Author Topic: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques  (Read 328833 times)

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Online tautech

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #75 on: May 08, 2017, 02:27:55 am »
The luminous paints and products used in fishing lures AFAIK are not radioactive. If observed in darkness they are dull and non-glowing until "charged" with a light source after which they glow for some period of time. Their responsiveness to the light source and resultant brightness does diminish with age but for paint ons, this can be rejuvenated with just another coat.

I play with a bit of this stuff  ;) and another product that might fit the bill is a luminous thin plastic that could be cut to fit clock hands and stuck on.

Looking for links...............
https://www.hendsproducts.cz/en/891-luminous-materials

Will look for more later.....things to do now.
« Last Edit: May 08, 2017, 02:36:19 am by tautech »
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Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #76 on: May 08, 2017, 04:55:49 am »
The radiation could potentialy destroy the molocules of certain traditional glow paints, I would need scintillator paint. Plus, it's supposed to glow all night anyway (light-charged chemicals can't, which is why tritium is still used in modern watches).
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Offline BeetleJuice

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #77 on: October 17, 2017, 05:00:12 pm »
hope i am not off topic , i try to restore an analog multimeter , but it has one of the two copper springs on the needle damaged.
does anyone have any idea how to fix this thing?
 

Offline VK5RCTopic starter

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #78 on: October 21, 2017, 07:48:09 am »
Hi, do you have any analogue meters that could be sacrificed for a good spring? The other source may be watch/clock  springs. I imagine getting the torque correct is the biggest issue otherwise I would imagine the meter will be out of calibration.
Regards Rob
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Offline don.r

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #79 on: March 02, 2018, 01:20:27 am »
If anyone is interested in some spring metal for their HP keyboards I have started a thread in BSW section: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/interest-in-hp-button-spring-metal/
 

Offline Martin.M

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #80 on: April 02, 2018, 12:13:17 pm »
I will do a little restoration now:

Telefunken E104Kw4/7 , a 90kg shortwave receiver build in Sept. 1953
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/sw-radio-restoration-telefunken-e104/
« Last Edit: April 02, 2018, 07:17:34 pm by Martin.M »
 
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Offline VK5RCTopic starter

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #81 on: April 07, 2018, 07:36:38 am »
Mnementh shows a great restoration of an old scope dual shaft control. Dremel and McGiver at the ready :-+
See TEA thread about page 368 reply no 9190.
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Offline Chester chastain

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #82 on: July 08, 2018, 11:59:55 pm »
Hi I am new to this I need help with a Sony integrated stereo amplifier ta-av521 I have good speakers when I hooked them up I have cracking and popping coming out of one side (left side) any help on this problem please
 

Offline VK5RCTopic starter

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #83 on: July 10, 2018, 10:44:03 am »
Hi Chester, welcome to the forum,
I would put this into the main Repair area as a new topic , perhaps the make, model and brief description of the problem as the subject. In the 1st post a more detailed description of the problem also what have you tried, what is your level of electronic experience. Also consider putting,  is there anything that make the static worse or better eg moving something, have you taken the covers off - power off and AC plug out of course - and had a good look? When it began was something happening eg lightning in the area or did it just start like this? What test gear, if any, do you have access to? Has it been dropped or water/cat exposure etc. Lots of issues that can give a clue to you and others.
This site appears to have both the Service and Users manuals. https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/ta-av521.shtml
This area/topic is more about how to get the chassis/mechanicals looking better etc.

Good hunting. Sounds a little bit like a loose joint - a 'dry' solder joint . Can be hard to see /find - fixing electronics can take quite a bit of time/effort.

regards rob VK5RC
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Offline TerraHertz

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #84 on: August 19, 2018, 04:26:38 am »
I can't believe the words 'urethane' and 'foam' don't occur anywhere in this thread. Let's rectify that.
Ok, so urethane foam decays over time, becoming a sticky, highly corrosive mess. It has to be removed from anywhere it's found in old test gear. Typical uses were:
 * Air filters. (How badly this works out, depends on whether the fragments fell into or out of the equipment.)
 * Sound damping inside cases. (Greatly dampening the enthusiasm of restorers, when they see the resulting mess.)
 * Padding, to hold down PCBs or whatever. (Turning to gunk, dropping corrosive fragments all through the gear.)
 * Molded shock-absorbing structures in carry cases. (Where it destroys whatever precious, high-cost item it was supposed to protect.)

If you're lucky, the mess can be relatively easily scraped off, and loose bits extracted with compressed air or a vacuum hose.
Then dealing with corrosion it caused is the same as for any corrosion.

But there are two worst cases:
 * Where it's turned to tacky molasses, stuck to complex parts. Solvents and abrasion are the only way.
 * Large blocks of sound-absorbing urethane foam are usually stuck on with a kind of very robust double-sided sticky tape. This stuff is even worse than the foam, because it's really, really hard to remove. You can scrape the foam off easily, but that leaves the tape. The tape glue is stronger than the tape, so it can't be peeled off (at room temp.) The tape seems to be resistant to typical solvents, so they can't be used to soften the glue underneath the tape. But otoh the tape is mechanically weak, so trying to peel it just gives you tiny pieces.

I really hate this stuff.

When it's adhered to metals, it can _sometimes_ be removed fairly easily by using a hot air gun to heat up the metal. This softens the glue, and if you're lucky the whole tape can be peeled off in one piece (or many.)
If that doesn't work, try heating the metal to just below 'too hot to touch', and rubbing the tape off with finger tips. I didn't find any substance/structure yet that works as well as fingertips for forcefully rubbing the tape off, so that limits the upper temperature for this method.

But right now, I have a plastic case off a paper tape punch, that had a lot of urethane foam (decayed to crap.) Hence lots of this tape left after scraping off the foam. The plastic is probably ABS, and so hot air gun heating is out of the question.

It sort of peels, but breaks frequently. Ultimately I'll get it all off that way, but it's a pain.
Has anyone a better method?
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Offline VK5RCTopic starter

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #85 on: August 20, 2018, 10:22:55 am »
I have had a couple of old HP 'boat anchors' (eg 5245L) that used a foam adhesive tape on the underside of the lid to keep a bit of downward pressure on daughter PCBs. The years had not been kind - but at least the foam fragments were easily blown away. The tape residue (fortunately it was reasonably permeable to my favourite sticker removal goop - orange oil - I have no idea why it works better than xylene type solvents. I only use it on the chassis - not game to try using it on the PCB. I don't know how it goes on your plastic frame but it seems reasonably benign.
It is pretty gross but my favourite scraping tool is finger nail!   :scared:     if some guy could make a disposable scraper with the same hardness I would buy a truck load.
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Offline TerraHertz

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #86 on: August 24, 2018, 11:01:55 am »
I have had a couple of old HP 'boat anchors' (eg 5245L) that used a foam adhesive tape on the underside of the lid to keep a bit of downward pressure on daughter PCBs. The years had not been kind - but at least the foam fragments were easily blown away. The tape residue (fortunately it was reasonably permeable to my favourite sticker removal goop - orange oil - I have no idea why it works better than xylene type solvents. I only use it on the chassis - not game to try using it on the PCB. I don't know how it goes on your plastic frame but it seems reasonably benign.

Hmm, I'd heard the term 'orange oil' but never seen the stuff. Googling finds this from Bunnings:
  https://www.bunnings.com.au/gilly-stephensons-250ml-australian-orange-oil_p1854496
Is that what you are referring to?
Gosh, it's expensive.  You'd think something made from orange peels would be cheaper.

Quote
It is pretty gross but my favourite scraping tool is finger nail!   :scared:     if some guy could make a disposable scraper with the same hardness I would buy a truck load.
Australian hardwood, eg ironbark. Typically from floorboard scraps. Cut with a drop saw into wedge or spatula shapes.
It's fine-grained and about the same hardness as fingernails, and makes good scrapers that don't scratch moderately hard surfaces.
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Offline VK5RCTopic starter

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #87 on: September 01, 2018, 04:32:32 am »
Thanks for the tip re hardwood chips/wedges, I haven't done much woodwork in a while but worth making some jarrah chips to try out later.
Sorry I wasn't very specific about the 'orange oil' - this is the stuff I have been using - I got it from Mitre10 some years ago, I have had no damage to any plastics. After aggressive plastic cleaning I tend to IPA wash then a bit of Armour-all or Back-to-Black (? Meguires).
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Offline GregDunn

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #88 on: January 17, 2019, 08:18:09 am »
This thread is a great resource, but there's one thing I haven't seen - the best way to restore an engraved dial or panel which has white (or any non-black) markings on a painted surface.  There seem to be a large number of "suggested" procedures on the web but few address the best types of paint and techniques for filling the engraved legends.  Is there an epoxy-based solution that works similar to the one described at the beginning of this thread?  I'm concerned about dissolving the background paint when applying/wiping off the legends.  Does anyone care to share their favorite way?
 

Offline VK5RCTopic starter

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #89 on: January 24, 2019, 04:46:57 am »
I don't have any great experience with non-black lettering /dial markings.
In an old HP calculator I used some rub-on lettering (white) then a blue biro, which got quite close to the original. Robrenz's technique might work, but over-flow with epoxy loaded with whatever colour onto painted surface could be hard to recover from.
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Online tautech

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Offline Wallace Gasiewicz

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #91 on: February 22, 2020, 11:57:48 pm »
A very good TV tech used to start by taking the chassis to the 25 cent car wash and blowing all the dirt off.
Someone else used to put boards in the dishwasher, especially if there was all sorts of solder rosin on the board.

Here is a cheap way to put white lettering back on knobs that have indented numbers etc... put on some  typewriter "white out", let it dry and scrape off the excess with your fingernail. Easy to remove if you get it wrong.
Kinda like VR5RC method

Wally KC9INK
« Last Edit: February 23, 2020, 12:12:25 am by Wallace Gasiewicz »
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #92 on: June 29, 2020, 04:40:52 pm »
I have a few candidates...

Borked Bolt Extraction by Slotting With Dremel:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tinkering-101-borked-bolt-extraction-by-slotting-with-a-dremel/msg3111222/#msg3111222

Removing/Reinstalling SMD Power ICs Without Hot Air Rework Gear:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3015518/#msg3015518

My post on Repairing a Broken Knob Shaft via Slice & Solder is here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg1471767/#msg1471767

I've also had many requests for my post on servicing the Centrifugal Blower motor in Tektronix 465/465B/475/475A/2465/24xx series scopes: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-2465b-oscilloscope-teardown/msg1863828/#msg1863828

Cheers!

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Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #93 on: April 02, 2021, 07:33:49 am »
Does anyone know a good way to remove seemingly stripped (not moving when the nuts are turned either way) flower head screws from a 30s radio? If it's not worth any possible damage I'm not gonna mess with them. The speaker is probably still good, though not original (the wires are a bit short and taught).
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Offline ttx450

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #94 on: June 18, 2021, 12:15:05 am »
Does anyone know a good way to remove seemingly stripped (not moving when the nuts are turned either way) flower head screws from a 30s radio? If it's not worth any possible damage I'm not gonna mess with them. The speaker is probably still good, though not original (the wires are a bit short and taught).
You can try a vice grip or squeeze hard both sides somehow and pull apart hard while turning.  For deteriorated bolt/nut might work, done before on small screws.  Or drill out cut out
« Last Edit: June 18, 2021, 12:17:02 am by ttx450 »
 

Offline VK5RCTopic starter

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #95 on: June 21, 2021, 10:02:26 am »
Another suggestion, maybe drill the centre of the screw then use an 'extractor'.
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Offline VK5RCTopic starter

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #96 on: October 16, 2021, 07:18:13 am »
https://youtu.be/-6VSC-5WmrA
Re painting numbers in dials
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Offline Martin Miranda

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #97 on: December 29, 2021, 05:24:50 am »
retrobrighting using hydrogen peroxide 30 volumes (9%) and heat.
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Offline VK5RCTopic starter

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #98 on: January 05, 2022, 08:07:56 am »
Hi Martin, how warm did you get the solution and roughly how long?
I have used peroxide gel and sunlight - took about an hour or so.
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Offline Martin Miranda

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Re: Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques
« Reply #99 on: January 05, 2022, 08:46:03 am »
my experiments is good... but i BLEACHED it hahaha. (the picture shows) the temperature reached 80 deg centigrade.  :palm:
i only used some pharmacy 30 volume hydrogen peroxide.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2022, 08:53:51 am by Martin Miranda »
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