Hello Jason, I hope all is well with you. I thought you, and Nick, might want to know what came of the speaker you repaired for me back in May. Well, the radio is a 1934 RCA ACR-136 receiver. I have been working on the old radio for 6
months in my spare time and it is now complete. Here is what I've done:
1. I redrew the complete dial by hand in Microsoft Paint as a .jpg image. I logged the time and it took me 19 hours to complete. It looks identical to the old one.
2. All tubes were tested and 3 weak ones replaced with vintage originals. All tube sockets were tediously cleaned and checked for good continuity.
3. All suspect resistors and capacitors were replaced.
4. All tube plate caps have been replaced with new ceramic types and rewiring done as necessary. I bought 4 different colors of 18 AWG cloth wire on eBay to do the rewiring.
5. All tube shields have been taken down with steel wool and repainted in chrome finish paint.
6. Original RCA internal chassis labels were taped off and protected as shown in photos.
7. Rear serial number plate and front panel control plates were brushed and polished.
8. The power cord was replaced with a NOS cloth-covered replacement from the 30's obtained on eBay.
9. All RF and IF cans were removed, polished and replaced. New rubber grommets were replaced for all wirefeed-throughs.
10. With chassis stripped of all main components, unit was sprayed down (top and bottom) with component cleaner/lubricant, allowed to drip for 2 days and then dry out for 3 weeks. All necessary chassis components were lubricated as needed.
11. With chassis complete a full electrical test and alignment was done.
12. Chassis was then hand painted with silver paint. All screw heads and miscellaneous components also painted black or silver as required.
13. Dial mechanism and Vernier were completely disassembled, cleaned, rebuilt with a replacement main gear and lubricated to return the main and secondary pointers back to smooth working operation. Pointers were re-painted black. Light bulb sockets were cleaned and polished. Dial housing was also painted silver. Dial scale
was printed on vellum and affixed with the original standoffs and some white glue to hold it in place.
14. Speaker was sent to you for a complete professional rebuild of the voice coil and cone back to original. It works beautifully.
15. Front panel standby switch was replaced with a vintage 30s unit.
16. New vintage-look knobs were added.
17. The cabinet and front panel were completely stripped and repainted with the correct black wrinkle finish.
18. The entire unit was re-assembled and tested ok on all bands and all functions.
Thank you again for the great work on the speaker. It is by far, the pride and joy of my entire radio collection.I've got well over 100 hours of work and $300 of parts/material into it. For a 74 year old radio; it looks pretty new.
Best regards, Lou
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