Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

With the sanding and stripping down of the NATO Green paint on the exterior of the coil case and back cover completed, I have been focusing on getting this paint off all the 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch surfaces created by the recess cuts for the front panel and rear cover, and the six 1/2-inch square reinforcing strips in the four box corners and backing for the rear cover.

It has been very slow but steadt work. I have now assembled a nice assortment of tools that work well on this small stuff in tight spaces and have worked out a fairly reliable pattern. Once I can break through the heavy coat of NATO Green, I have found the pine has a pretty good hardness about it, such that a hard steel edge can actually chip chunks of the paint of very easily. The only tricky bits so far are the presence of saw ridges on some of the 1/2-inch strips that require a bit of sanding to smooth down first.

The last of these small pieces I have to clean now are the inside faces of the four pine strips that form the backing for the rear cover. I need to have the case resting on its back on the bench with several gooseneck lamps in close to properly light the interior of the case to see what I am doing, and reach down and in at a steep angle. I end up starting at a midpoint and moving to one end, vacuum the bits out and then swing the case around to clean up the opposite direction. Slow but steady.

I will try and sort some meaningful photos out this weekend.


David

[Barry Churcher]

David what I have been using is these Preval sprayers for the small stuff. You can mix as little paint as you need. They used to be available from Carquest but now they are no longer selling them. They are available from Amazon though.
After buying a unit with a jar you only have to buy the refills. It's just like spraying with a spray bomb but you mix the paint your way and you can even use hardener. Twenty years ago I overhauled the loader cylinders on my tractor and used Allis Chalmers good quality orange and they look just as good today. When you are finished just put a bit of thinners in the jar and spray it out to clean the nozzle. Done.
Cheers
Barry

https://www.google.com/search?q=amaz...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[David Dunlop]

Barry! Talk about a trip down Memory Lane!

Back in the late 70's when I was restoring my first M38CDN, I found setting up the compressor for small paint jobs a RPITA!

Then one day, I was wandering through either Princess Auto or Canadian Tire and found a version of this product. It was a teardrop shaped brown plastic setup with a trigger on the top of the broad end and a 25 oz plastic bottle screwed underneath it. The jar was the same size as a modern small glass Smuckers jam jar.

On top of the small end was the spray nozzle and underneath it you screwed in the propellant can which was the same size as the Testors small modelling spray paint cans that were available back then. It was a dream to work with on small parts, but after a few years the propellant cans were no longer available.

I shall definitely be getting one of these rigs and some extra propellant. The two panel projects on my 52-Set are each only about +/- 1 Square Foot, for which this would be ideal!


Very Best Regards,


David

[David Dunlop]

One of the many mysteries for me regarding the 52-Set today, was the apparent universal usage of standard 1/4-inch Hex Bolt hardware for mounting the three components of the main set in the Carriers No. 4, and the Remote Receiver in its case.

There are absolutely no spanners, wrenches or sockets in the tool kit for the set the operator could use to easily remove any of these four items for a basic inspection or repair. The manual stated there should be no need for the Operator to ever have to remove any of these items from their cases, but at the same time provides a detailed explanation of what the Operator needs to do to reinstall the three components back into the Carriers No. 4, should all three need to be removed at once for some reason, but again, no reference for sourcing the necessary tools.

My assumption for years was simply that the hex hardware commonly found today must have replaced some form of factory original hardware, and the most logical hardware seemed to be 1/4-inch x 20 by half inch, slotted, RH Machine Screws, since a set of three slot head screw drivers were a part of the tool kit.

Then, around this time in 2021, a chap in England had a very original 52-Set Remote Receiver up for sale on eBay and I contacted him to ask if there were any stencil markings to be found anywhere on the exterior of the No. 2 Brown case. He replied, with additional photographs, that there were none anywhere. What did surprise me, however, was one side photo he sent that clearly showed a slotted hex head bolt, in No. 2 Brown paint, holding the receiver in its case. The owner confirmed, all four sets of hardware were the same, all were fitted from the outside in, the bolts were one half inch long and the nuts were all skinny. A mystery finally solved.

My Remote Receiver had 1/4-inch x 20 x half inch hex bolts, split washers and hex nuts in all four locations, but all were installed from the inside. I had always thought this had looked rather ugly and unfinished with the open ends of the bolts and nuts sticking out so far, so I was pleased to turn them all around with the heads to the outside. What I discovered with that change, was that the two upper sets of hardware stuck out so far, the upper service panel on the receiver er could not be removed. The combination of the hex nut and split washer actually exceeded the bolt length just enough to create the problem. So I flipped the hardware back around while I tried to sort out the problem.

For the last three years, I have swept the internet from time to time looking for slotted 1/4-inch hex bolts with little success. Lots of shouldered head stuff out there, like you find for automotive licence plates, but not the basic hex head bolt style. Then, 10 days ago, I did another sweep and found a company in Chicago with an extensive illustrated inventory. For some reason, I typed in “1/4-inch slotted hex head” and forgot the word ‘bolt’. Up popped a bunch of items called “Cap Screws”, and among them was a one inch long 1/4-inch x 20 in packs of 100, dirt cheap with free US shipping. After I calmed down a bit, I decided to see if they might have matching thin headed hex nuts so typed that in next. Up came 1/4-inch only, also in packs of 100. They were described a ‘Jam Nuts’, half the thickness of a standard hex nut.

That just left the issue of the lock washers. When I took a close look at existing split style lock washers in my wartime wireless equipment, they are all noticeably thicker than modern ones available today. When you do a similar comparison between wartime Shakeproof style lock washers and their modern equivalent internal toothed lock washers, there is very little, if any, difference in thickness.

So after several years of off and on searching, with somewhat incorrect parameters, I finally figured out what was originally used for mounting hardware for the main components of the 52-Set. I could only get 1-inch length Cap Screws but I have had to trim hardware down before, so that is not a problem. It will be a nice bench project over the winter.


David

[David Dunlop]

Here are some photos I promised of the cramped quarters being worked in to strip out the last of the NATO Green paint.

The rearmost 1/2-inch trim is the worse, with just the lower right area section actually done. Once that stuff is gone, I can work my way forward through the interior panels with my two sanders easily enough to get rid of the last of this postwar paint.


David

[David Dunlop]

Spent the morning yesterday thinking about the wartime service of my Mum and Dad and Uncles, along with nearly all of the men on both sides of the family who served during World War 1. Two family members never came back from that one, another had a lame left leg and my Grandfather on my Mum's side was an alcoholic for the rest of his life.

Then I spent the rest of the day getting the postwar green paint stripped off all the fiddly interior bits of my Coil case. Just the four interior wall panels to sand down now.


David

[David Dunlop]

I was finally able to finish stripping and sanding away the NATO Green paint from the wooden coil case yesterday, and this morning I applied filler to the few sections of wood that needed this attention. As with the three wooden boxes/cases for the 52-Set, the bulk of the filling was focused on the finger joints where the exposed end grain of the pine is susceptible to wicking in moisture over time and wearing away. There were also two short strips of joinery between sections of the pine boards that needed a fill.

There was also an interesting discovery in the assembly of the wooden coil case, compared to the three wooden boxes/cases.

On the boxes/cases, where any of the flat head wood screws had been countersunk, a creamy white glazing putty had been used to backfill over the screws. On the coil case, these holes were filled with small pine wood plugs. If you look closely on the top left front corner of the attached photo, you can see one of these plugs quite clearly. On the left side, another can be found about 3/4-inch back from the leading edge and another about two inches further back.

Hopefully this evening, I will be able to sand off the excess filler where needed and I can then start repainting the case Flat Olive Drab.



David