Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

If anyone is interested, here is the data for the paint I had colour matched to the 52-Set Sender panel once the discoloured varnish had been polished back.

The Paint Base:

RONA Anti-Rust Enamel, Exterior, Gloss Finish, Medium Base R25-512, 3.78 litres.

Tint Code:

Daylight Oz 48 96*

Q 2 31 1
V 15
X 1 16 1
Y 3 34


David


* The format should be three columns headed 'Oz', '48' and '96'. V is under 48. Y is under Oz and 48.

[David Dunlop]

Another sunny day this morning so I decided to take advantage of the Sender panel still sitting in the dining room to mask off the damaged side of the METER decal and touch it up. Naturally, that led to touching up a number of the decals where large chips in the black paint had happened, but did not involve any lettering.

The first three photos show the application of Postit Notes to mask the edges of the METER decal. I no longer trust any commercial painting tapes on the market for application to 75-year-old wireless panel equipment, having experienced catastrophic lifting of paint decades ago.

The paint I use for touching up the black decals is TESTORS Semi-Gloss Black.

The last photo shows the end result.

There are still a couple of small, rectangular decals on the panel that need to be masked and re-edged, but I will do those later. Then a couple of curved edges need to be sorted out, along with a few chips that have taken pieces of lettering with them. I have to think about these latter ones a bit, I would like to get a layer of luminous paint down first before attempting touch up of the surrounding black. That may prove an interesting challenge.

In the meantime, I like the direction this work is headed in.


David

[David Dunlop]

Turns out the nice sunny day today might be the last one for a few days, so I took advantage of it this morning and finished touching up the last of the fiddly bits on the black sections of the decals.

This leaves just two small chips on the MODE OF OPERATION and METER decals to deal with, where the damage involves the luminous lettering.

There is also a small blob of something black that has fallen on the lower right edge of the PA LOADING decal, overlapping a letter. I have decided to leave that spot as is since I am not sure what it is, or what sort of changes it may have effected to the actual decal. I simply don’t want to may an annoying thing much worse, trying to make it better.

I will check the panel out under UV light this coming weekend to see if anything else needs addressing with the decals.

David

[James D Teel II]

I love it.

[David Dunlop]

It has taken about a year and a half of research and searching to find this particular piece of the 52-Set Tool Kit. It was one of the 14 packages I got home this past week.

This particular soldering iron was made by Drake in the USA. It's origin was the Drake Model 325-100, 110 Volt AC soldering iron which came out sometime in the 1930's. It would have had a black lacquer wooden handle and an asbestos black power cord with a tracer woven into it.The cord was 5-1/2 feet long.

The 12 Volt DC model had a 7-1/2 foot long cord with a pair of Mueller 24A Battery Clips at the end of a 6 inch open section of the cord. The soldering iron I finally found was an early 120 Volt AC model with a natural lacquered wooden handle with the same turnings. I can source the correct cable and Mueller Clips to bring this one in line with what it's DC counterpart would have looked like. The odds of finding a limited issue 12 Volt DC soldering iron are pretty remote these days.

David

[David Dunlop]

I was surprised at how small these keys are in real life. I am glad they fit in a small envelope as they would be very hard to find at the bottom of the Tool Box rattling around loose in an emergency.

The No. 6 is a four spline key while the two larger ones are 6-spline.

David

[David Dunlop]

These are the receptacles into which the Airloc Studs for the upper panel of the 52-Set Receivers lock. Countersunk, tubular rivets are used to hold them in place in those two locations.

These fasteners are also used in the top and side rails of the Carriers No. 4 ( four in each location) to which the Coil, Aerial Tuning Box is fitted. In these two locations the fasteners are spot welded in place and would be very tough to replace.

The right side fastener on one of my receivers is broken and needs to be replaced and I was having a hard time finding the receptacles. Finally, the light bulb lit with regards to the word 'Cowl' and I started searching on vintage aircraft restoration sites. Bingo! there they were, and still being referenced by their Airloc Stock Number 99833P-130.

No luck yet finding the replacement pins needed for the Airloc studs themselves, or the equivalent for the Shakeproof Cowl Fasteners. Critical bits as the pins cannot be reused once removed from a stud.

David