Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

A bit of a milestone has now been reached with the work on the 52-Set Sender. I have done all the cleaning I can now with the chassis resting on its back. One small section of the lowermost chassis stills needs to be cleaned – the area surrounding the socket for the 813 valve – but I cannot easily access it until the chassis is returned to its upright position. This, however, cannot be done with all the components normally secured to the front panel, flopping around loose.

Fortunately, I still have the three Flick Drive assemblies to continue dismantling for cleaning and repainting of the Indicator Flags on each. Then it is a case of cleaning and polishing the front of the panel to get it to a point it can be reassembled to the Sender chassis.

An interesting observation at this point should be made though, regarding the Flick Drives used on the Wireless Set No. 52.

I do not think calling these Flick Drives a ‘Standard Feature’ on wartime British wireless equipment is entirely warranted, but they were certainly common to many wireless sets, and they appear to have worked reasonably well up to the time the Wireless Set No. 19 came into service, and the shear numbers of 19-Sets in use, quickly revealed the limitations of these drives. The design was sound, but the products chosen for assembly, quickly proved wanting.

The main problem that came to light by 1943 was that with high usage of pre-set Flick Frequencies, the drives eventually began to fail to return to the chosen frequency reliably. In fact, they would start to drift off the pre-set frequencies so badly, renetting to the required frequency became the only way to get the set back where it was supposed to be. The answer for that with the 19-Sets was the introduction of the Crystal Calibrator unit developed by Canadian Marconi.

In developing what became the Wireless Set No. 52, Canadian Marconi built the Crystal Calibrator designed initially for the 19-Set into the Receiver of the 52-Set. And they went further. In reviewing the concerns raised by the Flick Drives loosing the ability to return to their pre-set frequencies with the 19-Set, two problems were identified.

The BUSHES, Dial, Mounting, No. 2 (ZA 14552) were made of machined, cast zinc. This was found to be too soft and wore out easily with prolonged, repeated use. Canadian Marconi switched to a bronze alloy for these BUSHES on the 52-Set.

The second problem was found to be with the two small BRACKETS, Supporting, No. 1 (ZA 14553) located at the outer, upper corners of the Flick Drives. These had typically been made of small folded steel pieces, screwed to the back plate of the drive. In turn, the front panel of the wireless set was then screwed to these small brackets. It was too easy to strip any of the screws in these assemblies, and the sheet steel flexed too much. This combination would eventually allow the Flick Drive to move as a unit behind the panel when flicking between the two pre-set frequencies. Canadian Marconi solved this by switching to solid bronze alloy BRACKETS, welded in place on the Flick Drives intended for the 52-Set.

A third problem was found to be the steel used in assembling the Flick Drives was too soft. CMC upgraded the specs for the steel they used in their Flick Drive Production.

One extra step CMC undertook was to include the FREQUENCY ADJUSTMENT Control directly above the Tuning Dial on the 52-Set Receiver, just in case a pre-set flick frequency was not spot on when returned to, adjusting that Control would find the correct frequency quickly for the Operator.

The attached photo shows the Bronze alloy BUSHES readily on the three Flick Drives and the triangular plated bronze alloy blocks mounted in the upper corners of the drive assemblies.

This is why the manuals for the 52-Set point out that although the drives and parts thereof are common to both the 52-Set and the 19-Set, 19-Set parts should not be used because they are of inferior quality.

David

[David Dunlop]

I spent the morning today disassembling the rightmost Flick Drive assembly…to a point. A pause was then required for some serious reflection.

The two Flick Indicator Flags at the top of each Flick Drive Assembly need to be repainted. The easiest way to do that would be in removing them from the Drives. The problem, when I got to that point, is the two screws securing the Indicator Flags and their host of assorted springs are impossible to get at with even the smallest screwdriver, without removing the components immediately above them. Something I am just not prepared to do.

The leftmost Flick Drive has little directly above it, but what is there cannot be removed. Mainly the lower Cowl Fastener Receptacle assembly that is welded to the chassis.

After studying the problem for a while, I decided it would be possible to carefully cover over the entire front chassis of the Sender, leaving just the six Flick Indicator Flags exposed. In that condition, they can all be stripped of the existing damaged paint and completely repainted. So a huge amount of additional physical disassembly work can be avoided at the expense of slightly more prep work for the actual painting. I got away lucky with that one.

The other noticeable thing coming out of the Flick Drive pieces today was how different the metal pieces look when clean, compared to the corresponding parts in a 19-Set. They are not the usual dull grey Cadmium Plating one is accustomed to, but a rather shiny finish. Clearly different plating has been used (if one was used) and this may be a reflection of CMC’s decision to use a higher grade of steel in these Flick Drive parts compared to what had been used in the 19-Set items.

David

[David Dunlop]

This 52-Set is never short of surprises, large and small.

I have now finished cleaning all three Flick Drive Assemblies on the Sender today. The surprise this time around was fortunately a small one, but interesting none the less.

When I got to the Frequency Dial Drive on the far left side of the Sender and was removing the Lower Flick Arm, I noticed for the first time that it was different from the other two Lower Flick Arms. And from all other five Flick Arms for that matter. They are all the same, just mounted differently if being used as an Upper or Lower.

A closer look at the odd one confirmed it was actually a Flick Arm from a 19-Set. In the first photo attached, you can see the subtle difference. The 19-Set arm is on the left and the 52-Set arm on the right. The difference is in the extreme left tip of the arm.

As you can see, the tip of the 19-Set arm is stepped down from the last mounting hole to the end. On the 52-Set arm, the lower edge of the arm runs full length to the end curve and is cut back at an angle at the top end.

With the 19-Set arm installed, the end of the arm stuck out slightly beyond the edge of the Upper Drive Disc. I do not think this would create any problems in doing so. It might be a different matter, however, if a 19-Set arm was installed as an Upper Flick Arm in a 52-Set. That end-mounting hole near the tip is actually fitted over the central Flick Indicator Flag Spring Hub and the tip plays a role in activating the Flags by means of applying tension to the Indicator Leaf Springs. Different tips would end up applying pressure on these springs at different points and times. I was not interested in exploring that any further, so removed the Lower Flick Arm and Spring assembly from my spare receiver and installed it onto the Flick Drive in the Sender.

Now I have to decide if the Sender Blower Door is the next restoration step, polishing it back to an acceptable paint patina, or switching over to finish fine tuning my recently assembled, new band saw so I can cut the pine boards needed to restore the missing partition in the 52-Set Tool Box.

David

[David Dunlop]

A little bit of a ‘step back’ from the 52-Set Sender this week. The work was at a logical point for a break and I needed to get a few things completed in the garage to continue with the overall project. That work was mainly final adjustments on the band saw I had assembled earlier, and bolting down the bench belt sander and giving it final adjustments as well. It was cool this week and it made sense to get those things out of the way. With that work being done, I decided to get back into the 52-Set Project by backing up a bit to work on the wooden Tool Box again.

I had not done much with the tool box since obtaining it from Jordan Baker, way back around Posts 60 to 65, other than sorting out the specs for it and what was missing from it. Basically, just two pieces were missing, the wooden partition inside and one metal bracket. I had worked out the details for both pieces and realized the partition would be something I could tackle easily enough.

The partition was assembled from solid. Clear pine boards, one half inch thick. It spanned the width of the box at 6 inches and was four and three quarters high. It formed a space at the left end of the box exactly 3 inches wide that was used to hold the cord for the 12 Volt DC soldering iron. The handle of the iron rested on the front top of the partition and the tip of the iron in the small metal bracket that was still in place at the front right side of the box, four and three quarter inches up off the floor of the box.

The challenge was that one half inch thick boards cannot be had these days Best I could find was three quarter inch clear yellow pine, seven and a quarter inches wide, so I bought a two foot length to work with. I marked off an eight inch wide piece (building in a Goof Factor) and split it in half lengthwise. This gave me two pieces of board that I could work with in the band saw when it came time to trim the thickness down to one half inch. Once trimmed, I glued the two pieces back together, let them set and then sanded down the rough bits on the cut side and finally trimmed the piece to the required 6 x 4.75 inches.


David

[David Dunlop]

Once I had the finished piece cut, I lightly sanded the top two edges to match the profile of the existing wood pieces in the box, as they have had 70 years of wear on them to soften the edges somewhat. Then it was a test fit that was delightful!

I then applied a single coat of the paint I had matched at RONA, by hand, both sides and top edge. I left the two ends and bottom of the partition unpainted to preserve an original look. The factory paint was applied after assembly of the box. I was not too worried about thin spots showing in the paint as the rest of the interior has some wear spots thinning the paint out a bit in a few locations, so it blends in better.

I had to think a bit about the best way to reinstall the partition. I assumed a 3-inch spacer block was likely used at the factory to quickly get the partition placed correctly at the left side of the box, so cut a 3-inch section of 2 x 4 to serve the same purpose.


David

[David Dunlop]

The nails used to fasten the partition were ¾-inch finishing nails. I initially though they might have been countersunk and filled, but after a bit of close study, realized they were simply hammered flush with the outside face of the box. Three nails were used front and back. One roughly centred and the other two about one half inch in from the top and bottom of the partition. The original holes were still visible, but filled with years of dirt and oil. This came in handy.

I pre-set the six nails to a point just before they poked into the interior of the box. This allowed me to easily set the partition up against the wooden spacer, ensure the partition was square in both directions and then hold it in place while lightly tapping each nail just enough to capture the partition. I could then easily remove the spacer block and run each nail home. I then used a flat punch to make certain each nail was flush with the exterior of the tool box.

David

[David Dunlop]

The process of isolating the three sets of Flick Indicator Flags on the front of the 52-Set Sender has now been completed, along with the related masking of the entire chassis for the ensuing work.

I split a pair of printer paper sheets in half length wise and centred two 5/8-inch slots one and a half inches apart to slide over each set of flags. When the three sets were so covered, I simply added larger sheets of packing paper over the front and sides of the chassis with masking tape.

This way, as I remove the old paint from the faces of the flags, the paint bits will be accessible for clearing away with a small battery vacuum I bought years ago to clean computers and never used. Everything is then also ready for the application of the flat white, flat black and luminous paint back onto the six flags.

David