Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

The marker slots on the two handles have now been filled with their respective luminous green and red paints. The red paint is from a different supplier than the green I have been working with, but is also a thicker style of paint. Dries quickly and does not run.

Just letting them cure for 24 hours now.

David

[David Dunlop]

A good day today, and another milestone event in the largely mechanical so far, overhaul of the Sender. All the detail pieces for the Frequency MC Dial Assembly went back on.

A pretty straightforward bit of work, with the usual exception of getting the tab on the spring portion of the Bracket and Spring Assemblies No. C1 to pop back into its locking hole in the front panel. It is doable, but never yet have I been able to accomplish it without the tab cutting into the paint on the panel a little bit.

As I have mentioned before, this job is one to do with the Sender on its back so things stay put. The first parts back on were the front Clamping Plate and the small brass shim dropped over the central post. The large set of holes in the Clamp line up with the large holes on the drive and the smaller holes with the smaller threaded ones on the drive.

When you drop the dial itself in place, just make sure the three small studs in the central portion of the dial are on the side of the central shaft with the ‘flat’ cut into it. You will see a corresponding set of three holes on the bottom side of the Handles No. 72, the three studs on the dial will lock into. The two holes directly opposite each other hold the small pivot pins for the Clamping Screw Springs.

I put the Handles No. 72 face down on the bench and slide the two springs as far back into their slots as they will go. When I see the little central ‘V’ in each spring slide past the pin hole, I drop the pins in place. The next step it to get the inverted Handles No. 72 up off the bench and turned right side up without the pivot pins falling out.

What I do is take hold of the two ends of one of the springs with the thumb and index finger of one hand, making sure the spring ends are at the midpoint of the thumb and fingertips. Then close your thumb and finger so that the tips of each jamb in between the ends of the spring and the sides of the Handle. What this does is pull the spring against the pivot pin, locking it in place. Keep that tension on the spring and lift the entire Handles straight up, keeping it level.

Once you have the Handles above the bench, take the thumb and index finger of your other hand and rotate your wrist counter clockwise, until your thumb is behind your index finger. In that position, grab the other spring ends in the same manner as the first one putting the same tension on that pivot pin. While holding the Handles with your inverted hand, reorient your other hand on its spring so the thumb is also to the rear and reapply the tension on that pivot pin.

With both pins under tension now, you can turn your hands and the Handles right side up, align the flat of the Handle socket with the flat of the central shaft and lower the Handles onto the shaft until it is resting on the Dial. The Dial will now keep the two pivot pins from falling out and you can let go of the two springs. One last small step.

While holding the Handles to prevent it from turning, grab the rim of the dial with your other hand and turn it back and forth until you feel the three studs on it drop into the holes on the bottom of the Handles. The two parts are now correctly aligned. You can insert the central washer and mounting screw in the Handles now but only run it in about half way. And don’t tighten the grub screw yet either.

The odds are very good that when you install the Bracket and Spring Assembly, the rim of the dial will not automatically drop into its slot in the Drive Shaft, so by leaving the two screws in the Handles No. 72 loose at this point, you will be able to slip a small piece of wood under the dial and lever it into its slot. I use half of an old wooden clothes peg for that. Once that is done, the two screws can then be run home.

Once the Handles No. 72 is in place, you can install the four Clamping Screws. Start with the two Blue Indicator ones first. They are the ones that go into the larger pair of holes you noticed earlier. They reach all the way to the rear clamping plate assembly. When you feel the first of these two Clamping Screws catch the threads of the rear clamping plate, insert the second Clamping Screw directly opposite the first one. If you apply too many turns on the first screw, it will pull the Clamping Plate up at an angle and you will not be able to engage the second Clamping Screw. Once they are both engaged, tighten them and then back them off two full turns. This prevents a Flick Frequency being established in error. Then insert the two Red Clamping Screws in the same manner.

That is pretty much all the tricky bits that come with reassembling a Tuning Dial Drive.

Now I just have to repeat this process two more times and the Sender mechanical work will be almost finished.

David

PS: The toothpick in the photos was holding the Lower Flick Arm in place so it could be easily retrieved when it came time to inset the small lug on the end of the Tuning Drive into it.

[David Dunlop]

I finally got all the parts cleaned and/or refurbished for the I.P.A. 7 - 16 MC Tuning Assembly in the lower middle section of the Sender. And best of all, they were all reinstalled this morning.

This was the assembly I had originally noticed had a none working Flick Drive and once the front panel had been removed, found the Lower Flick Lever and the Spring connecting it to the Upper Flick Lever were completely disconnected. So now everything works with that assembly.

I just have the luminous paint details to reapply to the handles No. 72 and 80 for the PA TUNE Assembly on the right side of the front panel, and it will be ready for reinstallation.

David

[David Dunlop]

The parts for the PA TUNE Dial Assembly went back on this afternoon. This was the assembly that had a broken spring on its Bracket and Spring Assemblies No. C1 when I purchased the 52-Set, so the PA TUNE was totally none functional.

A fellow Amateur in the Maritimes donated a complete Drive Assembly as a replacement and that spring has now been put back to work on the Sender.

David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

The parts for the PA TUNE Dial Assembly went back on this afternoon. This was the assembly that had a broken spring on its Bracket and Spring Assemblies No. C1 when I purchased the 52-Set, so the PA TUNE was totally none functional.

A fellow Amateur in the Maritimes donated a complete Drive Assembly as a replacement and that spring has now been put back to work on the Sender.

David

Spectacular!!!!!

[David Dunlop]

Now that reinstalling the three dial assemblies has been completed on the Sender, I was also able to reinstall the three Knobs, Phenolic, Pointer on the set of switches across the lower right section of the front panel.

That just leaves the lock for the High Power portion of the Power Selector Switch to put back in the Sender. The lock is currently soaking in a small container of light weight air tool oil. A set of keys should arrive for the lock sometime this coming week. Much easier to leave the lock off the Sender until I have the lock working again.

David

[David Dunlop]

First thing this morning I went to the locksmith's and picked up the three keys they had made for me.

They were as amazed as I have become with the skills of the Illustrators CMC had on staff for creating all the drawings that went into the Master Parts List for this wireless set.

They discovered the Key Code was one of a series of about 1,500 that Corbin had assigned to some unknown contract. Very likely a military contract covering all the locks they had to make during the war. In addition, when they pulled up the computer image of the key code on their system, the key shape was a perfect match to the illustrations of the key in the manual I had sent them for reference.

David

[David Dunlop]

As I had noted earlier, the Lock Assembly has been soaking in light oil for the last week. It took two days to get all the air bubbles out of it, so after that I was confident all the interior bits were fully immersed. I knew the cylinder was moving in its housing and the bolt moved back and forth about a 32nd of an inch but was not at all certain what state of corrosion, if any had evolved inside the lock. When I got the Sender home, I had flooded the cylinder with DeOxit and followed that with 3 in 1 Oil, but that was the extent of any work done on it.

When I pulled the lock out of its oil bath last night, I was pleasantly greeted with a lot of very fine grey ‘dust’ coming out of the keyway and from around the cylinder. I took that as a good sign.

At the locksmiths this morning, they had one cut key ready to go to try out in the lock. If it was OK, they would cut the remaining two I had ordered. The key went in easily but alarmed us all briefly when it would not turn at all. The bolt was in its withdrawn position and the natural instinct was to turn the key clockwise to extend the bolt. We went to anticlockwise mode on a whim and instantly, the cylinder turned and the bolt extended. Learned something new about the lock today. It is a one half-turn mechanism. I am not at all certain when this lock last had a key in it, but I am thrilled it now has a set and the lock is fully operational once more.

The reinstallation of the lock into the Sender was relatively straightforward. The really nice thing is the Power Switch is very stiffly fitted to the chassis by its wiring so tends to stay put. The first step of installation was to slip the lock back into place. Then install the spacer on the lower right corner between the back of the lock and the switch plate, drop the screw down into it and attaché the star washer and hex nut, just a couple of turns, Then using a pair of long, needle nose pliers, I was able to reach in with the spacer for the screw located top dead centre on the switch plate and drop its screw down through it, thereby holding the spacer in place. Then you can go back and install the lower left side spacer, screw, star washer and hex nut. Tighten both of these about half way.

The top screw will now be lined up close enough to its captive nut on the top of the switch plate; you can engage the screw in its nut with a screwdriver and secure it. Then go back and tighten the lower two screw assemblies and you are done.

David