Beauty of old electrical and measuring things, etc.

[jim hardy]

Ohhhhhhh, do i miss RPN calculators.

 

[dlgoff]

So now I have an order in for a used 5U4GB and a new-old 5U4G.
I'll post a pic of the power supply with the correct transformer 5U4GB vacuum tube when it arrives.

They arrived today and I decided to us the G type since the voltage regulators are of that type.

 

[dlgoff]

I added a 30,000K color temperature fluorescent tube and some more chemicals (glitter) to the chemistry glassware shelf. This revision goes out to Borek, who has enriched my life over the years.

 

[Mike_In_Plano]

On the topic of ancient things, there used to be an ultra-precise multi-turn potentiometer that was great for building references. All I recall now are the Helipots, but this thing had rings within rings on the face. I cannot remember their name, but they were wonderful instruments.

 

[dlgoff]

On the topic of ancient things, there used to be an ultra-precise multi-turn potentiometer that was great for building references. All I recall now are the Helipots, but this thing had rings within rings on the face. I cannot remember their name, but they were wonderful instruments.

So it wasn't a Beckman Instruments Helipot? Interesting.
[/PLAIN]
Helipot history.

 

[Mike_In_Plano]

Don,
Excellent video, and your probably correct that it had a Helipot buried in it, but assigned a product name to the whole thing, inclusive of the indicator rings.

 

[dlgoff]

I'm still moving on this Beauty project. I made some shelf room by putting the fluid gauges in a shadow box and did some restoration work on the old electrical meters which will go into their shadow box.

Stay tuned. Beauty via old Telephone Stuff coming soon.

 

[Mike_In_Plano]

Regarding the ancient technology for making precise settings -

The Dekastat!
http://www.tegam.com/pdf_files/calibration/resistors/ds1463_obs.pdf
I'm so happy I could kiss a duck on the beak after finally rediscovering this technology

 

[dlgoff]

I'm so happy I could kiss a duck on the beak after finally rediscovering this technology

That's the smallest "decade box" I've ever seen. Not like the ones I used in Physics II Lab. Do you have one?

Speaking of small. This is the smallest "Variac" I've ever seen. It's used as a light intensity controller for a cystoscope diagnostic light. It's old and is stored in a cool wood, felt-lined box. The variable secondary scale has 14 divisions from DIM to BRIGHT.

 

[dlgoff]

Stay tuned. Beauty via old Telephone Stuff coming soon.

I'm getting close to getting the telephone stuff restored and displayed.

Here's how the fluid gauge and electrical meter shadow boxes turned out.

 

[dlgoff]

The telephone project has taken a tremendous amount of time. It's hooked to my home phone line and just made my first test. Good dial-tone. I'll do some more test later. I won't be cranking the generator though. Fairly sure I won't get an operator asking what number I want if I did crank it. I'll upload some before pics later.

 

[dlgoff]

Here are some before pics.

It had some previous work in the past. Note the uneven glue job.

It was really dirty inside.

After it's been taken apart.

Here's the clean wood. The front (door) has been re-glued.

I had to make several tools to get the dents out of the candlestick (receiver/transmitter & stand)

Here's the door glue fixture.

 

[davenn]

Don,
thought of you when I saw this advert on facebook in Melbourne city far to my south ...
https://www.facebook.com/events/1436964459929586/

there's going to be so many items there you would love to get your hands on :)

If it had been in my city I would have gone and had a look for you and may got some gems for you

Dave

 

[dlgoff]

...I would have gone and had a look for you and may got some gems for you

Everyone need a little beauty in their lives. One of those gems belongs in your home.

Your thought gives me more beauty Dave. Thank you.

 

[dlgoff]

Now this beauty is very useful. It's the Heath Kit V-6 VTVM. I repainted the box and couldn't duplicate the color exactly but it was close.

 

[OmCheeto]

DSL modem just went on the blink. stop
Currently communicating via free Wi-Fi. stop
Was at the local Science museum on Wednesday, when I heard Morse code. stop
Still haven't learned Morse code. stop
Drats! stop

Modem is in the freezer. stop
Heard that fixes these new fangled machines. stop

Can't remember why people always ended sentences with "stop". stop

Argh!

 

[dlgoff]

Still haven't learned Morse code.

I've got just what you need.

And if you don't have a way to play it, I may be able to help there too.

Once you've learned the code, you'll need one of these.

 

[dlgoff]

Some old test equipment pieces can never look a good as they did in their youth, like this 1941 Philco 050 Tube Tester. It was stored for years in dampness and all I could do for the front panel was to seal in what was still there with a clear spray. I repainted the enclosure, replaced the felt on the feet, and spliced in the middle section of the carry strap (splice is under strap brackets). But most of the time was spent on the inside coating every wire's insulation with clear fingernail polish to seal crack and prevent shorts.

The real beauty in this case is the thing works. Now I'll be able to go through all my old tubes and annotate their quality on some new tube boxes.

 

[Borg]

I remember in the early 70's taking tubes to a local TV repair shop whenever our TV stopped working properly. I would take all of the tubes to the shop, find the bad one and have the TV working again pretty quickly. My mother thought I was some kind of miracle worker.

 

[dlgoff]

I remember in the early 70's taking tubes to a local TV repair shop ...

I did the same thing but at a gasoline filling station.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_tester:

From the late 1920s until the late 1960s, many drug stores and grocery stores in the U.S. had a self-service tube-vending display. It typically consisted of a tube-tester atop a locked cabinet of tubes, with a flip chart of instructions.

 

[dlgoff]

I added a little Sodium to the gas-discharge lamps. The one on the right is a low-pressure lamp and the one on the left is a high-pressure lamp. Both are rated at 35 Watts. The first pic was take at turn-on and the second pic was taken after they warmed up.

 

[dlgoff]

Here's a couple of items I picked up at an antique store. The Narco VHT-3 is going to be a fun one as I'm hoping to be able to demonstrate the VOR (very high frequency omnidirectional radio range) receiver by watching the course deviation indicator (CDI) change when reorienting the omnidirectional antenna I'm building.

 

[davenn]

hey Don,

real cool ... some great new additions there

Dave

 

[intonamouri]

Good stuff

 

[dlgoff]

real cool ... some great new additions there

Good stuff

Thanks for looking at these pics.

 

[Borg]

Did some late spring cleaning on a room where I store misc. stuff. I could have created a thread called the "Beauty of old coffee makers".

 

[dlgoff]

I could have created a thread called the "Beauty of old coffee makers".

If they have wires, post some pics. Preferably really old ones.

 

[Borg]

If they have wires, post some pics. Preferably really old ones.

I tossed them out. The thread would have honestly had to have been called "Crappy old coffee makers" or "Stuff for the garbage heap". I wouldn't think of sullying your thread with such trash.

 

[dlgoff]

It's good to have, as ZapperZ calls them, enablers. One of my "enablers" was talking to one of his neighbors, who's in the construction business, about my collection and the neighbor said he had found something in this old house that I may want and gave it to him to pass along to me. May want? Hello! What a great find!

Original leads, leather case (removed for display), and instruction manual. The ohms scales require a 1.5V and a 30V battery. The 1.5V battery leaked a little on the 30V one which is still alive at 27V. I'm so thrilled to have this Beauty.

 

[jim hardy]

That pristine Triplett is just wonderful !

I series-ed three nines for mine (bought new in 1964).