Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

Seems a small road block has been encountered with the disassembly of parts from the Sender front panel.

If you look at the first two photos of the previous post, you will see the PA TUNE Dial assembly has the four Clamping Screws removed, along with the central retaining screw for the large grey tuning knob. What cannot be so readily seen, is the set screw for the knob has also been removed.

At this stage in the disassembly of the dial, the grey tuning knob and the large dial disc immediately under it should just lift off the brass shaft to expose a few other bits beneath them. No such luck here. Both the knob and dial are stuck firmly in place.

Looking at the gap between the back of the tuning dial and the front panel, I can see the lower half of the supporting brass shaft is nice and bright. The top half, however, is covered in that brown, oily soot. I strongly suspect that crud has seeped into the space between the tuning knob and dial and glued them together.

After some thought, and consultations with Jacques Fortin, about options to proceed, I have decided the best approach will be to try and let some 3 in 1 Oil wick into the space to soften up the crud and then try using a gear puller on the knob to pop it free. The pullers I have on hand are far too robust to do the job, but I did find a small, 2 jaw, 3-1/2 inch max puller at Princess Auto so have ordered one. It is only a 2 inch diagonal across the corners of the grey knob, so this puller should fit in quite nicely. At Jacques suggestion, I will reinstall the central screw a couple of turns in the central brass shaft and use the face of the screw to rest the screw shaft of the puller on, to avoid damage to the brass shaft.

The puller should be here next week sometime so I will continue applying 3 in 1 Oil until it arrives.

David