Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14575806 times)

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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65475 on: August 04, 2020, 10:24:37 am »
CO2 blast and laser engrave. or laser rust remove. But that's probably overdoing it.

Oh I didn not know that, see here.

Quote
The process is called sublimation and is the act of changing the state of metal to a gas form, skipping the liquid phase. This is achieved using high frequency bursts of micro-plasma which - when combined with extremely high thermal pressure and shockwaves - can be set to a certain depth to skim away a surface of rust. So the device can be set to burn away pretty much any material that is layered over metal, be it paint, filler or dreaded rust

So I guess and green laser from a cd burner will not work...  :-/O
I had seen this before but the cost and the danger aspect of this technology is still way outside the reach of most people.
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65476 on: August 04, 2020, 10:58:21 am »
Does anyone know any techniques for cleaning up crusty HP metal parts i.e. the frames around the front of the instruments?

I assume they are anodised but I may be incorrect.
Are you sure they're aluminium parts?
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65477 on: August 04, 2020, 10:59:28 am »
These are the repaired and functional spare plug-in's for the Type 535A and Type 561B. The 535A currently has a CA Vertical installed and the 561B has a 3B3 Time Base and needing repair 3A6 Vertical installed. The problem with storage of these plug-in's is that they are completely open when not installed in a mainframe or in a Tek cart designed to house them. So they are exposed to dust, dirt, and damage. My built scope cart is optimized for 7000 series plug-in's so these won't fit. The solution is a simple wooden box as shown that the plug-in's slide into. It extends the full length of the plug-in and will keep them clean and damage free.

Once the 3A6 plug-in is repaired that will remain in the 561B. I'd like to have at least one spare time base plug-in in case the 3B3 takes a dive. I have a poor condition spare in the TEA closet as well as an equally poor condition 3B4. Eventually I'd like to fix at least one of them.
 

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Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65478 on: August 04, 2020, 11:10:00 am »
This tropical storm has moved in quickly. Just a few hours ago it was down by Philly and South Jersey. It is pouring here now but no wind, yet. Later today winds are predicted to pick up just shy of hurricane force. Should be an interesting afternoon. Got emergency lighting set up just in case. 
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65479 on: August 04, 2020, 12:04:47 pm »
I've probably got an 8" floppy tucked away somewhere for old time's sake, rather like I have a few 80 col. cards.
At your/our age now you're just showing off !  :P
Anyways I call BS.

No we don't want a pic !

Is this something to do with reddit and bananas?
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Offline tonyalbus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65480 on: August 04, 2020, 12:09:01 pm »
Does anyone know any techniques for cleaning up crusty HP metal parts i.e. the frames around the front of the instruments?

I assume they are anodised but I may be incorrect.
Are you sure they're aluminium parts?

On my Farnell alluminium, i used a scotchbright block... it a sort of polishing, also great to polish rusty screwheads.
Electronics enthusiast, TEA and Radio Amateur (PE1ONS)
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Offline Robert763

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65481 on: August 04, 2020, 12:22:04 pm »
I don't think the side frames on System I cases (e.g. 435A power meter) were anodised. Best result I got was a belt sander with fine belt Hold the frame square to the belt so you get a brushed effect allong the edge, then give a spray of clear lacquer. As Tony says a similar effect can be had with Scothchbrite pads but it's a bit more work.
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65482 on: August 04, 2020, 12:29:17 pm »
Does anyone know any techniques for cleaning up crusty HP metal parts i.e. the frames around the front of the instruments?

I assume they are anodised but I may be incorrect.

Which parts and which generation? Best to show us a pic of the crustiness to be on the safe side about both material and condition. (I come fresh from spending yesterday cleaning mucho gunk off the outside of an anodized aluminium frying pan. Add to that some recent experiments in home anodizing and I'm about as fresh on aluminium surface finishing and cleaning as it's possible to be.)

The generation that are made up from screwed together aluminium subframes are all aluminium die castings, no anodization in sight.
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65483 on: August 04, 2020, 12:32:46 pm »
Does anyone know any techniques for cleaning up crusty HP metal parts i.e. the frames around the front of the instruments?

I assume they are anodised but I may be incorrect.

Which parts and which generation? Best to show us a pic of the crustiness to be on the safe side about both material and condition. (I come fresh from spending yesterday cleaning mucho gunk off the outside of an anodized aluminium frying pan. Add to that some recent experiments in home anodizing and I'm about as fresh on aluminium surface finishing and cleaning as it's possible to be.)

The generation that are made up from screwed together aluminium subframes are all aluminium die castings, no anodization in sight.

Best illustration is crustyness here. The metal frame around the facia. The chassis is as you mention die cast aluminium.

 

Offline Robert763

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65484 on: August 04, 2020, 12:35:15 pm »
A UK military surplus auction just closed. Silly high prices e.g. APN62 £360 + 15% premium (and VAT).
I can buy one from a dealer with warranty for £195 (plus VAT).
5 off an old aircraft special test set. Starting price £5 1st one 9 bids to £50 a day before auction close. Other 4 did not go higher than starting price.
 
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Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65485 on: August 04, 2020, 12:51:11 pm »
Does anyone know any techniques for cleaning up crusty HP metal parts i.e. the frames around the front of the instruments?

I assume they are anodised but I may be incorrect.

Which parts and which generation? Best to show us a pic of the crustiness to be on the safe side about both material and condition. (I come fresh from spending yesterday cleaning mucho gunk off the outside of an anodized aluminium frying pan. Add to that some recent experiments in home anodizing and I'm about as fresh on aluminium surface finishing and cleaning as it's possible to be.)

The generation that are made up from screwed together aluminium subframes are all aluminium die castings, no anodization in sight.

Best illustration is crustyness here. The metal frame around the facia. The chassis is as you mention die cast aluminium.



Why not do one of two things with the facia?

Remove it completely or (seriously) give it a coat of gray paint.
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65486 on: August 04, 2020, 12:58:57 pm »
On my Farnell alluminium, i used a scotchbright block... it a sort of polishing, also great to polish rusty screwheads.
I'm asking because it may be zinc, a zinc or aluminium alloy or in some cases passivated steel. Some can be hard to tell apart, especially when mounted and the weight is hard to establish.
 

Offline tonyalbus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65487 on: August 04, 2020, 01:04:16 pm »
On my Farnell alluminium, i used a scotchbright block... it a sort of polishing, also great to polish rusty screwheads.
I'm asking because it may be zinc, a zinc or aluminium alloy or in some cases passivated steel. Some can be hard to tell apart, especially when mounted and the weight is hard to establish.

The scotch-brite i used is not available anymore i see, i had a hard block (have it 20 years i think), while what they sell now are pads, sort of rough sponse... pitty, i like that solid block for alluminium.
Electronics enthusiast, TEA and Radio Amateur (PE1ONS)
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65488 on: August 04, 2020, 01:10:52 pm »
Does anyone know any techniques for cleaning up crusty HP metal parts i.e. the frames around the front of the instruments?

I assume they are anodised but I may be incorrect.

Which parts and which generation? Best to show us a pic of the crustiness to be on the safe side about both material and condition. (I come fresh from spending yesterday cleaning mucho gunk off the outside of an anodized aluminium frying pan. Add to that some recent experiments in home anodizing and I'm about as fresh on aluminium surface finishing and cleaning as it's possible to be.)

The generation that are made up from screwed together aluminium subframes are all aluminium die castings, no anodization in sight.

Best illustration is crustyness here. The metal frame around the facia. The chassis is as you mention die cast aluminium.



Why not do one of two things with the facia?

Remove it completely or (seriously) give it a coat of gray paint.

I read that as blue to start with.  :-DD

Paint chips terribly eventually on edges like that.

Actually that brings me to an annoyance. The TG320 was put together somewhere between when they transitioned from the grey enclosures to the white ones and the bastards just painted the grey ones white. Of course it's covered in chips now  >:(
 

Offline Zucca

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65489 on: August 04, 2020, 01:14:35 pm »
sometime I do not understand prices on TEA,
today gossip:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/doing-it-raw-tapping-keithley-2001-adc/msg3173002/#msg3173002

uh?

PS: Got mine for 900€, and then discovered the elcos had leacked...
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Can't love what you don't know. Zucca
 
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65490 on: August 04, 2020, 01:48:17 pm »
Best illustration is crustyness here. The metal frame around the facia. The chassis is as you mention die cast aluminium.



Ah, gotcha. That style of front surround is an aluminium die casting. They look like they are anodized but are in fact painted with an aluminium paint that gives them a very similar appearance. Unfortunately the paint (albeit some of the best ally paint that I've encountered) is nowhere near even beginning to become as hard or tough as anodizing. The typical crustiness on these is where the paint has worn and is exposing the underlying die casting. Sometimes it's where little smears of some other metal have been deposited onto the paint by contact with other bits of kit. The paint is good, very good, and it's almost impossible to distinguish from anodizing until you've seen somewhere it has chipped off or worn through to the base metal.

Aluminium die castings themselves typically anodize very badly. The alloying elements used to make them good casting alloys tend to 'smut' the surface of the aluminium and show through in the anodizing, way beyond the power of de-smutting treatments to remove. I'm guessing that's why the otherwise odd combination of ally with ally paint was used - they wanted the appearance of an anodized finish (perhaps to match other components) but couldn't manage to get both a good casting and good anodizing.

Just to confound matters, unsealed anodizing is sometimes used to make a good surface key for painting. In this case the cosmetics of the anodizing don't matter (its going to be covered in paint) and the thickness of the anodizing is much less. I further suspect that is exactly what HP have done here. So you've got a die casting, non-cosmetic anodizing, and then aluminium paint specifically picked to look like anodizing (theorizing - based on what I've seen).

Just to compound the matter, I'm not sure if the above is always true of that style of surround. I've seen some that I would swear are actually anodized. I don't know if this is because they got the finish of the painting method down so good that I'm fooled or whether at some point they switched to a die-casting alloy that could be satisfactorily anodized. And I've seen some that look like a bare, but good, casting that has just been grit-blasted in some fashion.

All of the above makes renovating the surface a great big pain in the arse. If you use anything abrasive to remove contamination it might strip off bits of the paint, go too heavy and it might cut through the relatively light 'adhesion' anodizing and expose bare shiny metal. Trying to re-paint/over-paint it? Na, the original really is so good that you won't even begin to reproduce it without access to a proper industrial paint shop.

My best guess is that you would get the best result and do the least harm by the judicious use of scotch-brite. You need to be careful here, as not all scotch-brite is the same. It come in many grades, and there are many knock offs (and some middling to good brands like Mirka) that you might get sold as scotch-brite and then what grade you've actually got in your hand is anybody's guess. I would say that for this pukka Scotch-brite 7447 (a dirty maroon coloured, officially 'very fine') is the coarsest that I'd risk  - I just went and tried a piece on an inconspicuous corner of my 3325A which has the same kind of surround and it didn't do any harm. If you want to PM me your address I'll stick a sheet in the post - I have lots. The 7448 grade ('ultra fine' grey base colour) might be a better option but it's harder to find in less than full-sized boxes (20 sheets). Which coincidently I'm waiting on backorder for, you can have some of that too if you can wait for a few days.
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65491 on: August 04, 2020, 02:24:05 pm »
Thanks for the detailed reply. Much appreciated. It being painted makes sense. I've seen chipped anodised dyed surfaces before and it does look different.

As for Scotchbrite after doing some research I actually ordered a box this morning. Of 7447. Euro car parts sell it via amazon. So that's somewhat vindicating. Thank you for the offer however. Will report back when I've had a go at it.

I've got a much nastier looking unit coming this week. I'll try it on the bottom of that first.

 
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65492 on: August 04, 2020, 02:35:24 pm »
Oooh, fugly!
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65493 on: August 04, 2020, 02:56:10 pm »
Indeed. It sort of looks like the oxide has eaten its way through the surface.

As mentioned by Robert763, the earlier units used plain die cast alu which was I think just hit with a polishing wheel for a bit. Probably humans involved in that.

 

Offline Saskia

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65494 on: August 04, 2020, 03:09:08 pm »
Ultrasonic ?
Sandblasting ?
CO2 blasting ?

In other news I won a tape deck on ebay.


its bigger brother, the RX505, is already sitting here. They are asking crazy prices for those Nakamichi decks, I paid 750 for the RX550, and now they are past 1000 ...
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65495 on: August 04, 2020, 03:11:17 pm »
Thanks for the detailed reply. Much appreciated. It being painted makes sense. I've seen chipped anodised dyed surfaces before and it does look different.

As for Scotchbrite after doing some research I actually ordered a box this morning. Of 7447. Euro car parts sell it via amazon. So that's somewhat vindicating. Thank you for the offer however. Will report back when I've had a go at it.

I've got a much nastier looking unit coming this week. I'll try it on the bottom of that first.



If it were me.......if there's decent looking plastic bezel under that nastiness I would just remove it and be done with it.  :-//
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Offline tonyalbus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65496 on: August 04, 2020, 03:14:13 pm »
5315B coming my way.... 8)

seems a professional seller.....putting it on a soft bed.

(Attachment Link)

and i get some extra's

(Attachment Link)

a home made something...

Gorilla has send it... knobs broken, front bend.. that homemade thing... internal transformar broke loose and went did its demage inside during the shipping..
dont even know it work, the HP... i will be more carefull with new sellers... he will not get a 5 star.. and i usualy doe evn things go wrong and intension is good.
private sale, banktransfer....nothing i can do... hope i find the HP knobs somewhere or maybe it can be glued. allready fond on ebay from us.. 50,- each.. looking other option sens i only 50 for both devices together..
blody lunatics on this world.. bubble what??? why not loose in a box?
« Last Edit: August 04, 2020, 03:18:56 pm by tonyalbus »
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Offline tonyalbus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65497 on: August 04, 2020, 03:15:58 pm »
Thanks for the detailed reply. Much appreciated. It being painted makes sense. I've seen chipped anodised dyed surfaces before and it does look different.

As for Scotchbrite after doing some research I actually ordered a box this morning. Of 7447. Euro car parts sell it via amazon. So that's somewhat vindicating. Thank you for the offer however. Will report back when I've had a go at it.

I've got a much nastier looking unit coming this week. I'll try it on the bottom of that first.



If it were me.......if there's decent looking plastic bezel under that nastiness I would just remove it and be done with it.  :-//

if you are sick of it... i know someone who like those 2 knops on the upper right!
scotching it long time... will work, no worries... :-+
Electronics enthusiast, TEA and Radio Amateur (PE1ONS)
Marconi  - TTi - Thandar - Thurmbly - HP - Fluke - Philips - Siglent - Owon - TEK - Anritsu - Keithley - AVO - BG7TBL
https://www.youtube.com/TonyAlbus
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65498 on: August 04, 2020, 03:17:05 pm »
5315B coming my way.... 8)

seems a professional seller.....putting it on a soft bed.

(Attachment Link)

and i get some extra's

(Attachment Link)

a home made something...

Gorilla has send it... knobs broken, front bend.. that homemade thing... internal transformar broke loose and went did its demage inside during the shipping..
dont even know it work, the HP... i will be more carefull with new sellers... he will not get a 5 star.. and i usualy doe evn things go wrong and intension is good.
private sale, banktransfer....nothing i can do... hope i find the HP knobs somewhere or maybe it can be glued. allready fond on ebay from us.. 50,- each.. looking other option sens i only 50 for both devices together..
blody lunatics on this world..

That's lower than a Gorilla. It's one of these......

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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65499 on: August 04, 2020, 03:18:15 pm »
Gorilla has send it... knobs broken, front bend.. that homemade thing... internal transformar broke loose and went did its demage inside during the shipping..
dont even know it work, the HP... i will be more carefull with new sellers... he will not get a 5 star.. and i usualy doe evn things go wrong and intension is good.
private sale, banktransfer....nothing i can do... hope i find the HP knobs somewhere or maybe it can be glued. allready fond on ebay from us.. 50,- each.. looking other option sens i only 50 for both devices together..
blody lunatics on this world..

Ah crap. That sucks  :--. Sorry to hear. I'd still complain at the seller as there's no excuse for not packing stuff properly. They might send some cash back. It does happen although 90% of the time, unless it's via ebay, it usually results in "fuck off" as a response.

If it were me.......if there's decent looking plastic bezel under that nastiness I would just remove it and be done with it.  :-//

If you were you, you'd paint it blue  :-DD

if you are sick of it... i know someone who like those 2 knops on the upper right!
scotching it long time... will work, no worries... :-+

Haha. I'll let you know if it's a parts unit or not. The knobs are already minus the caps on this one which is annoying as it is.

There is a guy selling them here for 10 GBP each, new with inserts. https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/test-equip
 
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