Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

Hello Mike.

Thanks for posting that link. Although I was aware of his restoration work via another website, I was unaware he had done any 52-Set work.

There is some excellent information work there, as I am just at the calibration and alignment point with both of my receivers, and as he noted, accessible chassis space dictated a few innovative (read remoter than usual) locations for component boards, with significant cable runs and conduits to tie everything together. I had made a note to myself to start mapping out the component locations ahead of time but noticed that work has been well done already now. That will be a huge time saver!

Thanks again and stay safe, Mike.

David

[David Dunlop]

While mulling over the challenges of the COUNTERS reset, I decided to pull the Sender BLOWERS out of storage and have a closer look at the assembly.

A good layer of greasy soot over the front of it all, but the backside was rather clean. Same for the fan blades. VERY filthy on the front side with a few rusty patched showing dull red through the crud, but an interesting amount of shiny metal showing through on the back side of the blades.

Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to clean it all up to better see what was going on.

These three photos are before the cleanup.

David

[David Dunlop]

A couple of hours later, after several solvent rinses, and a light buffing of the rusty sections, this is what came out from under the crud.

I am a bit surprised to find the fan blade has such a bright finish, but now recall seeing a photo of a 52-Set in service somewhere and the fan blades were very visible on both blowers, through the mesh screen COVERS. I must try and find that photo again, and it will be interesting to see what is going on with the Supply Unit BLOWERS when I get around to that part of the project.

David

[Grant Bowker]

I think having 1 side of the blades more dirty makes sense. The side pushing the air would also strike any suspended oils, filth or cigarette smoke and the particles stick to the blades. And then the already stuck on particles would collect other, dry particles. I would expect the same on the motor and screens - upstream side dirty, downstream side cleaner.

[David Dunlop]

Hi Grant.

Yes, It will be interesting to compare it to the one in the Supply Unit when I get to it.

David

[David Dunlop]

It has been an interesting last three days.

On Thursday, I finally decided to tackle resetting the 7 – 16 MC PA TUNING DIAL to ‘0000’. What I discovered was that if you backed off the four small screws holding the dial assembly to the rest of the Counter Frame, the two gears would separate. You only have to back the screws off until the ends of them are flush with the back of their hex nuts to accomplish this, fortunately. What is extremely important here is that the coil in question MUST be at its Zero Stop, along with its associated Flexible Coupling on the Counter Gear assembly, and the Indicator Dial must be in its final mounting position relative to the front panel. Hence my masking tape marker project earlier.

It all sounds a little tricky, and it is. It took me 8 attempts to do it. On seven of them, the two parts of the flexible coupling kept moving out of alignment with one another, which changes the entire geometry of the assembly. After the seventh attempt, I realized a simple piece of masking tape over the flexible coupling while in its proper resting orientation, would hold the pieces stable until the reset was completed.

With the tape in place and the two gears separated from each other, I could use a small screw driver to carefully move the dial gear back to get the dial at ‘0000’, and then retighten the four screws to pull the gears back together. Things looked pretty good. The dial was in the correct position, resting on a small wood block with all zero’s showing. And then the wooden block fell away and I heard the dreaded sound of the SPRING, Coupling Retaining flying off to Never land.

Hoping the spring was on the work desk somewhere, I picked up the Sender and turning it to one side to check underneath it. I did this too aggressively. The other Counter Assembly swung to one side and I heard its spring go for a trip and land somewhere to the left of the desk about six feet away. That one I found after about five minutes of searching down low on a black rubber mat with a flashlight. I did not find the other spring until Friday evening after a forensic cleaning of the desktop and a search of the floor 5 timed with a work light held close to the floor. I used a different angle with the light each time and on the 6th attempt spotted the errant spring on the carpet, basically where I had been standing the day before.
It took most of this morning to figure out the best way to reinstall the two retaining springs, but once reinstalled, I wasted no time in getting the front panel of the Sender reattached. All missing, broken and incorrect hardware has been replaced. The Sockets, Aerials has been remounted to the front panel with just the one screw that fits the front panel only. It is difficult to get to once the panel is on the chassis. The other two screws pass through the front panel and the chassis frame and will be reinstalled once I locate correct external tooth lock washers for them.

All chassis hardware has now been reinstalled. The only remaining ones to go are the upper adjustment screw for the Flick Stops for each dial.

David

[David Dunlop]

The first of the restored parts have now been remounted on the Sender front panel.The two KNOBS, Metal used to pull the Sender out of the Carriers No. 4, and stuff it back in.

David