Vintage/Classic Chassis/Mechanical Renovation/Restoration Techniques

[VK5RC]

Re Glass dials for older radios
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/repro-glass-dial-scale-for-a-hallicrafters-s-38d/

[tautech]

Another of Rob's fine pieces of work.
Title self explanatory:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/rejuvenating-nixies-some-comments-photos/

[VK5RC]

Thanks , but it is actually Dieter's idea;  Works well, if you have a semi dead Nixie, try it! 

Also if you have a short between the anode and some number or between two numbers there is a technique for zapping a 'whisker' using a DC PSU, starting at 100mA or so at low voltage e.g. 10V slowly increasing the current limit until you burn the whisker off!

[Radio Tech]

Switch and contact cleaning
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/40-shop-talk-wafer-switch-cleaning-tips/

Thanks for the mention 

Great content in this thread also. Very nice collection.

[VK5RC]

Membrane Keyboard repair
Xrunner doing more good work , thanks for the heads up!    https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/wavetek-model-271-function-generator-restoration-calibration/msg959179/#msg959179

[Martin.M]

A very glowing Counter tubes restoration

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/philips-'short-time-counter'-(vintage-restoration-project)/

greetings
Martin

[VK5RC]

My Tube Cleaning Technique
Following comment about tube cleaning I thought I would put up on the blog what I actually do, see if it is anything like anyone else does.
The first photo is the before shot, I think the tube has dust but also some cigarette smoke on it.
The first thing I do is a plain water wipe of the top and bottom of the glass envelope, gets rid of a large amount of dirt

[VK5RC]

Cont'd
My next is with a cotton bud lightly soaked in window cleaning fluid is to go around the edges of the printed material to remove more dust etc. see photo
I wait for all to dry then lightly brush the printed area with a DRY brush, this will often remove about 3/4 of the dust.
Clean the pins with IPA, a quick finish up with dry cotton bud around the printed area.
While talking to my mate (a dentist - they are really good at adhesives knowledge!) he thinks the reason the print comes off is that nothing sticks to glass well esp paint of any sort, he said except an epoxy paint onto an sandblasted or acid etched  area of glass! It probably isn't the paint dissolving.

If you have any suggestions or let us know what you do it would be of interest.

Edit; typo

[SeanB]

Most old tubes were labelled using a rubber roller, with a second hard rubber roller used to spread the printing ink from a reservoir in the print line. The ink used is a solvent based ink, which would stick to glass somewhat, but with time and heat the volatile solvents have all gone, leaving the pigments only there.

They were never meant to be permanent, only to identify the tube in the box, as most uses of these tubes always had a diagram on the chassis or the rear panel inner with a layout of the tubes and types printed on it.

[VK5RC]

REPAIR OF FLUKE 80 SERIES TERMINALS  MrModemhead  Thanks for sharing
http://mrmodemhead.com/blog/fluke-80-series-jack-assembly-rebuild/

[tautech]

Follow Robs repair and restoration of this old Tek classic:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/restoration-repair-of-tektronix-545/

[Martin.M]

thank you, I have seen this entry late bec. I am actually busy with the restoration of some elephant radios 
(see HAM+RF area)

greetings
Martin

[VK5RC]

140lbs of radio glory - deserves and got a restoration by Martin.M. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/lf-tube-radio-restoration/   

[VK5RC]

TerraHertz Listed some small fastener/ bolt/screw suppliers in Australia (NSW)

" I'm lucky to live quite close to these great guys:
Premier Fasteners, 3 Ladbroke St, Milperra 2214  ph: 02 9772 1888
http://www.premierfasteners.com.au/

They have a HUGE warehouse full of fasteners, and are usually happy to take you for a walk in it to find that obscure thing. It's quite amusing to take odd screws from some old electronics restoration in there, to see if they have any.  About 50/50 they do/don't.

A couple of others:
The Stainless Shop. 170 Taren Point Road Taren Point. NSW 2229 ph: (02) 9525 1777
 https://www.thestainlessshop.com.au

http://www.smallparts.com.au/
PO Box 2161, MANSFIELD, Queensland 4122
3239 Old Cleveland Road,
Capalaba West (Brisbane Southside),
Queensland 4157
(9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Phones from 9:30am)
Fax 07 3245 1017 (International +61 7 3245 1017)
Phone:07 3245 7977 (International +61 7 3245 7977)
http://www.smallparts.com.au/store/categories/
sales@smallparts.com.au.  "

[VK5RC]

Some good tips re cutting threads - taps and lubricants

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/your-favorite-aluminium-millingdrilling-lubricant/25/

[VK5RC]

Some good info re Tektronix 465b repair and older scopes https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tektronix-465b-110v-rail-is-102v-rms-with-40volt-dips/

[VK5RC]

HP Keysight binding post equivalents , Thanks 2N3055
http://www.tme.eu/en/details/bs-244mn-b/4mm-banana-sockets/

[VK5RC]

OLD HP Power Sockets
Information brought to daylight by cubdriver and bitseeker, Thanks Guys.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160802081036/http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/powerConn/index.html/

AKA as    The Oval Connector
              Type 163
              Belden LL14847
              Belden/Volex 17952
              Belden/Volex 17280
Note different manufacturers used different polarity 
In the photo as below the centre pin is always ground ,
Type 17280.  Female(cord)=  Live        Earth ;  Neutral :    Male (chassis) Neutral; Earth; Live:      UL , CSA
Type 17952.  Female(cord)=  Neutral ;  Earth ; Live :        Male (chassis)  Live     ; Earth; Neutral. HP etc
     

[VK5RC]

VFD Rejuvenation
Again a bitseeker find of a great link.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/vacuum-fluorescent-display-rejuvenation/

[VK5RC]

Some links re Ganged /  Sticky Push Button repair
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-777-keithley-177-microvolt-dmm-repair/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fixing-sticky-buttons-on-hp-8111a-function-generator/ - see comments by xrunner

[Cyberdragon]

Does anyone know anything about repainting vintage glowing clock hands? I don't know if they were supposed to be radium or some phosphor or  what, but they don't hold any light anymore and fade out in about a second.

[tautech]

Does anyone know anything about repainting vintage glowing clock hands? I don't know if they were supposed to be radium or some phosphor or  what, but they don't hold any light anymore and fade out in about a second.

Not that I've tried it but what instantly comes to mind is luminous paints like some use for eyes on trout and salmon flies.
Any good tackle shop that sells fly tying equipment and consumable should have some.

[VK5RC]

Re luminous paints, an interesting article http://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/luminous.php

[Cyberdragon]

Apparently, the material is zinc sulfide, which may or may not be mixed with radium (zinc sulfide still decays). Either way, I'll see if I can source some zinc sulfide paint and just paint it over top, being careful not to touch the original paint due to nuclear material.

EDIT: Well here's a totally reassuring source of ZnS paint... https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=16_17_69&products_id=218 

[VK5RC]

Interesting! A year or so ago, I bought and built a geiger-counter kit from http://mightyohm.com/blog/products/geiger-counter/
The 'hottest object I have is an old unused gas mantle - I keep it well away from living areas.  I am tempted to buy some of this powder to see how hot it is.
I bought some' uranium glass - not very hot - dissappointed! Thorium welding rods ticked a little.