Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

I was finally able to sit down and get the Gloss Navy Grey touch up paint work done on the Sender panel yesterday morning. The 16-hour drying time was up at 5:00am this morning, though a good week will be needed for the paint to cure and harden.

As I expected, the colour match is excellent. But the difference in gloss between original and new paints does make the touched up sections sparkle somewhat in the light when you move the panel around a bit. Considering the amount of hardware and all the fittings to be reattached to the panel, however, I think the touched up paint will be lost in the other details of the panel when fully reassembled.

The two photos today compare the touched up panel to the last stage where the primer had been applied.

Next step will be to touch up the larger paint damage to the black sections of the decals. The right hand edge of the large METER Decal – which should be flush with the right edge of the panel – is a good example of what I mean, in the lower right corner. Once that is done, I can haul out the UV Lamp and detail any other chips that show up in the black sections of the decals.

In the meantime, the collection of parts and tools sitting at the Border are now on their way to Winnipeg and should be delivered sometime this coming week. Happy Dance for that!

David

[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

[David Dunlop]

These big boys ( 4 inches long) are used on a number of battery and ground connectors for the 52-Set. Typically, an end of the connector in question has a heavy ring terminal lug soldered to it and the lug in turn is screwed onto the end of the Mueller Clip.

I picked these up to be sure I had them down the road to fabricate replica cables.

I find it strange that these heavy duty clips are used for battery and ground cables but the smaller (3-inch) No. 24A Mueller Clip, rated at only 25-Amps, is used on the 12-Volt Soldering Iron cable. Need to find a couple of those No. 24A's now as well.

David

[David Dunlop]

Way back in Post #313, I put up a photograph of a 3.8 litre Mason jar, noting it was a recently obtained part for this project.

Well here is another related set of pieces; 12 solid Zinc electrode plates. A third critical bit is a 6/12 Volt DC, 2 Amp Trickle Charger I have had at hand for a long time. I am going to delve into the interesting world of small scale, home electroplating. Two more simple items need to be picked up; vinegar and salt.

Most wartime metal hardware and wireless chassis parts were plated. The commonest two plating materials were cadmium and zinc. Nickel was a distant third. Cadmium is almost impossible to find these days, so I went with the zinc. There is really not a lot of difference between a cadmium and a zinc-coated part. On their own, you would likely have a 50/50 chance of a correct guess. Put the two plated parts side by side, however, and in most instances, the cadmium coating will show a more silver grey appearance next to the slightly darker tone of grey from the zinc coating.

I have several solid brass items that need to be plated to match what was originally used with the 52-Set. I now also have a lot of hardware and small metal fitting on the Sender that could do with being replated. The type of stuff modern plating shops are simply not interested in doing anymore, without charging an arm and a leg. After researching DIY plating, it seemed simple enough and will make for an interesting side trip in this project.

David

[David Dunlop]

Once I had found a supplier for the truss head and countersunk tubular rivets I needed to replace the damaged parts on the 52-Set, the next issue was finding an appropriate clinching tool to set the rivets, I ruled out the hand held, clinching sets requiring a hammer to clinch the rivets, Way too brutal! The way to go with clinching tubular rivets is by means of a slow and steady application of pressure until the proper closure is achieved.

A number of plier-like hand tools are out there but they all have limited reach and are expensive. The next option is really not much more than a modified C-Clamp. They can provide the slow steady pressure, but often lacked enough reach, were too wide, or the fixed handle got in the way. More important, the screw was typically not a precision thread, which allowed a lot of wobble in the tool.

While surfing the web one evening, I stumbled across a small company in the USA that specialized in the restoration of antique tin toys. The kind made between the 1880’s and the 1950’s. These toys use a lot of tubular rivets in their manufacture and this company had designed their own hand-clinching tool to get the quality they needed.

The main body of ¼-inch thick, tool grade steel. Both upper and lower screws are adjustable. The upper screw supports either a truss head or flat, countersunk rivet head. The lower, black screw is the clinching head. Something I had not thought of with the simple C-Clamp modified clinchers is the base of the C-Clamp, where the rivet head usually sits, ends up being so close to one side of the materials being riveted together, you cannot easily see if the rivet is properly seated. By making both ends of this tool adjustable, one can move the tool far enough away from the materials being worked on to clearly see how things are lining up. This company had done a limited production run of extra tools, the price was right, it had tremendous quality, so I bought one.

David

[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

[David Dunlop]

First time ever clinching tubular rivets this morning.

Something of a job for an octopus, there are so many things to control. I started by sliding the bottom edge of the Sender panel down between two sofa cushions to keep it vertical and stable. I then mounted the Access/Blower Door with the upper and lower hardware. This was necessary to ensure I had the proper clearance between the door hinge plate that mounts behind the Sender panel, and the left side of the TERMINALS, Aerial Mounting Plate. Next was to line up the plate itself with the panel holes and use a strip of masking tape to hold it in place. Then I had to slide the first tubular rivet in place and get the clinching tool properly lined up with it. This was where the exercise got interesting.

When the two ends of the clinching tool are in contact with the rivet and holding, the rivet is still free to slide back and forth in the pieces you are trying to fasten together. You have to ensure the truss head of the rivet is in contact with the material you are joining on that side, while at the same time ensuring the tool is square to the rivet on both the X and Y-axis. This concentration has to be maintained until the clinch you are forming with the tool rolls back far enough to engage the material being joined on its side. At that point the rivet head will pull in as you proceed and you just have to focus on keeping everything square.

The end result is in the attached photos. I do not know when the original mounting plate was broken, but it is really nice to see the first major damage on the Sender having been repaired. Two more bits to go.

The original condition of this TERMINALS, Aerial can be seen back in Posts 302 and 314. The TERMINALS, Aerial was merely test fitted now to see how it looked restored. I have removed it from its Mounting Plate once again until the Sender Panel is reinstalled.

David

[David Dunlop]

Sometimes the side projects are just as interesting as the main event. A good example of that is the research done to track these items down.

As with all of the parts for the Wireless Set No. 52, the above noted description for these parts is the military one, taken directly from the Illustrated Parts List for the 52-Set. If one searches the web using this description, or even parts thereof, one does not find much. Searching with the name ‘Airloc’ found on the larger Cowl Fastener Studs did turn up some illustrations of the studs and their corresponding receptacles and a general description of how they worked, and not much more.

Several styles of studs were shown and confirmation was given their prime use was in the aviation industry, where the most common studs were either slotted truss head, or slotted countersunk. The wing head styles used in the 52-Set are largely ignored.

When one actually has a complete 52-Set on hand to study and cross reference to the Illustrated Parts List, the light bulb eventually goes on that the Shakeproof Company also made similar, though smaller, wing head cowl stud fasteners, and these were used on the Supply Unit and Sender. An even closer look at the four of these on my set, after they had been cleaned, revealed a third company, Dot Fasteners, was also making these smaller wing head cowl fasteners as one time.

It took some digging, but I now know the fixed receptacles for the larger Airloc stud fasteners can be found on-line at vintage aircraft parts suppliers. The wing head studs of any size or company are still proving elusive. That just left the PINS to deal with.

The PINS are what make these fasteners work. When the stud is inserted into the spring receptacle and given the required one-quarter turn, it is the two ends of the PIN, sticking out either side of the stud that engage the slots in the receptacle and follow them down to the cups where they lock in place. These PINS are one time use only. If the stud needs to be removed for any reason, the PIN is pressed out and removed, and a brand new one put in its place when reassembled. Logic said the PINS had to be available somewhere as the studs in one form or another are still being used today. It was not until another recent search of the web that I spotted a photograph of one of these PINS, with a description of it being a ‘cross pin’ that the mystery was solved. Sticking the name ‘Airloc’ in front of the words ‘cross pin’, on the very first try, took me to a company called AIRCRAFT SPRUCE CANADA located in Brantford, Ontario and their very helpful Sales Rep, Carolyn Harris.

Carolyn pointed me to Stock Number 04-01071 in their inventory, which turned out to be:

AIRLOC Cross Pin, Steel 99785-2

See the attached photo. These are the cross pins needed for the smaller Shakeproof and Dot Cowl Stud Fasteners on the 52-Set Supply Unit and Sender.

Carolyn also took the time to mention that these two different sized Cowl fasteners have an industry standard identification across all manufacturers. It shows up in the last digit of the Airloc Part Number above, ‘-2’.

The larger cowl fasteners, as used on the 52-Set Receiver and Coil, Aerial Tuning are referred to as ‘#5’, or ‘-5’ sized fasteners. The smaller ones like the Shakeproof and Dot are referred to as ‘#2’, or ‘-2’ sized fasteners.

Overall, more needed parts for the project found and an interesting addition to the learning curve.

David

[Jordan Baker]

Great find. Aircraft Spruce Canada has some great items. I’ve always found the. To be very helpful

[David Dunlop]

Hi Jordan. Yes it is nice when you run across companies like that these days.

I was able to get the second fiddly little task out of the way on the Sender this afternoon by carefully drilling out the broken stem from the Sender panel mounting screw located directly above the BAND Switch in the upper right corner of the chassis. Even nicer than getting the stem out, was the fact that when I tested the hole with a spare screw, it went in, and came out, beautifully.

This just leaves one final, but challenging task for the Sender while it is in stripped down mode: figuring out how to reset the COUNTERS, 0/9999 ZA/CAN 4642 for the 7 – 16 MC PA LOADING Control back to read ‘0000’.

At this point, I am pretty certain the COUNTERS assembly will have to be removed to be reset. Then I will have to figure out how to keep it set at all zeros, while maintaining all its correct mechanical orientations to realign with its Tuning Coil connection when reinstalled.

On the bright side, I have a spare COUNTERS assembly from a parted out Coil, Aerial Tuning Unit to sort things out with and with the colder weather here once again, lots of spare indoor time is available.


David

[David Dunlop]

After drilling out the broken panel screw stub from the chassis the other day, I remembered there was a screw completely missing in the lower feft corner and next to it, an incorrect machine screw. I decided to check both those holes as well with proper hardware to ensure there were no surprises later on and both worked perfectly well.

There are a handful of small parts that mount directly to the Sender panel independent of chassis attachment or other parts, so I have decided to replace them now while the panel is easy to work with.

First back on today was the Data Plate. Seemed only proper.

David

[David Dunlop]

I found myself at a bit of a wall this passed weekend with the 52-Set Project. I would very much like to get on with the reassembly of the Sender and was very keen to add more bits back onto the front panel.

One of these was the large, conical, Bakelite SOCKETS, Antenna in the upper right corner. This is the main connection point of the set to the Coils, Aerial Tuning and beyond.

The problem was, I am missing two 6-32 external tooth lock washers from the mounting hardware: the two screws that are the most difficult to access when the set is in its normal upright position. And secondly, when I looked inside the Bakelite cone at the front. The brass sockets assembly way inside is a filthy mess and needs to come out for a full clean up. I eventually pulled myself back from the idea of reinstallation at the moment and will take the time to clean and source the proper missing hardware.

Won that round so far!

David

[David Dunlop]

One of the other parts I wanted to reinstall on the weekend was this one.

I have the original from the Sender and a second one, which is from a spare parts Coil Aerial Tuning Unit. Both of these, however, have had their mounting hardware over tightened when last mounted on their respective parts. The result of this, over time, is the pressure exerted by the hardware slowing pushes the material out from under the screw heads and to the left of the PLATES assembly. This has the effect of lifting the extreme left edge about 1/16-inch off the front panel face.

Both of these PLATES are dimensionally identical, but the similarities end there. The upper one in the photo is from the spare COILS, Aerial Tuning, and is identical to the one on the COILS, Aerial Tuning on my 52-Set (except that one lies perfectly flat). Both of these COILS units were rebuilt at some point post war. The original two luminous decals have been replaced with none luminous ones with white borders. It would not surprise me if these two PLATES were replacements as well. They may be prone to a lot of breakage, as they get older.

The lower PLATES is from the Sender and is very likely an original example of what CMC used on their production line.

All three are a sandwich assembly; a thick inner core with a very think white skin bonded either side. The similarities end there.

The original one is much more translucent than the other two, when they are held up to a light. The printed markings are a definite, dark black. The printing on the other two is a pale mid grey colour. The background of the original was probably a smooth clean white colour that has yellowed over time. The other two have a parchment paper kind of colour to them and although the surface is completely smooth to the touch, it has the look of very fine sandstone to it.

If anyone has a COILS, Aerial Tuning still with its original all black, luminous green decals, I would be curious to see what PLATES, Phenolic, Calibration is fitted to it.

David

[David Dunlop]

It turned out to be such a nice sunny, warm, calm day this afternoon; I could not let it go to waste. I stripped down all the varnished, chipped paint from these two KNOBS for the Sender and primed them out on the driveway.

They should be cured in a couple of days, and it is supposed to still be nice weather then, so they can then get a final coat of Gloss Navy Grey.

These KNOBS must have been refinished during the sets 1966 Workshop Overhaul. No primer was used. The core metal is cast brass with zinc plating. You could actually put pressure on the stem of each item with a thumb and finger and twist the paint off the KNOBS. I could not see any primer of any colour on the inside of the paint chips.

David

[David Dunlop]

These are the Cross-Pins (-5 or #5) used with the large Airloc Cowl Fastener Studs found on the 52-Set Receiver and Coil, Aerial Tuning assemblies.

I found them in stock at MilSpec Products, Inc. in Sorrento, Florida. Their Stock Number for these parts is 294185.

David

[David Dunlop]

This is the tool needed for installing the Cross-Pins for the two versions of the Cowl-Fastener Studs found on the Wireless Set No. 52 components. It can also be used to carefully press out the pins already in place, though, with a little care, any adjustable head set of pliers could do this, as long as you do not damage the stud trying.

They were out of stock of this tool at AIRCRAFT SPRUCE CANADA, but did have them available at MilSpec Products when I ordered the larger Cross Pins from them.

They look like a simple large Vise Grip, but the jaws have been machined to accept the two sizes of Cross-Pins (-2 and -5) and if you have more than one of the same type to install, after the first one is centred in its stud, you can close up the hex nut on the adjustment shaft of the tool to lock the settings in place for the rest of the pins you need to install.

And, No, this brand new tool is not rusty. That was the reflection from a large pile of orange wool on the dining room table when I took the photo this morning. I did not notice it when taking the picture.

David

[David Dunlop]

Another beautiful, warm, sunny day, so these two KNOBS received their top coat of Armor Coat, Gloss Misty Grey paint this morning, so they will be ready for reinstallation on the Sender front panel when the time comes.

David

[David Dunlop]

I finally got around to disassembling the central core of this SOCKETS, Antenna, to give it all a good cleaning. Good thing I did, as there was a lot of sooty grease packed between the Bakelite fitting and the central assembly.

Once cleaned and polished, I reassembled it for reinstallation on the Sender panel down the road, once the missing pair of #6 external tooth lock washers have been replaced. I should be able to source them locally, in spite of the current lockdown we are in.

It was interesting to notice the plating on the brass central socket was worn away, leaving the shiny brass when cleaned. The similar brass socket on the COIL, Aerial Tuning also shows a high degree of wear on the plating with and lot of brass visible. However, the ones on the three receivers are essentially factory mint in condition. They simply never got used over the service life of this 52-Set to wear them down.

David