Equipment needed for restoration

Hey guys.

I'm trying to find out what equipment I will need to start learning how to repair radios and phonographs. There's a guy kindve local that's willing to help that already does it, and I just got thru ordering all kinds of books on the subject. (I have electrical experience and come from a family of electrical engineers and the sort. I'm engineer by trade). Anyways, what kinds of equipment would be good to have to start off with? I'm guessing a variac for one? I have multimeters and such. Its something I'd really like to get into, for my grandfather did the same thing. I have some boxes of tubes I figure may one day come in handy. Any help or advice would be great!!

All well & good.
Nevertheless, you sound like you want to put the carriage before the horse, and hope to succeed.
Don't work that way, sorry.

Before you go aquiring any equipment, you need to learn the theory of electronics first.
I'm not talking about your family engineering background - that's irelevent.
I've had people come into my shop stating they're "engineers" and such, yet cannot explain what tube or transistor bias is.
I've asked them simple questions like - can they read a resistor's color bands and tell me the value.
They look at me like a deer in the headlights.

Theory.... Elemental Electronics...... the Basics.
BOOKS.
Better yet, formal training, like I went through.
And not off the internet, either, because some of that is misinformation and dreamt-up nonsense.

I get a laugh at some people who want to purchase all sorts of goody goody "toys" and not a clue on how to use them.
I hope you don't desire to be one of them.

signed,
Your friendly Professional Seasoned Electronics Technician.

I've minored in electronics in college, and was a journeyman electrician. I finished school in mechanical engineering. I'm not retarded. I guess I should've made myself clear. I know theory, I have books and books on the subject. The books I ordered was diagrams and phonograph and radio troubleshooting. I know the bands on a resistor and all that stuff. I was just asking what is best to use. Ive ordered a variac cause I know not to plug something into 120 after not working for 20 years. Don't have to bash me, instead give me some advice on the subject. I was referencing my family saying I have help if need be, for they have done it, but I want to learn on my own.

There isn't a lot to learn beyond the basics of electronic theory and practical skills such as soldering and use of simple DVM procedures.

The only remotely exotic procedure is FM sweep alignment, and you'll often find that after the circuit has been restored (new caps) a simple peaking and discriminator or ratio detector balance is all that is needed.

Fundamentally, restoring these sorts of sets will often require replacing all capacitors that have voltage on them. Those in passive circuits such as tone controls and crossovers will be optional, but leaky caps are especially common and ruinous in these sorts of sets which typically use cheap components. resistors used in these sets are often 20% tolerance which is also indicative of cheap parts and they should be tested either by direct measurement or by voltage tests of the circuit.

In addition to what you probably have (soldering iron(s) and DVM) a method of measuring phono pickup tracking weight is useful, and for FM radios a source of 10.7MHZ RF is helpful if you want to get best possible performance. A -good- transconductance tube tester will be helpful if you are going to do a lot of tube equipment. I'd recommend an in-circuit capacitor tester but frankly, most consumer products have such cheap caps that wholesale replacement is often most efficient, especially in the case of paper caps used in tube circuits.

In lieu of schematics for a given set an RCA tube manual is most helpful as are books of basic transistor circuits.

If there is an old repairman or HAM operator in your area he may have all the extra test equipment you need and then some.

Don't feel too bad about attitudes. I the late 70's while i was at NYU, I worked P-T at a professional sound co here in Manhattan. On my second day there a Mr Doofus (my name for him) asked me to go over to Masque Sound (a Broadway and venue contractor) and "pick up a box of sixty cycle hums".

I asked him what that was and he started to get sort of indignant with trash talk questioning my knowledge and I responded with some choice Anglo-Saxon terms. At that point the guy who hired me intervened and said "that won't work, he has a first phone" Mr Doofus said "sorry I was just busting your nuts". The techie version of hazing.

Rob/NYC

Rob & Matt are correct you will need loads of gear and the knowledge to use the test equipement.
A signal generator and a dual bean scope is a good idea especially if you are going to repair stereo amplifiers.

The guys will tell you that you can make a living out of repairs but it tends to be a labour of love in respect to the repairs that are done, pity the same can not be said about some of the customers you may encounter.

Best of luck.

Rob,

Sounds as if you went down a similar route to me as an apprentice electrician in the late 60's I was sent to the stores for the usual with reservations for female and male glands, stuffing glands etc (all were the correct items) but the spirit level bubbles and everyone got caught out by the long stand, after about 20 minutes the storeman would take pity on you and come back to the counter and say it was already out or something like that.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Thanks guys. I figure a lot of the stuff I can get a hold of as I get more proficient thru the years. A lot of what I need to know will prolly come from experience. I know a gentleman I talked too gave me all kinds of pointers from restoring the cabinets to things to watch for, listen for, and common issues. He was very helpful, as I made sure I made notes of everything he said.

Luckily there's an old store around the corner from my house, I was looking thru the junk the other day and found a tube tester with all the booklets. It seems to open like a suitcase. How can I tell if it's any good? I guess for the 20 bucks I offered him I could just take it home and plug a tube in and see what happens. I just replaced the tubes in my jukebox so I have new and bad tubes to check the operation. The manuals seem to be lists of tubes and their good operating range. We didn't really have any tube knowledge in college haha

Yea I know it can be frustrating, as a apprentice I got my ass handed too a lot lol. I do not expect to get good overnight at all, and neither do I wanna make money at this. It's a hobby. Something to keep me busy and keep mind busy. I love These old radios and recor players. A lot of people prolly give up cause people don't try to help and share their knowledge, everyone starts somewhere, and it's a dying art. With the right books and dedication anyone can learn theory, throw them an ugly's electrical reference luckily I found a guy close to me (well 2 hours away) that has been doing it for about 4 years now, hes still learning himself but is willin to give me some project radios etc to practice and learn on. I'm very excited about learning and getting better. I appreciate the help guys!!

Congratulations! It is a hobby you are going to enjoy. I like tube equipment best and I would recommend you begin with a simple device such as a kiddie phono. I am of the opinion that RCA tube manuals are the best. They are filled with useful info. You will find as you go along that tubes are rarely the culprit when a device doesn't work. Capacitors, especially electrolytic capacitors, are usually the source of problems though not always. The web is fine as a source of information but as with anything else reader beware. At any rate you can always check here or at other forums. This is how we all learn. Good luck and keep us posted.

Sixty cycle hums? We had a few of those:

A grid leak (or gate leak) drip pan (often referring to an ashtray)
A bucket of vacuum
A reel of scrimmage line (or skirmish line)
A line-of-sight transmission straightener
Ground-plane leveling screws
A vocal talent enhancer (with adjustments for gender and talent level)
Zero ohm resistors (wires)
A can of distortion remover
Spurious resonance tie-downs
Go to the company doctor to have them do a histogram, and get your kurtosis shots while you are there.
PCB-free electronics (hand wired)
A circuit that converts cycles per second to hertz.
A DC transformer
Image frequency polish
A liquid-state transistor
A music genre compensator (to go with the recording curve compensators of the 1950s)
Snap-together inductive couplers
A trichotometric indicator support (that three pronged object that can be drawn, but not built)
A nomograph actuator (ruler)

And, my favorite as told to me by my then boss--a gallon of Prop Wash--
He said that this story was true--and I never caught him in a lie--
Army Air Corps--WWII days- Sargent tells "kid"--Go get me a gallon of Prop Wash--and dam-it, do NOT come back until you find it !
Kid takes two weeks and comes back with an empty gallon jug, with a nice label saying "Prop Wash".
They could do nothing to him--
Ron Rich