The Fine Things are Always Hand Made
Replacement wires for Philharmonic Tuning Capacitor
I wanted to remove the cover over the tuning capacitor so I could lubricate the shaft and thus help make my tuning dial move. Unfortunately the only way to do this was to first unsolder the grid cap wires on 3 adjacent tubes. I decided to replace the old wires with a two-part system with bullet connectors so I could easily remove this cover in the future if needed. Here you see the replacement wire on the right and on the left the bullet connector and grid cap connector have been installed.
Albums: Philharmonic Work in Progress
Comment
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Comment by Ken Carr on January 22, 2014 at 7:14pm
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Angelo - The radio does not receive at all yet, so alignment is way down the road. At present I am able to power up (all tubes glow, power supply has proper voltages) and that is all. Also. with full power some magic smoke was released from the box containing the bass chokes. I need to get into there next to make repairs. I have tabled it for now due to other projects. I do agree with your point, though. Changes to the lengths of certain leads can change alignment. Those bridges will be crossed later.
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Comment by Angelo on January 22, 2014 at 6:32pm
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Did you aligne the IFs after you were done??
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Comment by David C. Poland on January 22, 2014 at 2:32pm
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I think Scott wanted to keep unauthorized fingers out of their radios, at least during the 5 year guarantee period. Hence, the bottom cover was riveted closed into the mid 1930's models, and alignment screws were difficult to access. Who would have thought that 60-70 years later there would be folks wanting to recap the radio, lube the tuning cap shafts and bearings ...
-Dave
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David- Thanks for the comments. I also had the same concerns. Fortunately it did go together easily and the tuner turns freely. I was very careful with routing the wires because , as you said, I did not want to interfer with the plates.
If I do have to change it I will probably just use one wire each (as original) and unsolder the grid caps if I need to get in again. They unsoldered very easily.
I still have to wonder about such a design; they should have pasted a label on the cover: "Keep Out". LOL.
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Ken -- neat idea, but based on my experience with other model Scotts, good luck getting that back together !! I worry you will have an issue with surplus wire inside the tuning cover interfering with the moving plates of the tuning cap and/or affecting the capacity with tracking problems as the cap rotates. And looks like you end up with an unwieldy amount of wire outside.
My approach is either 1) cut and discard the old wire, save the grid cap, and put on new wire (s) maybe twice as long so I can start feeding from the inside, pull the wire (s) through as I replace the cover, pull tight, then cut to final length and solder on the old grid cap. Or 2) temporarily solder a foot or so of very fine wire to the end where the grid cap was to use to pull it , which will only work if the solder junction will fit through the brass fitting and the insulation of the old wire is tight enough to fit through the brass fitting ,( then at least one hangs up, I cuss, and ultimately revert to lengths of new of new wire as per #1.)
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