Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[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

[David Dunlop]

I started working on the cables for this Connectors Assembly this morning. The first step was opening up the Bakelite Socket to get a better idea of what the internal setup for it is all about. A big shout out to Bruce Parker for sharing his experience in this regard.

The first step is to remove the large, central Clamping Screw from the middle of the Socket Assembly. This is a captive screw – basically a giant version of the four small, cheese head captive screws that mount a Wireless Set No. 19 into its case. The central hole in the front Bakelite cover of the socket assembly is threaded. Just a stink over one half inch of the end of the Clamping Screw is also threaded. Once that portion has cleared the front Bakelite plate, the shaft of the Clamping Screw allows it to slide freely all the way into the front panel of the Supply Unit to engage the locking threads for the Clamping Screw. See the first photo in this Post.

The second and third photos in this Post show the inner surface of the front Bakelite cover plate, before and after cleaning all the dust and dirt that infiltrated into the socket assembly over the decades. Note the large chip out of the Clamping Screw hole where the screw was forced or flexed at one time while the threads of the Clamping Screw were still engaged in the Bakelite. The Bakelite will lose every time in circumstances like that, so it is best to avoid them.

The last photo right now shows the electrical connections/terminals inside the socket assembly. Everything is a tight fit in there, Notice how the cording on the Positive and Negative cables has been pressed flat when the front Bakelite cover plate was installed and carefully screwed in place. Also note how much dirt has managed to get inside.


David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

The last photo right now shows the electrical connections/terminals inside the socket assembly. Everything is a tight fit in there, Notice how the cording on the Positive and Negative cables has been pressed flat when the fonts Bakelite cover plate was installed and carefully screwed in place. Also note how much dirt has managed to get inside.

David

Having got it that far the socket contacts are just a sliding fit in the Bakelite moulding, so you can simply push them out from the front. (I have an unused socket somewhere, just in case I ever stumble across a WS52!)

If you unwrap the whipping on the red lead you can probably get a good idea of the original colour, since it will not have been exposed to light and air since the cable was assembled.

Best regards,
Chris.

[David Dunlop]

As Chris mentioned, the two power cable terminals inside the Bakelite Socket Assembly are a press fit into the Bakelite. They should press out relatively easily. The positive terminal I removed did not.

I first tried sliding a 4-inch piece of wooden dowel into the socket and pressing the assembly back with my thumbs, and then by putting the end of the dowel on the desktop and carefully pressing down on the Bakelite Socket assembly, nothing budged.

Next attempt was to hold the assembly in my left hand and tap the end of the dowel with a hammer. The terminal moved about 2 mm and stopped. A careful study of the terminal finally revealed what was going on. Decades of exposure to humidity had produced a build-up of salts on the surface of the terminal both inside the socket assembly and between the socket and the Bakelite tube the terminal was pressed into. Inside the Bakelite this was producing a lot of resistance. On the outside surface of the terminal, these salts had reduced the gap between the terminal, and what looks like a large brass flat washer in the photographs.

This ‘washer’ is, in fact, the ring portion of an intricate brass connector stamping. A pair of these, mirror images of each other, is used to connect the two Operator’s Lamp sockets to the main +/- 12 Volts DC Power Terminals to provide the power feed for the lamp. The ring portion of the connector was sticking to the salt build-up on the sides of the terminal and riding up with the terminal as it moved out of the Bakelite. It could only go so far before being stopped by the rest of the brass connector assembly, and it then jammed the terminal from moving any more. Once I realized what was happening, I could use the dowel to press the brass ring back down and then tap the terminal out a little further. Repeating the process several times eventually ended with the terminal popping free. I could then tap the brass ring back down in place.

The first photo shows the inside of the Bakelite Socket assembly with the positive terminal removed. Note again the dirt. The second photo shows the terminal assembly soldered in place on the end of the positive cable, Note the shoulder just below the soldered connection. It is this shoulder that makes contact with the brass ring portion of the Operator’s Lamp connector and holds it flush against the Bakelite when pressed carefully home. With the terminal out, I took advantage of the chance to clean all the excess salt build-up from the outside of it and also inside the hole it presses into in the Bakelite. Hopefully, it will press back in a lot more easily than it came out.

The last photo shows the interior of the Bakelite Socket assembly after cleaning. I was going to leave the Negative Cable in place in the socket assembly, but am now thinking I should also carefully remove it for cleaning as well.


David

[David Dunlop]

Hi Chris.

I thought of unwrapping that end but discovered this afternoon that the opposite (battery) terminal end of this positive cable needed attention.

In the photo, you will see that somebody cut away the cotton cording from around the base of the battery terminal just over one quarter inch and then just stuffed the end up under the lip of the terminal. So I will have to redo it completely and hopefully in the process will find some original colour.

I had to redo the unravelled negative cable at this end anyway so good thing I found this when I did.

Cheers,

David

[David Dunlop]

Here are a few photos of the cleaning work on the Positive Cable from the Connectors Assembly.

The first three show the start of the process using the more aggressive of the two cleaners I like to use. The surprise here was the emergence of an actual red colour tone to the cotton loom. Part of the original condition, untreated loom is shown in each photo for comparison purposes. The second and third photos show how this cleaner can deal with dark, heavy duty stains.

The last photo shows the entire cable completed with the first cleaner and the second one. The second is a much milder solution that is great for light stains, but I use it here primarily to remove the first cleaner residue.

Once the cable is fully dry, I will mask the end terminals and looming, and hang it for application of the red shoe cream.


David