Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

The Knobs, Metal from the front panel of the Vibratory Supply has now been cleaned of all its old paint and is now ready for a coast of its galvanized metal primer.

Notice the ring cast into the zinc around the rim of the Knob. With all the 52-Set components I now have on hand, there are a total of 11 Knobs, Metal to look at and this is the only one to have this ring. All the others have a smooth front face. It is possible Canadian Marconi was contracting with two suppliers for these Knobs, but if that were the case, one would expect to see more of these ringed examples, particularly given the random locations throughout the 52-Set production run that all the serial numbers on the components fall.

Then I recalled the Philco stamp on top of the Power Transformer in the Vibratory Supply. At the time I found it, the simple assumption was Philco was contracted to make these transformers for Canadian Marconi, but is it possible Philco was actually a sub-contractor for the entire Vibratory Supply assembly, and they in turn had a different company casting the zinc Knobs, Metal they needed to fulfill their contact?


David

[David Dunlop]

The Knobs, Metal for the front panel of this assembly has now been primed.

With luck, I may get some Gloss Navy Grey painting done this coming weekend.

David

[David Dunlop]

While reviewing some earlier photos I took of the inside of the Vibratory Supply assembly (Reference Post #770), I realized all the hardware in this assembly was sealed with a flat yellow lacquer, For some reason I did not pay much attention to this at the time, but now took the time to confirm all the other components of this 52-Set had a clear lacquer applied to the hardware.

I then rechecked each component chassis, and on each found either a small round CMC Inspection Stamp, either struck directly into the metal somewhere, and/or small black or blue ink stamps showing the metalwork had been inspected and approved for continued processing on the line. No such marks can be found on the front panel plate for the Vibratory Supply. The most likely place for such marks would be the upper rear section of the panel where it would have been easily seen. As per the last photo in Post #778, nothing shows.

It makes no sense to me that Canadian Marconi would have wasted money on a section of the production area making Vibratory Supplies to have a different coloured sealing lacquer from the rest of production, but if Philco was making these Vibratory Supply assemblies for Canadian Marconi, the visible evidence fits that theory.

I wonder how well the executives of each company knew each other during the war?


David

[David Dunlop]

The finish coat of Gloss Navy Grey has now been applied to the Vibratory Supply front panel and its Knobs, Metal. This will take about three days to reach a state of ‘soft cure’ and another two to three weeks thereafter to attain its final ‘hard cure’.

That’s a good thing because there are lots of other tasks to accomplish in the meantime.


David

[David Dunlop]

A start has now been made on cleaning this pair of Clips for the front panel of the Vibratory Supply. They have a nice heavy plating of Nickel on them, which is a good thing. So far, a solvent cleaning, a vigorous scrub with a small brass brush and a rub with Autosol have started to bring one of then nicely back to life.

By the time I get both cleaned up along with their SEMS hardware, the front panel of the Vibratory Supply should be fully cured and ready for reassembly.


David

[Bob Carriere]

Hi David

What kind of paint glossy grey are you using???? do you bother with a primer coat...or a self hetch primer or do any kind of acid wash before painting????

Always fascinated by the care and attention you take........ I am limited to regular 19 sets all in various state/conditions that need some attention.

Cold days gets me back to the old radio stuff. Winter brings about something to be done inside.

I took apart an old US army surplus telephone/telegrapgh converter to salvage some quick disconnect fixtures for other projects. As usual saved all the small nuts, bolts, washers, and the needed parts which had soldered pigtails.......

While warming up the soldering iron, it reminded me of about 70 years ago when my Dad kept me busy unsoldering pigtails from parts he would salvage from truck loads of radio parts. A single axle dump truck load was $25.00 (1952) mix bag of all kind of army radios.....included aircraft radio and 19 sets..... some huge carburators and boxes of wiring/cables.

The old iron was a wooden handle monster that really heated up and I used a soda straw to blow the metal solder out of the connection holes. Used a piece of woven asbestos cloth to wipe the gun tip and carbon Tet to de- grease switches........ wonder I am still alive!!!!!!

also had a home made Germanium crystal radio with earphones...... no batteries required just a wire out the window and a clip on the water pipe.

Cheers

It sure kept me busy for hours.........

[David Dunlop]

Good Evening, Bob.

We are just hunkering down here for a potential storm supposed to arrive sometime in the next few hours and last until Wednesday morning with up to 20 cms of snow and winds on the plus side of 70 kms. Still lots of holiday wine left, so we are good.

The paint I have found to be the closest match to the wartime ‘Gloss Navy Grey’ is an Armor Coat product from their rust paint series. It is called ‘Misty Grey’ with a nice high gloss finish. Their stock number is #47002RP522 and I can find it locally at either Canadian Tire or RONA.

It goes on with an almost orange peel look, which is a bit alarming the first time you see it and it stays a bit tacky to the touch for the first 24 hours at room temperature, but as it skins over, the oils off gas through it, the skin tightens and the orange peel look flattens out. After 48 hours, you end up with a slick, smooth finish and I always let the parts hard cure for two weeks before working with them. It is a very close match on its own to the original, but with a grey primer under it is pretty much spot on.

It appears that the majority of all the Canadian and American wartime wireless equipment, if not all of it, used a grey primer. I have only ever found red oxide under postwar overhauled equipment so far.

The go to primer for me is Rustoleum’s Tremclad ‘Grey’ #274103522, which I use on all the steel bits. Just prior to priming, I wipe the parts down with alcohol on a cloth.

For the cast zinc parts, there are two on the 19-Sets and three on the 52-Set, I use Tremclads ‘Galvanized Metal White’ #274101522. It actually dries a cream colour when applied.

I used to worry about the possible plating on a lot of the sheet steel components on the wireless equipment because the two common ones were zinc and cadmium. What I have discovered over time, however, is that the main reason the old wartime paints come off so easily is that the plating oxidizes and the original bond between the metal and primer fails, so once the paint is off, there is little, if any plating left to worry about. I think humidity plays a big part in that paint bond failure.

I have only ever used a quick acid etch as a final step before rinsing off parts before electroplating them, and for that I use Muriatic Acid cut 50/50 with water and dip the parts for only 20 to 30 seconds. So far so good with that approach.

Your comments about soldering brought back memories, Bob. In High School Metal Shop we used big heavy wood handled irons. They had solid copper heads about 1.25 inches square and when new, the heads were probably 6 inches long, cut to a pyramid point. They had twisted wrought iron shafts between the head and handle, about a foot long and at the front of each workbench was a cast iron, gas fired oven that would hold two such irons, a large can of flux and a horse hide towel. You started with two clean irons in the oven, when they came up to heat, you pulled one to work with, dipped the tip in the flux, which produced a big green flame and then proceeded to do your soldering work, usually with bar solder. When the iron started to cool, you wiped it on the towel and returned it to the oven and picked up the second iron ready to repeat the process and keep the workflow going. Our Electrical Shop had electric soldering irons almost as big and heavy as the manual ones in the metal shop! It still impressed me today, the quality of work craftsmen, and women, 70 plus years ago accomplished with that equipment.

Hope this helps, Bob. Stay warm!

David