Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[James D Teel II]

I love it.

[David Dunlop]

It has taken about a year and a half of research and searching to find this particular piece of the 52-Set Tool Kit. It was one of the 14 packages I got home this past week.

This particular soldering iron was made by Drake in the USA. It's origin was the Drake Model 325-100, 110 Volt AC soldering iron which came out sometime in the 1930's. It would have had a black lacquer wooden handle and an asbestos black power cord with a tracer woven into it.The cord was 5-1/2 feet long.

The 12 Volt DC model had a 7-1/2 foot long cord with a pair of Mueller 24A Battery Clips at the end of a 6 inch open section of the cord. The soldering iron I finally found was an early 120 Volt AC model with a natural lacquered wooden handle with the same turnings. I can source the correct cable and Mueller Clips to bring this one in line with what it's DC counterpart would have looked like. The odds of finding a limited issue 12 Volt DC soldering iron are pretty remote these days.

David

[David Dunlop]

I was surprised at how small these keys are in real life. I am glad they fit in a small envelope as they would be very hard to find at the bottom of the Tool Box rattling around loose in an emergency.

The No. 6 is a four spline key while the two larger ones are 6-spline.

David

[David Dunlop]

These are the receptacles into which the Airloc Studs for the upper panel of the 52-Set Receivers lock. Countersunk, tubular rivets are used to hold them in place in those two locations.

These fasteners are also used in the top and side rails of the Carriers No. 4 ( four in each location) to which the Coil, Aerial Tuning Box is fitted. In these two locations the fasteners are spot welded in place and would be very tough to replace.

The right side fastener on one of my receivers is broken and needs to be replaced and I was having a hard time finding the receptacles. Finally, the light bulb lit with regards to the word 'Cowl' and I started searching on vintage aircraft restoration sites. Bingo! there they were, and still being referenced by their Airloc Stock Number 99833P-130.

No luck yet finding the replacement pins needed for the Airloc studs themselves, or the equivalent for the Shakeproof Cowl Fasteners. Critical bits as the pins cannot be reused once removed from a stud.

David

[David Dunlop]

These big boys ( 4 inches long) are used on a number of battery and ground connectors for the 52-Set. Typically, an end of the connector in question has a heavy ring terminal lug soldered to it and the lug in turn is screwed onto the end of the Mueller Clip.

I picked these up to be sure I had them down the road to fabricate replica cables.

I find it strange that these heavy duty clips are used for battery and ground cables but the smaller (3-inch) No. 24A Mueller Clip, rated at only 25-Amps, is used on the 12-Volt Soldering Iron cable. Need to find a couple of those No. 24A's now as well.

David

[David Dunlop]

Way back in Post #313, I put up a photograph of a 3.8 litre Mason jar, noting it was a recently obtained part for this project.

Well here is another related set of pieces; 12 solid Zinc electrode plates. A third critical bit is a 6/12 Volt DC, 2 Amp Trickle Charger I have had at hand for a long time. I am going to delve into the interesting world of small scale, home electroplating. Two more simple items need to be picked up; vinegar and salt.

Most wartime metal hardware and wireless chassis parts were plated. The commonest two plating materials were cadmium and zinc. Nickel was a distant third. Cadmium is almost impossible to find these days, so I went with the zinc. There is really not a lot of difference between a cadmium and a zinc-coated part. On their own, you would likely have a 50/50 chance of a correct guess. Put the two plated parts side by side, however, and in most instances, the cadmium coating will show a more silver grey appearance next to the slightly darker tone of grey from the zinc coating.

I have several solid brass items that need to be plated to match what was originally used with the 52-Set. I now also have a lot of hardware and small metal fitting on the Sender that could do with being replated. The type of stuff modern plating shops are simply not interested in doing anymore, without charging an arm and a leg. After researching DIY plating, it seemed simple enough and will make for an interesting side trip in this project.

David

[David Dunlop]

Once I had found a supplier for the truss head and countersunk tubular rivets I needed to replace the damaged parts on the 52-Set, the next issue was finding an appropriate clinching tool to set the rivets, I ruled out the hand held, clinching sets requiring a hammer to clinch the rivets, Way too brutal! The way to go with clinching tubular rivets is by means of a slow and steady application of pressure until the proper closure is achieved.

A number of plier-like hand tools are out there but they all have limited reach and are expensive. The next option is really not much more than a modified C-Clamp. They can provide the slow steady pressure, but often lacked enough reach, were too wide, or the fixed handle got in the way. More important, the screw was typically not a precision thread, which allowed a lot of wobble in the tool.

While surfing the web one evening, I stumbled across a small company in the USA that specialized in the restoration of antique tin toys. The kind made between the 1880’s and the 1950’s. These toys use a lot of tubular rivets in their manufacture and this company had designed their own hand-clinching tool to get the quality they needed.

The main body of ¼-inch thick, tool grade steel. Both upper and lower screws are adjustable. The upper screw supports either a truss head or flat, countersunk rivet head. The lower, black screw is the clinching head. Something I had not thought of with the simple C-Clamp modified clinchers is the base of the C-Clamp, where the rivet head usually sits, ends up being so close to one side of the materials being riveted together, you cannot easily see if the rivet is properly seated. By making both ends of this tool adjustable, one can move the tool far enough away from the materials being worked on to clearly see how things are lining up. This company had done a limited production run of extra tools, the price was right, it had tremendous quality, so I bought one.

David