Tiny Tim secretly liked going to funerals. This was because he always had the view that a good funeral was always better than a bad wedding. This was because even if you didn't like the person, you could always say that he or she bought you a drink once, even if it wasn't true. You don't speak ill of the dead nor do you have an expensive reception, speeches or fights, which you always get at a wedding.
Tinkerbell had a different view, but then again she was a woman. Women were taking over the world these days and at a family gathering like this, he could get some tips from his Uncle Redvers Mort. Uncle Mort had the world sewn up as it were. In his caravan at the allotment, he could drink proper tea with condensed milk and women were not allowed. To Tiny Tim, this was heaven.
It was Uncle Redvers Mort's wife's funeral and Tiny Tim giggled under his breath when he picked up some of the soil and, in view of all the mourners, said 'I was just thinking what a champion crop of onions you could grow with this soil'.
Anyway, with his wife buried and back at the funeral tea when he approached Tim and said 'Come on lad, I've got something for you.' They slipped off to the allotment for a cup of special tea.
'Have this', he said as he gave Tim a battered old tape recorder. It was his wife's and she actually tried to fix it, then in true female fashion left it in bits. The case would need wood gluing for a start, but Tiny Tim liked a challenge....
At home, suit off and back at his bench, he looked briefly at the unit and then, in true Tiny Tim fashion, plugged it straight into the mains. He then waited and a few seconds later, a loud buzz came forth and it couldn't be turned down. No smoke appeared, which was both a relief and a disappointment for Tiny Tim, as smoke was sometimes a quick way of finding a hot part or a problem.
The unit was disconnected from the mains and gently taken apart. The cabinet nearly fell to bits inside and the electronics were looked at. There was a smoothing can, 32uF and 32uF and this was Tim's first port of call. There was room under the chassis for two capacitors, so in went 2 x 47uF ones, as they were the first ones that he came across. The rectifier was a solid state one and it seemed OK with this.
Now the hum was gone and touching a finger to the back of the Rec/Play head gave us some noise in the speaker. The valves in this unit were an ECC83 and a ECL86. The latter still seemed OK, but he changed that capacitor anyway. The next thing to do was to check that the bias frequency was OK. Tim didn't have the circuit for this particular manual, but he got the circuit for the Elizabethan Popular 200 which looked to be about the same. The frequency was 55kHz.
Now, a time saving tip. 55KHz times 4 is 220kHz. This is in the long wave band of your radio, so there is a quick way to test it for 'about right'ness. This was, and as he couldn't see a pot to vary it, he was glad of this!!
Now he had the deck and all that grease to deal with! He undid the clips and took off the spindles so he could look underneath. There were metal parts underneath which should move with the lever but they did not move. This is because the grease was solid. Removing the clips which held them in place, he used a screwdriver to ease them off their poles. The poles, parts and spindles were cleaned and the whole lot put back together. The grease around the levers was cleaned too. Everything moved about nicely now.
Then he turned his attention to the case. Or tried to, as Tinkerbell walked in.
'Broke', she said. Simple as that.
'I'm fixing it'. Tiny Tim hated statements like that.
'It's broke', she said again.
He thought briefly about Uncle Redvers Mort. He tried to copy him.
'Go and make me a cup of tea', he answered her, without even looking up. She left to do his bidding, well, left, Tim thought. He looked at the case and got out the wood glue. The inside 'shelves' on which the unit sat were hanging off, so he glued them back into place and got various implements to hold the cabinet together while it set. While it was setting, he went and made his own brew...
Well, with the cabinet sorted and the unit ready for testing, he put the two together and applied some mains to the unit. He turned both the knobs midway and waited. After about half a minute, a pleasing hiss appeared. The hum had completely gone. Flicking to record and back made the level neon flash and a finger applied to the wiring on the back of the heads made healthy sounds in the speaker. With many of these machines, a mike in the 'Radio' socket made the unit act as an amplifier and this also was sounding OK.
When a tape was put on this machine, lovely music filled the workshop. So did a scraping noise as the take up spool was low and the tape was fouling on the reels. This was because the take up spindle was too low. This is usually because the washers underneath, put there to hold it at the right height, were not there. None had come off when the spindle had come off but there were none there either. The tape recorder came out of the case again and the take up spindle had a couple fitted underneath it to hold it at the right height.
Now it played properly with no scraping. After listening for a few minutes, Tiny Tim tried to record, and this worked too. So he'd won this battle. After setting forth with the cleaning materials, he had a unit that was almost like new. Tinkerbell came back in and was about to say 'Broke' when he switched to play. Music blasted forth from the unit.
'I was going to make you a cup of tea', she said in reply. They have to agree to us in the end you see. Good old Uncle Redvers.
Cheers,
Steve P.
[attachment=2833][attachment=2834]
Tinkerbell had a different view, but then again she was a woman. Women were taking over the world these days and at a family gathering like this, he could get some tips from his Uncle Redvers Mort. Uncle Mort had the world sewn up as it were. In his caravan at the allotment, he could drink proper tea with condensed milk and women were not allowed. To Tiny Tim, this was heaven.
It was Uncle Redvers Mort's wife's funeral and Tiny Tim giggled under his breath when he picked up some of the soil and, in view of all the mourners, said 'I was just thinking what a champion crop of onions you could grow with this soil'.
Anyway, with his wife buried and back at the funeral tea when he approached Tim and said 'Come on lad, I've got something for you.' They slipped off to the allotment for a cup of special tea.
'Have this', he said as he gave Tim a battered old tape recorder. It was his wife's and she actually tried to fix it, then in true female fashion left it in bits. The case would need wood gluing for a start, but Tiny Tim liked a challenge....
At home, suit off and back at his bench, he looked briefly at the unit and then, in true Tiny Tim fashion, plugged it straight into the mains. He then waited and a few seconds later, a loud buzz came forth and it couldn't be turned down. No smoke appeared, which was both a relief and a disappointment for Tiny Tim, as smoke was sometimes a quick way of finding a hot part or a problem.
The unit was disconnected from the mains and gently taken apart. The cabinet nearly fell to bits inside and the electronics were looked at. There was a smoothing can, 32uF and 32uF and this was Tim's first port of call. There was room under the chassis for two capacitors, so in went 2 x 47uF ones, as they were the first ones that he came across. The rectifier was a solid state one and it seemed OK with this.
Now the hum was gone and touching a finger to the back of the Rec/Play head gave us some noise in the speaker. The valves in this unit were an ECC83 and a ECL86. The latter still seemed OK, but he changed that capacitor anyway. The next thing to do was to check that the bias frequency was OK. Tim didn't have the circuit for this particular manual, but he got the circuit for the Elizabethan Popular 200 which looked to be about the same. The frequency was 55kHz.
Now, a time saving tip. 55KHz times 4 is 220kHz. This is in the long wave band of your radio, so there is a quick way to test it for 'about right'ness. This was, and as he couldn't see a pot to vary it, he was glad of this!!
Now he had the deck and all that grease to deal with! He undid the clips and took off the spindles so he could look underneath. There were metal parts underneath which should move with the lever but they did not move. This is because the grease was solid. Removing the clips which held them in place, he used a screwdriver to ease them off their poles. The poles, parts and spindles were cleaned and the whole lot put back together. The grease around the levers was cleaned too. Everything moved about nicely now.
Then he turned his attention to the case. Or tried to, as Tinkerbell walked in.
'Broke', she said. Simple as that.
'I'm fixing it'. Tiny Tim hated statements like that.
'It's broke', she said again.
He thought briefly about Uncle Redvers Mort. He tried to copy him.
'Go and make me a cup of tea', he answered her, without even looking up. She left to do his bidding, well, left, Tim thought. He looked at the case and got out the wood glue. The inside 'shelves' on which the unit sat were hanging off, so he glued them back into place and got various implements to hold the cabinet together while it set. While it was setting, he went and made his own brew...
Well, with the cabinet sorted and the unit ready for testing, he put the two together and applied some mains to the unit. He turned both the knobs midway and waited. After about half a minute, a pleasing hiss appeared. The hum had completely gone. Flicking to record and back made the level neon flash and a finger applied to the wiring on the back of the heads made healthy sounds in the speaker. With many of these machines, a mike in the 'Radio' socket made the unit act as an amplifier and this also was sounding OK.
When a tape was put on this machine, lovely music filled the workshop. So did a scraping noise as the take up spool was low and the tape was fouling on the reels. This was because the take up spindle was too low. This is usually because the washers underneath, put there to hold it at the right height, were not there. None had come off when the spindle had come off but there were none there either. The tape recorder came out of the case again and the take up spindle had a couple fitted underneath it to hold it at the right height.
Now it played properly with no scraping. After listening for a few minutes, Tiny Tim tried to record, and this worked too. So he'd won this battle. After setting forth with the cleaning materials, he had a unit that was almost like new. Tinkerbell came back in and was about to say 'Broke' when he switched to play. Music blasted forth from the unit.
'I was going to make you a cup of tea', she said in reply. They have to agree to us in the end you see. Good old Uncle Redvers.
Cheers,
Steve P.
[attachment=2833][attachment=2834]
If we've always had that, why is the car boot open? You aren't smuggling in another old TV are you...?
