Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[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

[David Dunlop]

I made up this plating fixture last evening to use with the brass tubular rivets I need to zinc plate. It is made from a 16-inch piece of 12 gauge, solid copper wire, as this size fits into the hollow core of the rivets just nicely.

This morning, I cleaned the two rivets with a commercial solvent, dropped them for a couple of minutes in a 3:1 dilution of Hydrochloric Acid for a final clean, and then rinsed them in a small container of plain water before setting them up in the jar of Zinc Electroplating Solution.

They are bubbling merrily away and I shall leave them to it for 45 minutes. It will be time to check them in about 15 minutes.

I shall keep you posted.

David

[David Dunlop]

Well the final results are in and I am extremely pleased with them!

You can see the results in the attached photo of a set of pre-plated and post-plated rivets.

They are damp when removed from the electroplating solution and rinsed off in fresh water, so the plating is initially darker than you might expect. They air dry in about 20 minutes however, and lighten up noticably. You can see the process has already started in the centre area of the rivet on the top left. When dry, I cannot tell the difference between these rivets I just plated and any of the surviving zinc plated hardware still on either of my 19-Sets, or any other related signals equipment plated 75 plus years ago.

David