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  #16  
Old 05-16-2010, 03:33 PM
rollei35guy rollei35guy is offline
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Makes a big difference with those new caps. Nice job!

Those multi-wire connections are fun to try to untangle. I like the "squibs" idea. I've had to untangle a bunch of these globs on the hallicrafters (and others). The last fellow would just heat up the joint push the new wire through and clip it off. Easier to undo I suppose.

I think Antique Electric Supply has replacements for that oscillator coil if it gives you trouble.
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  #17  
Old 05-16-2010, 05:01 PM
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On a more "important" radio I might try to unravel the terminals and start fresh, maybe even restuff caps, rather than use these little corkscrews. Using them, though, can avoid twisting and wrecking some fragile terminal, like on a tube socket or coil.

The coil that had the open is just an untuned transformer between the RF amp and the oscillator/converter, so should be OK.
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  #18  
Old 05-17-2010, 02:20 PM
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The rubber-insulated wires to the primary of the output transformer were crumbling, so I replaced them with same-colored new wires right at the transformer, with the soldered joints covered with heat-shrink tubing, and the wires bundled out of the way of the 35Z5 with a couple of mini wire ties. Note that this has negative feedback off the voice coil heading back to G2 of the first audio tube. This tends to cancel out some distortion, a nice touch and not expected in such a radio. Also note the shorty 'lytic cap hiding down inside the cardboard tube.

All the caps in, line cord ready, time to plug in the tubes and turn it on. Nothing! Neither dial light nor tubes light up. All the tubes were previously tested good. Suspect bad switch. Get the voltmeter. Nope, line voltage gets through the switch, but it doesn't get to where the line from the radio side of the switch goes, which is to the can of the electrolytic. That wire fastens to a can lug with several other wires and the solder didn't get down to it. I retouched with the iron and reflowed the solder and gave it another try. She plays, and not bad! I got BC stations across the dial, and with a short antenna, a station and some other typical SW noise on the other band, all in the middle of the afternoon. I touched up the I.F's and the RF and ANT sections of the tuning cap, and this turns out to be a hot little radio with that RF stage. Up and down the dial it's full of very listenable signals.
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  #19  
Old 05-17-2010, 09:37 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Reece View Post
I got BC stations across the dial, and with a short antenna, a station and some other typical SW noise on the other band, all in the middle of the afternoon. I touched up the I.F's and the RF and ANT sections of the tuning cap, and this turns out to be a hot little radio with that RF stage. Up and down the dial it's full of very listenable signals.
You won't get much on shortwave in the middle of the afternoon regardless how good your antenna may be, especially on the one SW band your Air Castle set tunes. I would wait until after sunset and preferably after dark before looking for anything on the SW band; this is when most of the shortwave bands perk up and the DX (ham radio shorthand for distance) reception starts rolling in--however, I just looked at the pic of the front of your set a minute ago and saw that the one SW band it tunes is from nine to 15+ MHz. This range includes the 20-meter amateur radio band (which begins at 14 MHz); this band is often wide open in the afternoon, and some good DX can be had, although a lot of the signals you will hear will be SSB (single sideband) and CW (Morse code), requiring an external oscillator, called a BFO or beat-frequency oscillator, to make them readable.

A note on antennas: A short indoor wire antenna will bring in some signals on the SW band, but for the best results an external, outdoor wire antenna at least 50 feet long should be used.

What station were you hearing after you got your Air Castle radio working? There is a time and frequency station in Boulder, Colorado called WWV, that operates on several different frequencies, all with 1 kW transmitters in the shortwave bands, including one (15 MHz) well within the range of the SW band on your radio. The station uses tone signals and a ticking clock, with an identification signal just before the time announcement: "This is radio station WWV, Fort Collins, Colorado, broadcasting on internationally allocated standard carrier frequencies on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and twenty megahertz, providing time of day, standard time intervals and other related information. . . . Inquiries regarding these transmissions may be directed to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Radio Station WWV, 2000 East County Road 58, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524." WWV provides exceedingly accurate time signals, so if you want to set your clocks as close as possible to the absolutely correct time, this is the place to find it.



BTW: Your success with that Air Castle radio has me wanting to get into my Zenith MJ-1035 AM/FM stereo radio to see if I can't get it singing as it used to...and should. I was lying awake in bed last night thinking about that, and made up my mind that I was going to pull the chassis the next morning (today) to see what needs to be done. But, darn it, other things got in the way today--wouldn't you know it! Oh well; maybe I'll at least look at the underside of the chassis tonight before I go to bed. I have a feeling that the problem is caused by one of two things: a missing ground on the case of the volume pot, the wiper contact inside the control isn't making contact with the carbon track, or perhaps it's both. As I said in my last post, though, I like working on these sticky problems as long as they don't get too sticky. I honestly don't think this will be too much of a problem to correct, unless the trouble is someplace else other than in the area around that 2-meg volume pot.
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Last edited by Jeffhs; 05-17-2010 at 09:57 PM.
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  #20  
Old 05-18-2010, 06:09 AM
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Yeah, I want to play this little Firestone Air Chief (not Castle) for a few days to dry it out before doing a real alignment on it. Only now we're due for several days of cold and rain so I may just train a reflector lamp on the chassis to keep it warm. The weather also puts a damper on any cabinet finish work for a while (and my outdoor yard/pool cleanup activities.) Maybe I'll start capping another chassis.
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  #21  
Old 05-22-2010, 02:24 PM
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Back working on the cabinet again, I got the veneer from Rockler. It was rolled up in the box and had some ripples and splits, which is often to be expected with the thin "raw" veneer with no backing. In order to flatten it I painted it both sides with a solution of one part glycerin (drug store,) one part denatured alcohol, and three parts water. Then I clamped it overnight between boards with several layers of paper towels on both sides of the veneer. Next day I changed the towels and left again for several hours. It came out "ironed" pretty flat.

I laid the plywood top on it and traced around it. I cut out the veneer with scissors and utility knife oversize so it could be trimmed exactly after installation. Then I painted the wrong side of the veneer and the top of cabinet top with three coats of slightly thinned yellow wood glue, allowing to dry between coats, and then to dry overnight.

Next day I put the veneer and plywood top dried glue sides together and pressed with a medium-hot iron using a piece of brown paper between the iron and veneer. You have to press hard all over and keep moving the iron. It works! The veneer stuck nicely. Unfortunately there was a little split down the middle of the veneer that didn't close up, but I later filled it with some Elmer's colored wood filler and it looks like it almost disappeared. I sanded and shaved and fit the new top onto the radio cabinet and finally glued and clamped it into place. Then the whole cabinet was sanded and grain filled (another overnight wait), sanded again and stained with a mix of cherry and dark walnut.

Next was a spray of three coats of Deft Sanding Sealer, which dries fast. Now it was time to place the decals. These I made by a process using a special decal paper and embossing powder. You make up a design or text on the computer and then print on this paper using the best print setting, to get the most ink on the paper. The surface of the paper is such that the ink doesn't dry fast. As soon as it comes out of the printer, you pour on embossing power in the desired color, in this case, gold. The powder sticks to the ink. Then you pour off the excess powder back into the container for further use. The decal goes into the toaster oven set to broil. At some point the murky blackish powdery text magically turns to gold. The text has a slightly raised surface, like some business cards (made by a similar process, I believe.) The first picture below shows the finished decals before cutting apart.

Here are the decals applied.
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Last edited by Reece; 06-26-2010 at 02:27 PM.
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  #22  
Old 05-22-2010, 07:08 PM
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Wow the cabinet looks amazing. Can you please explain how you get the new decals from the paper onto the cabinet?
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  #23  
Old 05-22-2010, 07:17 PM
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Wow...Dat's PURDY !!
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  #24  
Old 05-22-2010, 08:20 PM
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Thanks. I still have some toning and further lacquer work to do on the cabinet. Not happy with the "overall" sort of same color effect.

The decals are waterslide type. The decal paper has a thin clear film, then a thin layer of glue, and finally a paper backing. Once the text is fused by heat onto the clear layer, I've found it easier to work with if it's misted with a little clear Deft and let dry, otherwise the film is too flimsy to manage, especially on larger decals. Then the individual words are cut out. Now you've got a rectangle with the word centered in it. With just a touch of dish detergent on your finger as a wetting agent, you dip your finger in water and wet the panel area where the decal is to go. Then dip the cut out decal in water for 2 seconds and wait about 20 seconds at which point you can start to slide the film around on the paper backing. This is the tricky part: now you edge the film onto the watery surface of the panel and ease the paper out from under it. Using fingers and a soft artist's brush, nudge the film around into position. Everthing is sopping wet at this point. If you're not careful the film will buckle: it's strong but easy to screw up. If it does buckle or wrinkle you can smooth it out with the brush. Once in position let it set up a bit and meanwhile dry up the water around the decal with a paper towel, but don't touch the decal yet or it will move. If you bump it out of position you can drip more water on it and still move it. Little by little you can gently dry the decal and use the brush to "paint" out any water or bubbles under the film. Phew! Brain surgery. I let it dry for a day and then continue with my finish coats of Deft Gloss on the whole set, which also protects the decals.
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  #25  
Old 05-22-2010, 10:26 PM
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I was pretty good with decals on model cars 25 years ago...this sounds pretty much like the same process.
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  #26  
Old 05-23-2010, 10:39 AM
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Damp weather today: no lacquer work possible, so on to the knobs. The radio came with only one original knob, shown at the right in the first picture. The other three knobs were the closest that Mike Koste had out of the thousands and thousands he brought to the Kutztown radio meet earlier this month. These knobs had stamped legends on them, a little hard to see in the picture, the originals did not. In the picture I have already sanded off the legend and the whole top of one of the knobs. I did the same with the other two and then chucked a piece of 1/4 dowel in the drill, pushed on a knob, and held a rag with auto polishing compound against it while spinning the knob. I was careful not to go too fast for fear of overheating the plastic. When they were smooth I spun them in another rag with brass polish. Then the fluted sides got treatment with a cotton buffing disk in the drill.
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  #27  
Old 05-26-2010, 08:24 PM
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Still kinda humid around here and got real hot, but better weather is predicted for later in the week. Since I can't do lacquer work, I decided to tackle something I've been putting off: the scratched up dial scale. It's on glass and is painted on the back. I'm going to work on this scan and try to recreate it on the computer. You can see it's a mess.

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  #28  
Old 05-28-2010, 05:18 PM
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I recreated the old dial just using common techniques in MS Paint. It could have been easier and better looking if I had some more advanced graphics program, but I think it turned out OK. Whaddaya think? I left some of the working artifacts on the drawing. It's redder than the scanned dial, but pictures of the dial show it more red. Now the proof of it is going to be how it might print onto the transparent sticker material I got at Staples. The white portions of the drawing will print clear on the transparency. If that works, I will sandwich it between a white translucent plastic on the back, with a cutout to reveal the dial pointer, and clear acrylic on the front.
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  #29  
Old 05-28-2010, 05:30 PM
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Substitute "UnAmerican" for "foreign" on that dial...
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  #30  
Old 05-28-2010, 07:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Reece View Post
Yeah, I want to play this little Firestone Air Chief (not Castle) for a few days to dry it out before doing a real alignment on it. Only now we're due for several days of cold and rain so I may just train a reflector lamp on the chassis to keep it warm. The weather also puts a damper on any cabinet finish work for a while (and my outdoor yard/pool cleanup activities.) Maybe I'll start capping another chassis.
Ooops! My bad. I don't know why I was thinking "Air Castle" when I wrote my reply to your post, when the dial on your radio clearly shows "Air Chief" across the top above the AM tuning scale.

These older radios can be a challenge to restore to past glory but, in most cases, if you're willing to work at it, the project is worth the effort. I have a Zenith C845 that uses a 6BJ6 as an RF amplifier tube on AM and FM, two IF stages, a limiter stage that acts as a third IF...and it is one of the most sensitive sets I have ever owned. I can get stations up and down the East Coast and into the Great Lakes at night (though I have yet to hear any stations from Wisconsin) using the built-in Wavemagnet AM antenna; the FM is just as sensitive, pulling in stations from 70+ miles away when the conditions are favorable. I live near Lake Erie (within a mile of the southern shore) and, in spring, summer and early fall, often hear FM stations on this radio from Detroit, Windsor, Canada, Toledo and Youngstown, Ohio, and Pittsburgh--often with very listenable signals.

I know how it is to have other projects get in the way of hobbies. I live in a small apartment, but I still have things to do here that often take precedence over my vintage radios and amateur radio activities. First things first. The hobbies can wait, but when one has things to do elsewhere, the latter have to be taken care of first before one can even think about spare time stuff, which reminds me--as soon as I finish typing this, I have a couple of things I need to attend to before it gets dark (I hate having to work in darkness--really; I get into trouble, meaning falling and other accidents, if I try to walk around or work in poor lighting or, heaven forbid, pitch darkness).

Good luck with your Air Chief radio; it should work great once you get it in A-1 shape--that RF amplifier stage means it was built for DX, and as I said in my first reply, with a good antenna, it should pull in stations on both AM and shortwave like crazy. I don't know much about these radios except that they were products of the Firestone Company of Akron, Ohio in the late 1940s-'50s. For example, one thing I don't know about Firestone radios, but wish I did, was who actually built these sets, radios and later TVs. Firestone was a rubber company, noted for their automobile tires; I honestly don't know how the name became associated with radio or television.
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