Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

I decided to clean up the large Bakelite socket assembly on the Connectors, Twin No. 17 this afternoon. I was thinking this would also give me an opportunity to open the assembly up and see if any red colour remained on the small section of Positive Cable inside the assembly. However, as soon as I had unscrewed the socket assembly from the front of the Supply Unit, I realized that was not going to happen since I could clearly see the cotton windings from the terminal sticking out of the socket assembly about one eighth inch. But I got a break anyway.

As you can see in the photos today, particularly the third one, there is a roughly two-inch section of the Positive Cable that faced towards the Supply Unit that shows the remains of a red colour. Finally! I feel good about that find.

These three photos show the uncleaned socket assembly and the last one I have started cleaning the oxidation off one of the brass sockets that accept the large banana plugs on the front of the Supply Unit.


David

[David Dunlop]

These last three photos today show the Socket Assembly after cleaning and polishing. The dirt is all gone and about 80 % of all the scratches, which is a major improvement. Even the ‘LT’ and the ‘ 12 VOLTS’ caste into the upper and lower parts of the front face are easier to read now.

Once the dirt was cleaned off the white ID Printing, it turned out to be in very good condition and will not require any attention.


David

[David Dunlop]

If, by any chance, one of these Connectors has survived with original (or even near original) red colour on its Positive Cable, can we get a photo of it to see what shade/tone of red it is?

Even if it is a small surviving section of the overall 8-foot cable, it would be a nice bit of information to have documented.

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

My guess is that it would be "Chinese Red" if the cable is a cloth braided type, the problem being that it fades badly due to sunlight. To add to the difficulty it will have been waxed or varnished and that will darken towards brown over time.

I've got some D3 Twisted that is still close to an original colour somewhere.

Chris.

[David Dunlop]

Hello Chris.

I was looking for signs of varnish when cleaning the cables but only found evidence of it being applied to the cotton cording at the four terminal ends. The possibility of a wax based coating did not enter my mind but has attracted my attention now.

When cleaning up the cables, I started with the positive one and was noticing the cleaner was pulling a consistent brown stain onto the cloth. I thought that might be remnants of red dye, but when I switched to the negative cable I was still getting the same brown stain, not black like I thought I would.

If a wax based coating was applied to these cables, that opens up some interesting possibilities for me to explore.

Funny thing about ‘Chinese Red’. There seems to be enough interpretations of that colour out there to make its own colour chart! Grrr!

David

[David Dunlop]

It has been said before, but one of the nicest things about MLU is the collective knowledge of all the members and how frequently it all comes together when working out the details of many restoration projects.

This pool of knowledge proved its value again this last week, starting with Chris’ comments regarding the likelihood the Connectors, Twin No. 17 assembly for the Wireless Set No. 52 may have been waxed when finished, rather than varnished. I had seen, but not recognized those details when examining mine, and it all made sense. It also proved very advantageous with regards to restoring this connector assembly.

There are a few scuffs on this connector but nothing at all close to fully penetrating the rather heavy outer cotton loom. With all traces of the original red colour gone from the positive cable, the absence of varnish means that with a little cleaning, the cotton loom will be able to accept a new dye treatment rather easily. That would not have been the case at all, had these cables been varnished.

Next was Chris’ comment that the original red colour was very likely a Chinese Red and that colour dye was known to fade out rather quickly back in the day. The question was then what type of dye to try and use for the restoration. The commonest dyes today for fabrics are RIT Company and are water based. They work by soaking for a given period of time. Not a good plan for a big, long electrical cable. While looking at information on-line for ‘Chinese Red’ I stumbled across a photo of a red shoe cream which was the colour I was looking for and when I traced the source of the photograph, found Moneysworth and Best was the maker. This had possibilities. It could be applied by hand, had a wax and petroleum distillates base and would be absorbed easily by the cotton loom. It would also be less prone to bleeding out of the loom over time, compared to water based dyes. So I ordered a jar each of the red and black shoe cream. For reference, the two colour codes are:

Red - #30523
Black - #30500

I ordered them from Amazon.ca on Friday and they arrived late Saturday afternoon. Photo attached.

David

[David Dunlop]

I have been experimenting with the red shoe cream I bought to get a better idea of its capabilities and limitations.

First thing I noticed was the VERY floral potpourri scent it gives off. Great for a pair of high end designer shoes, but not so much for a military wireless set approaching 80 years of age. Second important finding was it is a translucent colour, not solid. This means that the background colour it is applied to will show through to some degree and influence/bias the final colour you see. For example, if you rub some on a piece of white cotton, the colour shifts from its reddish orange original to a more pink tone. The closest sample to the current colour of my CONNECTORS, Twin No. 17 was an old piece of American issue 19-Set headgear harness – chocolate brown with the red/white/blue tracer. In tone, it is about one half brighter than the CONNECTORS, Twin No. 17 cotton loom in its current state. This brown has the effect of pushing the shoe cream colour back from the orange hue to a more basic light red. A big plus here is that any staining on the base material will show through, so these products of use and aging will not be lost when the overall colour of the cable is refurbished. The history of the cable will still be there.

After letting it dry for 20 minutes and then buffing with a shoe brush and some cotton waste, it shed a lot of red dust, but the overall colour on the piece of harness did not change too much. I then remembered I had a large tin of Kiwi Brand Neutral Shoe Polish on hand for doing my work boots. It is a denser, waxier polish than Dubbin. So I dug it out and rubbed an overcoat of it on the red shoe cream. That had two, immediate, positive effects. First, the potpourri disappeared and was replaced with a nice waxy petroleum distillates smell that stayed, and the colour tone of the red darkened to one that better matched what the original cable probably looked like early in its aging process. That latter point fits well with my goal for this set to look used but well maintained and gracefully aged.

Of lesser note after applying the Neutral Polish was reduction in further red colour rubbing off the test piece. I think I should be able to stop that completely by giving the cable a topcoat of a silicon based, spray-on footwear waterproofing.

After a chat last evening with Bruce Parker, I have now sorted out disassembly of the Bakelite socket assembly head on the CONNECTORS, Twin No. 17. I need to be able to remove one of the cables from this head to get full and easy access to both of them for this step in the project. Love that MLU knowledge!


David