Siemens Radio for Restoration

[AlanBeckett]

Ah, so, it looks as though the internal speakers are effectively Mono but you can plug in two external Speakers for stereo. Plugging in the external speakers disconnects the internal ones.
The VHF3D is better
Alan

[Bushbaby]

Hi John,
I used Loctite to glue my broken glass dial back together. Don't use too much as you dont want any oozing out or for you to be permanently joined to the glass either!

It does appear that its like my VHF3D, the stereo is just for gram and not for the radio side.

Regards

Rob

[AlanBeckett]

The VHF3D also has a pair of Speakers on each side.
Why do we always seem to think that if it's foreign it must be better?
Cobblers!
Alan

[Skywave]

Quote Alan B.: "Why do we always seem to think that if it's foreign it must be better?"
My reply: European stuff: I don't know; USA stuff: probably (in most cases) because it seems to be built to a standard much higher that what we do, although maintenance always seems to be way down on the design requirement list and their 'schematics' take a lot of interpreting!

What I do know is that I avoid valve sets made by Philips, Telefunken, Grundig, Siemens, et al like the plague. Why? Because the physical layout and components therein I find so difficult to comprehend - and the cct. diags. are no better, either.
Nevertheless, each to his own, eh?

Al.

[standunmj]

hi guys, at the risk of sounding nationalisticly biased ,ido like the old sets produced here in this part of europe, murphy, pye, ferguson, philips, gec ,et al,

i wouldent look apon continental sets as 'foreign'as after all were members of the ec for years now,

sixty years ago these 'foreign'sets were in fact 60 years ahead of their time.rather like the french citeron with its
agua water suspension etc, my 3028 grundig and telifunkton are deffinatly streets ahead of any modern sets from anywhere, john geaney will bear me out on this as hees got one restored and has also listened to my model on his last visit,regards maitiu.

[Geaney]

Horse for courses as they say. I love the old sets from people like PYE but don't have much opportunity to find them in my neck of the woods. My preference is for really good sound quality (like the Grundig 3028 as Maitiu mentioned) and that the restore job is as complex as possible. For me its the restore I enjoy (cab and chassis) so I'm not really a collector.

I agree that documentation on US sets is far more comprehensive and available and yes the dial cords on my latest Siemens were designed by someone who hated service engineers

Still, it will be all the more enjoyable when it's playing away in my bedroom.

Cheers, John

[Geaney]

I've re-glued the glass dial - it does not look pretty but at least it will allow me to put the set back together.

On the chassis I discovered that the AM tuning condenser was completely seized. Sorting this out entailed undoing the dial cord and removing the condenser completely from the chassis - that was good fun! It turns out that the pulley on the AM condenser (the horizontal one) cannot be removed as it fouls the FM one just above it. Theoretically this means removing the FM cords and pulley as well. However I figured out a way to get the AM one out without touching the FM one.

It turned out that the primary drive shaft for the tuning condenser was locked in its housing - seems like over the years the grease had completely hardened turning in effect into 'glue'. It took considerable force to remove it so the whole thing could be cleaned. Having sorted all that and put it back together I found that the plates on one of the condenser sections were shorting out. Some careful metal bending later and it seems to be OK now.

Next came the job of re fitting the condenser to the chassis and re-fitting the pulley and finally the cord. Job done, both mechanisms now work fine though I will have to do some final setting up of the positioning of the AM pulley once I get hold of some documentation.

Apart for the circuit diagram there doesn't seem to be too much info on this set around. I found a place that claims they can provide a proper service manual so I've invested $15 and we'll see if anything useful arrives in due course.

It's almost now at the stage where I can re-assemble it and put it on the shelf as I'v got some other projects to complete before I get back to this one.

You might be able to see an interesting previous repair in the photo - the clutch mechanism for FM is linked to the front key with two pieces of shoelace and an electrical connector - it works but hopefully I'll sort out something more appropriate later on.

Cheers, John

[Yorkie]

What's the best glue out there for gluing glass?

Cheers, John

So sorry to hear about the preventable damage to the dial John.

This stuff looks promising:

http://www.nano470.co.uk/Nano470UK/Nano4..._Home.html

I've only glued one dial together at the end where it was just plain brown so didn't matter what I did out of sight behind the back of the glass. First I glued it edge to edge, but of course the area of contact isn't great, so there was a risk of fracture. I therefore reinforced it with a thick layer (3mm) of epoxy 'plastic metal' behind the joint in the glass. It only works of course if the area behind the glass is sound and doesn't have fragile paint that would just flake off.

I think your idea of neatly trimming the glass at each end and gluing new end pieces, rather than gluing all the fragments together would be much better. Very best of luck with it John - it looks a nice radio, but then I have a soft spot for German piano key radios.

[Bushbaby]

I must admit I do admire German sets such as Grundig, Telefunken etc. I think its a tad unfair to belittle these sets as they are built well and work extremely well - even my 'baby' Grundig 1088 has a superb sound for its size. They are also from the end of the valve radio era from the mid 50's through to the early 60's so it is difficult to compare these to radios produced during the time of austerity of the war years etc.

I think we must congratulate any of our forum colleagues that restore and make functional again ANY radio set (or test equipment etc) - whether I think its complex, looks ugly, good or anything else is totally immaterial.

I'll go back in my box now!

Rob

[Geaney]

Thanks David, I'll check out the Nano470 - I've mailed them to see if they can ship internationally. The dial doesn't look very nice with all the pieces re-glued so I may go with the alternative and make nice clean cuts on each side and replace with black glass, etc.

I put the valves in the tester last night - not very encouraging. The audio output valves are shot - one totally bad the other very weak. It prompted me to take a closer look at the out transformers - again not encouraging - the one on the left in the photos clearly shows signs of heat stress. I found some more documentation so at least I can check the primary and secondary ohm readings against the service sheet.

I've ordered up some more valves. The EM84 is kaput so I've ordered a 6E3P as replacement.

Looks like this one will take plenty of TLC to get it back to life but, as Rob mentioned, we're in this to save them from the dump and to give them another lease of life - for our own enjoyment if nothing else! Every set saved is more of our technology heritage preserved!

Cheers, John
P.S. got the final OK from the doc yesterday so back to the day job on Monday - oh well!