Old Radio success…..

Old Radio success…..

Nothing shows proof like a short video. The oscillating coil works and the radio lives! The coil is a 3RT-319A out of an Emerson BJ-200.     https://youtu.be/felcemdeU9QRead more …
More coil winding…

More coil winding…

The wire came in so time to continue this experiment. I finished unwinding the second of three coils on this item. The third coil is looking good on the meter and shows no signs of rot, so I will leave it and save Louis some tuning work. The outer coil was that mangled mess, so no chance of counting windings as I pulled it apart, but the second coil ( post 5 to 4 in my diagram) was in good shape other than the breaks in the wire and I got a good…Read more …
I’m back… and old radio parts

I’m back… and old radio parts

Ok, first post since returning from a trip all the way across the states...... and I'm not posting about the trip. I know, big disappointment, but I will post about it soon. Just not now. So dont ask when I will.   Right now I'm more interested in posting about a little experiment I have going on. A friend has an Emerson BJ-200 radio that doesn't work because the oscillating coil is busted. I wind coils, so I thought "Hey, what the heck it's already broke, right?" The last time I thought that…Read more …
Continuing work part 3

Continuing work part 3

It was another productive weekend in the garage/shop. I've been needing to get the valve work finished on the Fairbanks-Morse motor so I decided to tackle that. I wasn't comfortable with the bronze valve guide expansion rate in the cast iron when heating while running. We used Bronze valve guides in the cast iron heads when I worked for Harley, but replacement heads are easier to find for old Harleys than they are for this engine. So, I made a new set of guides in cast iron, to go in the cast iron…Read more …
Continuing work part 2

Continuing work part 2

I did quite a bit this weekend and didn't think to get any pics of it. Just for the fun of seeing how it would turn out I stared the fermentation of 15lbs of red flame raisins in my main fermenter. It's just the raisins, a couple pounds of sugar for starter, and the yeast. I'll post more on it when I get the first taste and see if it was worth it. I also worked on the cast iron treadle base from the table project. I tried to braze one of the cracks…Read more …
Watch Bench

Watch Bench

It's another post from the watch bench, continuing on with the Lord Elgin watch. In the last post about this watch I disassembled it and put a new mainspring in the barrel, and you can see that post here.     This is the plate that most everything else in the watch movement attaches to. It has gone through the ultrasonic cleaner a couple times and a quick look at the jewels show they all look good, meaning there aren't any cracks or jagged edges in the holes to damage any pivots that will…Read more …
Time spent at the watch bench

Time spent at the watch bench

Watch repair is different than time spent at the jeweler bench. Both are nice, but usually I'm in the mood for one or the other and last night I was in watch mode. Currently I have two watches and a clock in the works, one is a Rolex in for a cleaning for a friend but I didn't want to deal with the stress of expensive stuff, so I grabbed the other watch which is a Lord Elgin I bought off ebay. Overall, it's a nice mens watch with good lines on the…Read more …
Continuing work….

Continuing work….

Last night before I fell asleep the thought crossed my mind to bring the materials and tools for a valve guide I need to make to work with me. This morning I miraculously remembered to bring the tools and materials, and today at lunch I began the construction of the second valve guide for my dad's Fairbanks-Morse hit and miss engine. I had already made a set of guides from cast iron to go in the cast iron head. Those guides didn't work out, so I decided to try bronze this time since…Read more …
More antiques

More antiques

Well, I bought some more orphans. I have a bunch of orphans actually. Due to the 'gold for cash' craze lately, people are selling off every heirloom they can find for scrap and that includes old mechanical watches. I really (honestly) don't understand selling a 100 year old mechanical device simply for a few dollars of gold, but since people do, the people who buy the scrap strip the gold (usually the case) and throw away the insides (usually damaging them in the process). Every so often a group of movements (what the…Read more …
Another old radio saved

Another old radio saved

Everyone knows I'm an antiques junky, I don't hide it, I'm kinda proud of it. I enjoy finding antiques in dis-repair and making them work again. I think part of it comes from being a system administrator and doing electronics design/repair. Too many of todays consumables are one use throw away stuff, while it can be fixed it's more expensive than buying a new one. Not so with most things built before  the 1960's when most towns had a well known fit-it person who repaired everything from radios and tv's to toasters. I…Read more …