06-08-2015, 02:27 PM
I've had one of these by the side of the bed for thirty plus years now, second hand when it was given to me as a kid by an uncle who worked in the trade. It was very battered, the UV on the dials had worn off along with the paint and the radio was twitchy due to the power switches being so worn. However, it was a reliable workhorse, far superior to todays modern offerings, and it kept perfect time. I decided that I wanted to obtain a second unit and one eventually came along.
Packed in it's original box, the unit was in very good condition externally. Sadly that's as far as it went. The radio was astoundingly good in operation but the clock section was dead. The blacklight tube had expired and there was copious amounts of black dirt that had been attracted by the UV tube. A quick hoover cleaned most of the gunge out to be left with what appeared to be a duff 4 turns a minute crouzet type motor. I decided then that my old unit would donate the blacklight and motor, so you can imagine my surprise to find that the motor in the newer unit was half the size of the one in my 30+ model and had plastic gears vice the full metal can of the Omron unit being donated. Yes, Sony cheapened the model by fitting an inferior motor to the later build clock. Thankfully the mounting points on the clock body were the same so it was a straight changeover and solder in the power leads. The blacklight strip was the same, clip out the old, clip in the working and solder up. Power on and success, all working.
Now the fun part, the display was dull in operation as the UV coating on the dials had worn off. using a Q tip soaked in isoprop the clock numerals were cleaned of gunge. Then, repeating the fix from 30 years ago, a UV anti theft marker pen was used to refresh the coating on the numbers. The numbers themselves fit on a series of barrels that rotate to time and it was a lot of hand winding to get the full 24hrs plus 31 days and 14 day positions to turn over, not including the seconds timer.
Back together, and a very nice unit. The remains of the donor unit will be put to one side until a batch of UV diodes turn up on which I'm going to experiment in making an alternative to the black light as I know that the early 70s manf tube is not going to last forever and a viable alternative will need to be found.
Packed in it's original box, the unit was in very good condition externally. Sadly that's as far as it went. The radio was astoundingly good in operation but the clock section was dead. The blacklight tube had expired and there was copious amounts of black dirt that had been attracted by the UV tube. A quick hoover cleaned most of the gunge out to be left with what appeared to be a duff 4 turns a minute crouzet type motor. I decided then that my old unit would donate the blacklight and motor, so you can imagine my surprise to find that the motor in the newer unit was half the size of the one in my 30+ model and had plastic gears vice the full metal can of the Omron unit being donated. Yes, Sony cheapened the model by fitting an inferior motor to the later build clock. Thankfully the mounting points on the clock body were the same so it was a straight changeover and solder in the power leads. The blacklight strip was the same, clip out the old, clip in the working and solder up. Power on and success, all working.
Now the fun part, the display was dull in operation as the UV coating on the dials had worn off. using a Q tip soaked in isoprop the clock numerals were cleaned of gunge. Then, repeating the fix from 30 years ago, a UV anti theft marker pen was used to refresh the coating on the numbers. The numbers themselves fit on a series of barrels that rotate to time and it was a lot of hand winding to get the full 24hrs plus 31 days and 14 day positions to turn over, not including the seconds timer.
Back together, and a very nice unit. The remains of the donor unit will be put to one side until a batch of UV diodes turn up on which I'm going to experiment in making an alternative to the black light as I know that the early 70s manf tube is not going to last forever and a viable alternative will need to be found.