Electrola RE-57: First look and some pictures

[PaulOF]

Bob and Sandy,thank you both for the nice words. If that pot had been from the 40's or 50's I would probably have just pitched it, but I was curious about what was inside this one. Once I got in it looked fixable so I tried. Nothing really to lose -- I still could go with the Frankenpot as plan B.

Bob, I downloaded a trial version of SmartDraw specifically to draw that schematic. It works ok, has libraries for lots of non-electronic drawings too, but at $300.00 there is no way I'm gonna do anything but let the trial expire after 5 days.

There is a free version of spice with a graphic schematic capture front end distributed by Linear Technology called LTSpice. URL is http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/ltspice.jsp
Upside is its free, pretty easy to use, makes adequate looking schematics and you get spice too. Downside is it doesn't come with tubes and I haven't gone out looking yet for tube models I can add to it.

Incidentally, those two hippos you have been working on in another thread are mighty fine looking.

I think this is the weekend I'm going to slide on the ion trap you sent me and screw up my courage to fire up that big old picture tube with about an acre of metal at 14K volts. Not sure I want to be close enough to it to fiddle with the trap and centering adjustments, but I don't see any choice but to do it. I guess if I can be careful of where my hands go when I use my table saw I can do the same thing there.
Paul

[bandersen]

Oh yeah, I suppose most schematic programs won't have tubes in the library.

I've been working on a set with a monster 19AP4 metal CRT and it's definitely intimidating. It does have a plastic skirt over the metal, but I don't put much faith in it. Adjusting the trap wasn't bad though. Try using a mirror to see the screen and work from the backside on the chassis. That way you'll stay clear of the HV.

[old_coot88]

Paul:
A tip of the hat to you. That's mighty inspiring and inspired work, 'specially the filter cap management and pot repair.Concerning the tape on the speaker cone, gently heating the tape with a hair dryer on 'low' might soften the adhesive enough to pull free. Bill(oc)

[PaulOF]

Thank you Bill(oc). The OF in PaulOF stands for Old Fart, but on ebay I'm PaulOldCoot so as to be less offensive to potential buyers.

Anyway, I put it all back together yesterday and it sounds wonderful. Good enough that I am not going to mess with the speaker at this time. The volume control on the phono (separate from the radio volume control) is a little noisy, I will look at that at some point. And I've ordered a handful of caps for the radiola chassis just because I find it amazing that those paper caps are still working after 79 years. I hope I will be. Took a little video of it and put it on youtube so my kids could see it. Sound and video are both not good cause I used my phone, but at least you can see that it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGs23KuUOak

So... this project is more or less at an end (to the extent that anything is. One of the great composers said "no piece is ever finished, only abandoned.")

Now on to the last touches on the Zenith porthole and trying to get its cobramatic working.

[Sandy G]

Neat song-But I prefer Sy Zentner's 1961 "Big Band" instrumental version...(grin)

[bandersen]

Very cool

There might not be any paper caps at all. As I recall, my WR-8 only had tar block and mica caps.

[Reece]

Very very nice. People went nuts over those Victor radio-electrolas in the late twenties, early thirties: they would blow the doors off most any radio (and blow out their own speakers, too, if cranked too high.)