Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[Mike K]

A chap here in Adelaide ( VK5WT) had some repro No.8 bases made in a ceramic material . After painting the bases appearance was pretty good.

https://www.sentimentaljourney.co.uk...ase-aerial-No8

[David Dunlop]

Even though the work on the Main Set Receiver is on hold at the moment, things are still getting accomplished.

This morning, I had a lovely drive out to visit with Derk Derin and his lovely wife, Dawn. It is so nice to get out and visit with people once again. It was a good visit; we were able to catch up on a lot of general news and progress on our respective military restoration projects.

Part of that catching up was Derk passing on to me the PINS, Tent, Wood he found at our favourite surplus yard. They will make a very nice tribute and representation of the Kit No. 6 Tent Kit, which formed a part of the overall Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian system.

80 years on, I doubt very much any of these Tent Kits have survived undisturbed anywhere in any condition, never mind complete.

As per the first photo, these PINS were tied together with hemp twine in bundles of six for each tent and. Along with a second style were found inside the Wireless Tent Valise in a cotton bag. There is a small tied off loop in the end of the twine that probably secured a paper ID Tag at one time.

As per the illustrations in the Master Parts List, all these particular PINS have ‘C.M.C. 42' stamped in blue-black ink on one side of the head. That begs an interesting question. If a Wireless Tent existed in 1942 that Canadian Marconi was involved in manufacturing, they must have been doing it for either, or both of, the Wireless Set No. 9 and Wireless Set No. 9 Mk I prior to introduction of what became the Wireless Set No. 52.

The second photo shows this ink stamp on one of the loose PINS Derk found in a building on the verge of collapse.

The other photo is of two more loose PINS, the top one I have cleaned the years of accumulated dust and dirt off of it with Lemon Oil furniture cleaner and the ink stamp is just visible. The lower pin has not been cleaned at all, for comparison. I am not certain what the wood is at the moment, however my top two choices are either Oak or Douglas Fir.


David

[David Dunlop]

Just a ‘heads up’ that I copied the title ID in the previous Post verbatim from the 52-Set Master Parts List and have now discovered it held a typo. The VAOS Section Code should have been the one shown above here, not the ‘1J’ CMC printed in error.

David

[David Dunlop]

I got an email late yesterday afternoon my hook up wire had arrived so scampered up to the electronics shop first thing this morning to pick it up.

Project for the week: add appropriate leads to the replacement Trimmer Capacitor for my Main Set Receiver.

Project for next weekend: stay sane and get the Trimmer Capacitor replacement job done.


David

[David Dunlop]

Based on how nicely the test PINS cleaned up the other day, I took the two scruffy ones and cleaned them as well with Lemon Oil.

After it had dried, I gave the three PINS a very light coat of Boiled Linseed Oil with a small rag. After half an hour, I wiped off any remaining surface oil and left then dry for 24 hours. I then repeated the process.

Quite pleased with the way they turned out. The colour tone of the wood looks very much like what they all would have been when factory new and hopefully they will last another 80 years.


David

[David Dunlop]

If you look back to the first photo in Post #663, you can see the factory binding on the set of six PINS. The twine used to bind them is fine Jute. I was up at a local shop the other day studying their great selection of twines. I suspected the original was Jute as it has the right mix of strength and flexibility.

Two sizes were available, Fine and Heavy. The original bundle over 80 years has seen the jute relax and stretch a bit, letting the twist of the fibres expand a bit.The factory new 'Heavy' Jute I was looking at was thicker than the fine one currently is relaxed, so I could rule that one out straight away.

On the other hand, the 'Fine' was about three quarters of the thickness of the original twine, and when I carefully pulled on an available section of the original Jute, it tightened down to a thickness which was extremely close, so I went with it.

My plan is to leave the original bundle exactly as found. The other six loose PINS I am going to carefully clean and rebind in new Jute Twine to replicate how it was done and originally looked.


David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Finding jute or any of the hundreds of replacements materials that were commonplace 75 years ago is always a challenge and a great pleasure when you do. We have a fabric store here (Lens Mill store) that has stock dating back decades and I've found great treasure there. Also local to me is Facca Fasteners that still provides me with all manner of slot head screws. My guy there tells me they just scrapped bins full of those screws (to make room and for lack of sales) but kept a bunch on hand for people like me. Somebody is getting a gift card this Christmas.