Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

The 10 small wood screws for mounting the rear wood panel to the Coil Case were zinc plated this morning and allowed to dry after their alcohol rinse.

When I took the Coil Assembly apart last spring, I discovered the wood screw second from the bottom right was slightly shorter than the rest, but with an identical head size, so I left it in.

With the back panel now reinstalled, the completed Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2A is finally completed and ready to go. Thank you Chris S for your kind comment.


David

[David Dunlop]

The Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2A is now remounted on top of the Carriers No. 4 and for the first time in who knows how long, connected to a Sender on my 52-Set with the correct, NOS Leads, Aerial that I purchased a few weeks ago.

I may have to slide the yellow IDSleeve on the Leads up to the coil end as it keeps the cable from curving smoothly and may create a problem when the Waterproof Curtain is lowered. I will have to check service photos of the 52-Set to see if any show where this sleeve was typically located.

Next big project for the 52-Set now will be to repair/replace a few things on the Supply Unit. I need to find where 1.5 Volts DC to the Receiver is disappearing to from the 12 Volt DC Low Tension circuit and then get a number of physically defective parts replaced on the Sender side of the Supply.


David

[David Dunlop]

I decided to get a look inside the Switchboard, Charging today to see what else was missing related to the two Terminal assemblies I was already aware of from the front panel.

The back, plywood cover is held in place by 8 brass, countersunk, slot head wood screws that have been black adonized and which are 1-1/8 inch in length. One such screw was missing and another has been replaced a some point in time with a steel screw of similar specifications.Easy enough to track down replacements today.

At first glance inside, I noticed three of the switches were pretty clean and the one in the lower right corner, viewed from the rear, was absolutely filthy with dried oil or grease. This was consistent with a bit of dried oil I had to remove around this switch on the front panel. After that observation I suddenly realized there were no wires at all on the two switches on the right side, the filthy switch had no brass terminal screws fitted to it at all and the switch above it only had the lower, centre terminal screw still in place. One was also missing on the upper left switch. Then I realized all the brass hex nuts and washers had been removed from all nine terminal assemblies that had no wires fitted and that the two empty terminal holes visible from the front side actually did have terminals fitted at one time.

I decided to pull the filthy switch and see if it could be cleaned up to reasonably match the other three. After an hour of brass brush scrubbing with two different cleaners, a water rinse and a 99% isopropyl Alcohol rinse to get rid of all the water, the switch looked a pretty good match to the others and the visible terminals inside were looking brassy once again. So back it went in its position in the switchboard.

I was expecting solid copper wiring and was not disappointed but the wire colours were a bit of a surprise. I expected classic black and red, but the red turned out to be a rather attractive looking wine colour. Should be fun trying to match that down the road when I start restoration of this switchboard.


David

[David Dunlop]

While looking at all the missing brass terminal screws on the backs of the switches, I took a spare wall receptacle I had on hand and removed one of its brass terminal screws out of curiosity. The thread, and thread length were identical to the terminal screws on the switchboard switches. The pan head on the modern receptacle is about 1/16-inch narrower in diameter and the modern one is set up for slotted, Robertson or Phillips screwdrivers. So, in a pinch, I could go that route if I can track down a source of supply for just these brass pan head screws. But then part of my brain tells me I might spend as much time looking for the modern screws as I might if I searched for the original style on line.

Food for thought, and if anybody has any ideas for finding this style of brass, pan head slotted screw, please let me know. They are an 8-32 thread.



David

[David Dunlop]

The inside face of the plywood back panel had quite an accumulation of dust and dirt on it, but I found three or four wipes with a wet cloth took it all off quite nicely. I then let the panel dry for about 20 minutes and then gave it a good rub with a cloth soaked in Lemon Oil and let that soak in.

Looks pretty good before I put the panel back in place and when I had done so, I gave the outside face a good rub with the Lemon Oil as well.

Back in Post #1203, I had commented that the small rectangular stamp from Rogers Majestic on the end on one of the wooden battens was possibly a Part Number, but I found nothing else like it anywhere inside the switchboard, so I am now suspecting this was an Inspection Stamp.



David