The start of a Mania

29-Aug-21 

I have often thought about starting a blog about all the sundry things I restore. I have been doing this in a bit of a round about way all my life, but it was more oriented to repairing old stuff that people threw away that I could use it in my workshop. 

I started to get really serious about this a few years ago. I was at the Maker Faire in Queens N.Y. and I noticed that someone had an old console (like 1940's) based radio, but just the husk. It reminded me of my youth when I would visit my friend Peter. They had a Blaupunt radio that had shortwave and I became enamored with listening to shortwave. (There is a whole story here for another day.) I walked away and vowed to find one. 

I think it was about a year later and I went to the flea market in Stormville N.Y. which (pre-COVID) used to happen about 1/month. I didn't know what I was looking at or what it cost and kind of delved in. I found what I now know is a Philco 38-7 (well, I guess I have a photo of the chassis.) 

I researched the heck out of it. My MO is that I'm super nervous about diving in. I don't recall how much time elapsed, but it was a fair amount before I actually did anything. I knew that at a minimum I had to replace all the capacitors in it. The objective at this time was just get it working. Being super neurotic I searched all the websites and finally found a place where I ordered a bunch of electrolytic (read polarized) and non-polar caps to replace the large filter capacitors and the wax based capacitors in the circuit. Being old, I do have some familiarity with these. 

I suppose it is ok to add in the website here: www.tubesandmore.com. They cover antique radio parts and really push restoration of guitar amps. 

Again being neurotic I very carefully marked in the schematic where each capacitor needed to be changed and checked them off as I did them. Checked it half a dozen times and then cringed as I plugged it in and it worked! 

vacuum tubes are very forgiving objects. 

Well that started an illness. I must have about 20 in various states of repair.  I hope to talk about the various restorations. A preview of things to come (things in progress, what that means typically is waiting for parts or for me to learn some new skill) 

• as previously stated 20 or so radios in various states of repair. I'll get into them all in time. 
• An old vacuum tube based frequency standard used in WWII for making sure airplane systems were calibrated
• Viking Valiant AM/CW transmitter (something I lusted over as a kid) Almost done here - a real boat anchor
• An old aircraft transmitter
• A candlestick phone
• 2 WWII vintage field telephones - maybe I'll make my own network
• 2 telegraph sounders and their keys
• a telegraph relay for converting long haul into office circuit currents. 
• 1963 Vespa VNB (This has been a long road and will be awhile longer)
• a 1911 Witte Headless Hit or Miss engine. 
• a French train station master clock with electromagnetic pendulum 
• An International Time Recording Company, Endicott N.Y.  time card punch clock - Kinda of cool since I work at IBM

Plus endless other things that, ooooh that would be cool to try. 

I will warn you that I loose attention fast and move all over the place, but I keep telling myself this is supposed to be a hobby and it is supposed to be fun. 

Let's see how this adventure goes.