Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

The TERMINALS, Aerial, No. C1 was remounted to its new phenolic board this morning and the terminal feed wire reconnected to it.

As with the Remote receiver some time back, I took the time to mark the terminal feed hole with a toothpick and aligned it corrected with the location of the Eye Bolt the Receiver Feeder Cable passes through, just before connecting with this TERMINALS. The Feeder Cable is an exact length and in accordance with the factory photos in the 52-Set Manuals, comes off this Eye Bolt and runs straight into the Sender Terminals.

I found my ¼-Drive Ratchet with a medium slotted screw driver head wound just fit carefully behind the front panel to run the TERMINALS screw home with one hand, while keeping the TERMINALS correctly aligned with the other hand.

Not only is this part now solidly remounted to the Sender for the first time in however long, but also one of three electrical feeds I had to undo to remove the front panel, is now restored.

David

[David Dunlop]

Another good afternoon’s work today.

The two Screw-Eyes above the Access Door Assembly were cleaned and reinstalled. The room to access the hex nuts inside the upper chassis frame is limited, so best to put these items back while the Blower Motor is off the Door. One can simply slide the hex nut up the inside of the upper chassis frame with a finger until it is centred in the hole and then screw insert the Screw-Eye.

I did not run the hex nuts all the way home on these two Screw-Eyes. They were both able to move freely in their holes in the front panel initially and it made sense to allow them to do that as they can shift with any bending of the Connector Cable they support between the Receiver and Sender. The inside diameters of both of these Screw-Eyes were perfect and I want to keep them that way. By comparison, somebody over tightened the Screw-Eye on the Supply Unit to the point the open end of the eye closed up on the loop enough you can no longer thread the Connector cable through it. One of the things to address when I get to the Supply Unit.

Once the Screw-Eyes were out of the way, I reinstalled the Blower Assembly and lacquered down the hardware. The power feed has not yet been resoldered in place. That will be the next bit of work.

Lastly, I reinstalled the restored COVERS, Metal, Blowers, Electric with the cable clip holding the Power Feed Cable to the door once again, and then lacquered that hardware.

It is nice when things can start to go back on a project.

David

[David Dunlop]

I decided to finish off the reinstallation of the BLOWERS Assembly this evening by resoldering it back into the Sender wiring harness.

Once that was done, top left rear corner of the rear panel board behind the motor housing, I applied a dab of red marker to the solder point, to bring it back to spec.

David

[David Dunlop]

For a few days now, I have been concerned about reinstalling the remaining two sets of hardware on the SOCKETS, Aerial in the upper right corner of the Sender front panel. These were the two sets of hardware that pass through the chassis frame rails, as well as the front panel, and both were missing their respective external tooth #32 lock washers. My suspicion is they were not reinstalled at the time of the 1960’s overhaul work because of the difficulty accessing behind the panel and chassis with any tools. One is working blind back there. Quite a testament, therefore, to the skills and efforts of the young women at Canadian Marconi, who met that challenge on a daily basis on the assembly line!

The recent re-lock down of the entire province and City of Winnipeg did not help matters as hardware supply shops are now shuttered.

It was not until yesterday that my brain was drawn back to the fact I have a spare 52-Set Receiver I have been slowly stripping down, most recently for available front panel hardware. Surely, it would have somewhere within it, some #32 machine screws and related hardware. A careful look indeed revealed a pair of countersunk screws holding the required washers, which were quickly retrieved and the screws reinstalled.

What better than to use not only 75+-year-old hardware of the correct type, but 52-Set hardware no less. I felt quite chuffed with myself when I put the remaining two sets of hardware back into the SOCKETS, Aerial install and reconnected its central terminal at the rear of the panel. Now all three electrical circuits disconnected during the Sender teardown, have been re-established.

Next project will be the cleaning and reinstallation of the upper left and right BRACKETS used to secure the Sender into the Carriers No. 4.


David

[David Dunlop]

An interesting day yesterday. I was zinc plating the two upper BRACKETS, Metal, Angle that help secure the Sender in the Carriers No. 4 and was having a heck of a time getting the two brackets spotlessly clean.

The inner angles of both brackets, along with the inner face of the single hole sides refused to plate until the fourth attempt, which followed grinding the offending surfaces with a small, fine grit, Dremel stone drum. Fourth time lucky and they plated merrily away and are now reinstalled on the Sender.

David

[David Dunlop]

I decided todays project would be simple, but important.

The five small screws and lock washers used to secure, and adjust, the upper ends of the PLATES, Stop No. 1 needed to be cleaned up and reinstalled.

Although their primary function is to allow the PLATES, Stop to be adjusted to correctly match the upper and lower limits of the tuning indicator dials with the actual frequency limits of the set, they are also critical for securing the upper parts of the Flick Drive Assemblies for each of the three tuning dials on the Sender. Without them in place, the Drive assemblies can flop around behind the panel a bit. Not a good thing.

You can see in the attached photo, compared to the one previously posted above, the five PLATES, Stop No. 1 on the Sender front panel are now back in their proper fixed orientation, not just hanging around on their lower rivets.

David

[David Dunlop]

I managed to get the bottom two PLATES cleaned and re-plated this morning.It went a lot better for some reason than the upper two, as I get an excellent, uniform plating with the first attempt this time.

One hardware set had to be replaced as it was a differing thread type than it should have been and the screw was a cheese head slotted/Robertson combination head that was definitely a replacement at some point in the Sender's history. Fortunately, I had backup hardware from the spare receiver.

The two lower PLATES were mounted this evening and I now have to give some thought on how to proceed with reinstalling some of the knobs and handles. A little bit more research required there as well, but slowly I am making some progress.

David