drying times and speed the general process time up significantly. It would also drastically reduce the time any of the lacquer solvents would stay in contact with the laser printer toners in a liquid state.

The process took no more than 20 minutes from start to finish and I was able to apply three “wet coats” to the prints to achieve the same state of gloss that was on the Contents List in my Operating Case for the Remote Receiver.

Once the lists have fully cured this coming weekend, I shall trim them up and apply them to my two Spare Parts Cases. So far, there is no sign at all of the toner colour getting bleached to grey with this clearcoat.


David

[David Dunlop]

I am not sure when either of my two Spare Parts Cases last had their Contents Lists fitted to the inside of their lids but as of this weekend, these lists have now been refitted.

The Yellow Carpenters Glue worked very well, but if you choose to go this route, I highly recommend using a decent hair dryer on high heat, along with a few other tricks.

When the lists were cut to final size, the coat of clear acrylic lacquer made them curl over themselves. I was able to solve this by wrapping them lengthwise around a section of grey plastic 3/4-inch electrical conduit just before applying the glue to the backs of them. I used a 3/4-inch wide black foam wedge brush to spread the glue across the backs and then place them on the inside padding of the case lid. The nice thing about this is if any excess glue oozes out from under the list, that is a good thing. That happened with the factory originals with no sign they ever bothered to clean the blobs and runs of glue up. I used the hair dryer on the top of the list with one hand while working the list down flat with one finger and finger nail on the other hand. The trick is to get the edges set quickly and then slowly press excess glue out from under the list as needed. It is pretty easy to see when the edges will stay put and the creamy colour of the glue changes to the translucent yellow in about 48 hours in a warm room. If some of the glue blobs are a bit lumpy, they can be gently pressed flat with your finger once they skin over a bit and a little time with the hair dryer will set them nicely.

Back on Page 34, Post #994 of this thread, you can see what the interior of this Spares Case looked like when I obtained it, as compared to the look of it now with a Contents List back in place. The level of lacquer gloss on this list is a very close match to the list I have in the Remote Receiver Case, so I am happy with that as well.

Apart from still having to add the correct C-Broad Arrow markings to my three cases and boxes for the 52-Set, this portion of the project is at a happy point for me now and I can now finally focus fully on the work required to bring the Supply Unit for the main set back to an acceptable level of looks and operation.



David

[David Dunlop]

Work on this item is getting a lot closer now.

Hopefully, the last major tool needed for this part of the project was purchased yesterday, the Arc Stick Welder pictured below. These only come on sale a few times a year. It is definitely not in the same league as the massive Lincoln beast I owned in the 70's and 80's that needed its own 220 Volt service line installed in my parents basement shop at the time, but it is a very capable machine for repairing what needs to be done of the Supply Unit.

As a reminder, somebody as one time spent some time hitting the top edge of the front panel with a hard object. This welder will allow me to infill those dents and file the top edge back to its original look. the welder gets very good reviews from people who understand its limitations. Prolonged use on a 15 Amp Household circuit will trip the breaker unless you dial back to around 60 Amps on the welder, but it works just fine on a 20 Amp circuit, of which one is present in my current basement shop.

I have also ordered in 10 each of 8 different carbon composite resistors, most of which will be needed in the front end of the Sender when its time comes, and a couple might be needed in the Receiver Vibrator Supply section of the Supply Unit.

Two 0Z4A valves are on there way here as well. The one in the above noted section of the Supply Unit might be failing and causing some/all of the current issues with the Supply Unit, but I discovered the one remaining such valve in my spares kit is suspect.



David

[Mike K]

Hi

Good luck with your ongoing project.

If you go to the cool386 website - scroll down to where he has a sub-section on vintage radio electronic vibrators with downloads of manuals.
"Vibrator Power Supply Design & Repair"
https://www.cool386.com/

[David Dunlop]

Thanks for the tip, Mike.

All knowledge is useful sooner or later.


David

[Mike K]

Have you seen this latest ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMom8wdA9qY

[David Dunlop]

New to me, Mike, but thanks again.

I have emailed the owner to see if he can send me the data plate details for this receiver.



David

[David Dunlop]

For me, the pocket watch, and its use with the 52-Set, is another impressive example of how complete the research was that CMC undertook in designing the set. They seem to have paid a lot of attention to details when they checked with the existing Canadian Army operators of the No. 9 and No. 9 Mk I sets to find out what they liked and wanted improved with each product, as well as what the Canadian Army HQ wanted. While puttering about putting together all the things I will need to restore the Supply Unit in my 52-Set, I have taken time to restudy the WW2 Canadian and British Military Pocket Watch.

The standard GSTP Pocket Watch used by the Canadian and British Armies during the war had specifications that all the watch makers complied with to the best of their ability during the war. Just like other war production, however, what was available to wartime watch makers varied enough that the size standards in particular were often not met exactly. Adding to the problem, for security reasons, all G.S.T.P. pocket watches bore no maker names on the watch face, and to really mix things up, it was very common practice for the watch parts makers to be supplying more than one watch manufacturer. You cannot rely on the look of the face, hands, crystal or other bits to accurately identify what company made the completed watch. All that information is stamped in code on the chassis of the movement inside the back cover of the pocket watch. That coded information will tell you who made the movement, who made the watch, the model number of the watch, the serial number of the watch and often the month/year, or year, of manufacture.

I have four, all British and all different makers. All have the standard Ball winder on the top of the stem, and a ring fitted to the stem for adding a watch chain or lanyard. All are stamped on the back of the case G.S.T.P. with a serial number and broad Arrow. Interestingly, only one fits like a glove in any of my pocket watch holders and it is also the only one fully working still. It is currently mounted on the front of the RCA Speaker Assembly on my AR88LF. Another watch is mounted on my 19-Set Mk III and fits nicely (ever so slightly loose). A third one is quite loose and is mounted on my 19-Set Mk II. If the set was in a moving vehicle, it would rattle around a bit in the holder.

The last Pocket Watch I have has an original leather lanyard and sits on my radio bench. If I try and insert it in any of my Pocket Watch Holders, the ring is positioned slightly lower on the stem than the other three watches so it prevents the watch from dropping low enough into the holder for the bottom part of the watch to be secured. The crystal would probably get broken on this watch if it was in a holder on a wireless set that was in a wireless vehicle going across country. Or the Bakelite holder would get shattered.

When a watch is mounted in a holder on a 19-Set, or the AR88 Series of receivers, the operator has full access to the winding ball on top of the stem, even with the guards in place on the 19-Sets. It gets very interesting, very quickly, however, if you install one of these round ball GSTP Pocket Watches in the holders on the 52-Set Receivers.

From the top of the watch case to the top of the winding ball on the watch is 9/16-inch. The space between the top of the Pocket Watch Holder on the 52-Set Receiver and the inside face of the receiver case is exactly 1/2-inch. On the Remote Receiver, you can get the watch to just fit, if you curve the top part of the case slightly. This is not possible, however, with the Carriers for the main set because of that upward fold on the sheet metal to stiffen it. Also, to get the Pocket Watch to fit, the ring must be folded forward, away from the front panel of the receiver and the case for the receiver. This puts it in the way of the operator trying to wind the ball of the watch. If you try flipping the ring to the back, it will jamb in the corner between the receiver front plate and receiver case and force the top of the watch forward enough you cannot fasten the front cover of the holder. Adding insult to injury, to adjust the time on the pocket watch, the ball on the top of the stem must be pulled up to disengage the winder and engage the hands. This raises the ball another 1/32-inch, which cannot be done with the pocket watch in place.

When I first saw the illustration of the pocket watch Canadian Marconi was using with the 52-Set, I thought it odd the watch used the flat style of winder on top of the stem, and that there was no ring. None of this made sense to me until I tried fitting the standard GSTP Pocket Watch into the two holders on my 52-Set and could not get any of mine to fit properly or be accessible to wind and change time. It was then that I realized how smart the designers and engineers were at CMC. They anticipated the problem and solved it with a custom pocket watch for the 52-Set. The flat top winder is only half as high as the ball winder and without the ring, the operator can easily wind and change the time on either pocket watch when it is in place.

Another feature utilized by CMC was to ensure the pocket watch they needed for the 52-Set was none magnetic. This additional step would ensure these watches would keep running accurately for wireless use in such close quarters to high RF voltages. There was no risk of the movement parts all becoming mini-magnets attracting and repelling each other to a complete halt.


David

[David Dunlop]

As I noted in my first post on the 52-Set pocket watches, without an opportunity to examine one of them to record the markings on the back of the case, any markings on the inside of the rear cover, and the stampings on the movement, the odds of identifying the actual manufacturer are quite slim.

The most probable manufacturer would have been in North America, based on the security/safety of the supply delivery system from the manufacturer to the Canadian Marconi Company in Montreal. Their intension to have both receivers in each 52-Set kit equipped with pocket watches upon delivery to the end user in the field, meant these watches had to be available in steady supply on the production line for packing on the receivers, along with a sufficient supply of additional watches for the Army’s Supply System. That would mean a potential Contract Order with a company for between 8,000 and 10,000 watches.

There were quite a number of clock and watch makers in Canada and the United States but when you look at the number actually making watches during World War 2, there was only one in Canada and four in the United States. I have taken a dive into the one in Canada first, as it would have provided the shortest delivery distance to CMC’s Montreal production facility.

The Western Clock Company was based in the United States, but essentially wound up most of its watch making operations prior to the start of the war. It did, however, have a well established Canadian Division based in Peterborough, Ontario, also initially known as the Western Clock Company, but probably better known operating under its trademark name of Westclox Canada Limited. Its factory closed about 20 years ago, but was maintained for a while as a warehouse distribution centre, before also finally being shuttered. I believe the buildings are still there, but repurposed.

While researching this, I ran across a small reference on the web noting the archive of Westclox Canada had been donated to the City of Peterborough Museum and Archives, so dropped them a line to see if anything was in the files from 1943-1944 relating to contracts with Canadian Marconi. Short story, the only 1943-1944 files they found were rather sterile accounting records with little or no cross reference to the sources of incoming cash. Lots of product references and postwar adverts but not all of this has been catalogued, The long story unfolded in a rather similar way as the fate of the Canadian Marconi Company archives when they closed up shop. Records were simply getting trashed for a period of time before somebody had the idea that perhaps they might be of value to an outside archive. In the Westclox case, the City of Peterborough was contacted because of the long presence of the company in Peterborough. At least the archive has my name now so if anything interesting turns up down the road, they can contact me. In conversations with the archive, I remembered Westclox definitely had their hands in other wartime production, one of which was the Morse Key and Plug Assembly No. 9, which was also part of the 52-Set kit. It is possible Westclox may have been making both items for Canadian Marconi.



David