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