Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

Sometimes in a large, complex project like this, you realize you need to perform a lateral move to keep the overall project on a correct track. I reached that point this weekend. The Testor’s paints I was hoping to get in the mail last week did not arrive, which will slow forward progress a little bit. I took the opportunity to skip ahead a bit to look at what work will be coming up that I will need these paints for and try and plan accordingly.

Once I have the 3-Wing BAND Switch finished and reinstalled, the next item I want to tackle is the restoration and reassembly of the FREQUENCY MC Dial assembly, located on the right side, centre of the Sender front panel. This entire assembly is identical to the one in the Receivers for the 52-Set, and it is between these two dials that the critical sync of the Receiver and Sender operating frequency is established.

The FREQUENCY MC Dial on this Sender is in tough shape. The plating is almost entirely eaten away and rust around the rim is extensive. With some very careful cleaning, the Lower and Mid-Range Green and Yellow portions of the dial could probably be cleaned up reasonably well, but the High Range Orange portion on the opposite half of the dial may be too far gone to easily bring back. It also takes a good time under UV Light for all three portions of the dial to luminesce. The yellow portion is not too bad, but the Green and Orange portions fade off in just a few seconds.

I knew I had a very good condition FREQUENCT MC Dial from the parts receiver, but when I checked it out, I remembered what I had done way back at the start of this project when only having the three receivers to work with.

The Remote Receiver had a small white decal centred between the Meter and the Speaker indicating “NON-LUMINOUS DIAL”. Because of its position, and the fact the meter on the Remote Receiver was a different manufacturer’s product from the other two meters I had, I just assumed the decal was in reference to the Meter Dial. It was not until some time later, when I put the Remote Receiver front panel under UV Light that I realized it was the FREQUENCY MC Dial that was not fully luminous. I did not like that at the time and felt both receiver FREQUENCY MC Dials should match, so I took the fully luminous one off the parts receiver and placed it on my Remote Receiver. Fast Forward to now, and I realize the Remote Receiver is a stand alone item, and part of the history of my particular one is that it had its Meter and FREQUNCY MC Dial replaced at one time and that history should be preserved. SO…note to self, Put the non-luminous dial back on the Remote receiver and use the fully luminous dial on the Sender, if its own dial cannot be well restored.

David

[David Dunlop]

I was looking for a couple of items last evening and had my two Cases Spares sitting out on the floor. When I picked up the newer, minty green one to put it back on the shelf, something on the front of the case caught my eye. I thought I could see stencil marks. I put it down on its back and started playing with the lighting in the room. Sure enough. I could see the first two lines of the markings for this case that are illustrated in the Master Parts Listings:

CASE SPARES
WIRELESS SET

I pulled the water damaged grey case off the shelf and compared the shadows left on the wood on it to what I had just spotted on the green case. I can only just read the first two lines on the grey case and they matched perfectly to the green case and the manual.

This morning, I gave the green case a closer look, and a VERY light partial sanding, and found the third line:

CANADIAN NO. 52

I can also read CMC at the start of the 4th line with one ‘0’ near the end of it, and the numbers 9 and 3 at the end of the 5th and last line.

Again I am amazed at the incredible detail the illustrators provided in the Master Parts List.

David

[James D Teel II]

What a great find!

[David Dunlop]

Hi James.

Yes indeed. I was quite pleased with that discovery. Just the Case, Operating, Remote Receiver to eventually take a closer look at now.

No paints in the mail again today so I took advantage of that and finished cleaning the two PA LOADING Coils on the right side of the chassis and the rest of the lower, rear chassis deck. Went through about 30 Cotton cleaning sticks to reach all the fiddly places.

The larger of the two 1.75 to 8.0 MC PA LOADING Coils cleaned up really well. On the front end I can now clearly read the Coil Serial Number and on the rear end, the CMC Stock Number for it.

David

[David Dunlop]

A little bit more data gathering was achieved on this item yesterday.

Based on the illustration in the Master Parts List, the free ends of the soldering iron cord with the Mueller Clips fitted, looked to be about 5 to 6 inches long. A bit difficult to tell for certain as the cord is shown coiled up against a 2 dimensional sizing graph in the background.

I was able to get some excellent information and measurements from Chris Suslowicz and Jordan Baker with regards to the size of the wartime wireless batteries, and from that, was able to calculate the distance between the two battery terminals is about 8-2/3 inches.

So taking the length of the Mueller Clips into consideration as well, the 5 to 6 inch free cable length for the soldering iron cord ends is perfect. That would give the soldering iron the ability to be connected to pretty much any battery, or wireless vehicle 12 volt supply board, it would ever encounter.

Of course, in the process of this investigation, I discovered I am out of the black, Size 10 Binding Cord I will need to finish the cord with, when its two leads are freed up the required length. Fortunately, a local craft shop has a whack of 300 metre rolls of it in stock, so I can pick one up after the Holidays.

David

[David Dunlop]

Well we got the turkey stuffed and in the oven and I decided to take advantage of some free time and do a little more work on the LEADS, Aerial 25-3/4 inch part of this project again.

Basically just the zinc plating of the brass terminal sleeves I found earlier in the year. I am finding that as you use the electroplating solution more, a higher concentration of zinc ions accumulates in it. It becomes more efficient in the transfer of current between the anode and cathode and the plating takes place much faster.

I have done two sets of the brass sleeves. The first set I ran for 15 minutes, the second for 30. The attached photos are of the 15-minute set only. They should end up being slightly darker than the 30-minute set once I let them dry out completely for a day or so. Then I will see which ones will look best on this LEADS assembly.

The run of photos is basically, sleeves as purchased, lightly sanded with extra fine emery paper, being plated, after 15 minutes on their own, and with the Terminal Pins inserted.

David

[David Dunlop]

This afternoon was spent finishing the clean up of the three PA LOADING Coils. In the process of doing this, I noticed I had also not cleaned the greasy soot from the inside faces of the ¼-inch thick brown phenolic resin boards the three coils are mounted on. This in turn, also drew much closer attention to component S17A, which is also mounted to the rear board immediately to the left of the large upper PA LOADING Coil. This is the very important Relay Switch that disconnects the Receiver from the Aerial Circuits whenever the 52-Set goes into transmit mode.

I has noticed the S17A Relay Switch many times but assumed it to be of a metal box construction. It was only now that I finally realized that it was built around three large, white ceramic insulating plates, and these has gone grey-brown with the crude I was needing to clean up.

I started by sliding three layers of paper towel underneath the three coil assemblies and above the large metal tuning condenser at the bottom of the chassis, in order to catch any drips. I then sprayed everything that needed cleaning, with my trusty solvent.

Earlier, I had found a section from an old flannel sheet and a set of my wife’s pinking shears. The latter are used to cut fabric in a triangle saw tooth pattern, rather than a straight line. This stops the fabric from fraying and shedding bits all over the place. I made several 2-inch wide, three foot long strips and by looping them carefully around each coil was able to hold each end and pull it gently back and forth along each coil, cleaning off all the soot the solvent had lifted free, Then a few puffs of 30 lb. air from the compressor to dry the coils off and I was done.

I was able to get other strips of the flannel up against the inner faces of the front and rear brown phenolic boards, rather like dental floss and clean them up as well.

For the S17A Relay, out came the Q-Tips once more and about a dozen were used with the solvent to clean up all the crud on the ceramic insulating plates. And out popped the CMC Part Number on the bottom plate.

When I removed the layers of paper towel when finished, they were soaked and varied in colour from pale amber to grey-black. Wiped up the lower edges of the boards with another towel and I was done.

David