Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[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

[David Dunlop]

Up until now, the main focus as far as phosphor luminous paint went for the 52-Set project, has been the Neutral Green colour as used with all the information decals of the set.

Where it starts to get interesting with the 52-Set is with the Receiver and Sender dials and their related markings, along with the Handles No. 72. On the latter, the white lines for the Blue Frequency are Neutral Blue Luminous Paint and the white lines for the Red Frequency are Neutral Red Luminous Paint. Added to this are the Neutral Orange, Yellow, Green and Reds used on the tuning dials and related decals. It gets very colourful. Very quickly. A number of these dials were manufactured post war and are non-luminous, and the panels are usually marked as such with a white decal at the time of rebuild. And that is OK. Part of the sets history. But where they should glow, they should.

The challenge is finding phosphor luminous paints in the required colours in small enough quantities. One such company I found in the USA is ART ‘N GLOW with their website being: www.artnglow.com

They have the required Neutral Blue, Orange and Red available in stock. The tricky colour, it turns out, is the Neutral Yellow. The proper phosphors for it are apparently hard to come by. They advised I keep checking their site for availability and ordering when in stock.

The attached photo is slightly overexposed, but gives a good idea of what the blue, orange and red look like.

I will probably start this phase of restoration by refinishing a couple of the Handles No. 72. Both were coated in varnish for some strange reason and one is also badly chipped along the edges. They will get redone, original factory Gloss Navy Grey, with the red and blue indicator dots and correct Neutral coloured lines to match the rest of the Handles No. 72 on the set.

David

[David Dunlop]

I thought I would show how the soldering iron is stored in the Tool Box in relation to the small metal bracket for it and the wooden partition that serves as the handle rest, and also creates the storage pocket for the cord.


David

[David Dunlop]

Lacking any Instruction or Operating Manual information whatsoever for this tool at the moment, leaves me wondering if, and how well, it would have worked, if connected to a wireless battery? Would the current load of heating up the tip coil be detrimental to a wireless battery, or could that risk be negated if a chorehorse was charging the wireless battery system at the same time the soldering iron was being used?

Would the soldering iron have to have been connected to the battery directly, or could it simply be clipped to available +/- terminals somewhere on the wireless vehicle charging/power distribution system? Or could it even be clipped directly to terminals on a chorehorse, or larger, generator?

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Lacking any Instruction or Operating Manual information whatsoever for this tool at the moment, leaves me wondering if, and how well, it would have worked, if connected to a wireless battery? Would the current load of heating up the tip coil be detrimental to a wireless battery, or could that risk be negated if a chorehorse was charging the wireless battery system at the same time the soldering iron was being used?

Would the soldering iron have to have been connected to the battery directly, or could it simply be clipped to available +/- terminals somewhere on the wireless vehicle charging/power distribution system? Or could it even be clipped directly to terminals on a chorehorse, or larger, generator?

David

If it's a 100 or 125 watt iron, that's only 8 - 10 amps draw, which is not really going to bother a signals battery: for a 100/125 Amp hour pair that's only the 10-hour rate which is quite reasonable.

In terms of connections, it would be clipped to the nearest 12V supply terminals, if in a vehicle the set supply terminals would probably be the most convenient, otherwise a couple of batteries could be dragged into a suitable position to provide power for whatever repair was needed.

100 watts is a very serious iron by modern standards, so probably wouldn't be needed for long, and big enough to do fairly serious soldering jobs such as battery jumper cables, earth braids, etc. (Anything more than that would be a job for the Wireless Mechanics or R(C)EME.)

Chris.

[David Dunlop]

I started production of a 3.8 litre jar of Zinc Electroplating Solution this morning. It should be ready for the weekend in about 4 hours.

Surprisingly straightforward setup and the Cathode is bubbling merrily away as expected.

The final cleaning solution recommended for the parts to be plated after all dirt, oil and rust has been removed, is a mild solution of Hydrochloric Acid. Much easier these days to head down to the local building supply store and purchase a jug of Muriatic Acid. Same product, but a ‘commercial’ grade, as opposed to the much more expensive ‘laboratory’ grade stuff.

David