I acquired this from my good friend “Jackster” while we were horse trading on some antiques, and decided to become better acquainted with these old 2-stroke engines. Nice stuff indeed!
We’re in the process of restoring two of them and this is what I did on my end of the deal. I’ll follow with another post later on the 2nd of the two.

In the first picture you need to take note of the amount of scaling and residual junk in the tank. Basically it was a mess.

I disassembled everything except for the cylinder/piston/crankshaft end of things. The rings were free and no evidence of scoring on the piston so it wasn’t necessary at this point. The main shaft bushings were good and tight so there was no need to do a full tear down. All the component parts were cleaned and painted, wooden base fabricated, and has now been reassembled.

We’ll pour some petrol in it next and see if we can build a fire in it.

I installed a couple new CJ-8 plugs and it fires up and runs pretty smooth. I don’t have the original drive pulley so for now it’s just another nick-knack on the shelf. The 72-D is only rated at 2/3 hp, so you can figure out what they’re good for from there. All you need is a little imagination….

As things go with most restorations this one proved to be a challenge on all levels. The oak top needed the ribbing underneath for additional support, and I fabricated an angle iron section to give support were the belt pressure loaded the 3/4″ oak top. The machine head worked well after it was threaded up, and it stitched leather and cloth nice and tight with no problems.The vintage industrial light was also a nice touch.

I’d made quite a bit of progress on the project but rather than finish it I decided to offer it on E-Bay and let it go. It’s a nice piece but I just don’t have the time with the rest my projects that are sitting on the back burner. Hopefully the lucky buyer will take time to finish the restoration.

For pictures of the restoration process go here:  Start of project.

This how it’s being shipped.

I received an order of capacitors from Mouser and decided to work on the WR-64A a bit more. I replaced the four electrolytic caps but rerouted some components and left the canned cap on the chassis rather than re-stuffing the dang thing. Finding a place to put them under the chassis was bad enough.

I don’t have a manual or the schematics for it so calibration may be a bit of a problem. At least I’ve got the sticker on the back to give me an idea what the waveforms should look like at the test points. The probe is junk and I’ll need to fix that, but that’s a minor problem.
After powering it up I sampled the waveform at test point A and it was spot on with the decal, so I’ll try to calibrate the rest of it when I get time and go from there.

I hooked up a old TV I had on the shelf and from the way it acts there are some other caps in the circuit that need replaced, so it’s back to the drawing board on this one. I don’t have the schematic or manual, so it’s going on the back burner for now.

I’d never built one of these and thought I’d give it a shot. I had most of what I needed on hand, so I went for it, and this is what I ended up with. I used a 12kv 25ma NST for the primary transformer and wound the high voltage end of things by hand. The secondary of the coil is wound on 3″ PVC and mounted on Plexiglas framing. The NST and spark gap are mounted on a 2.5″ plank of cherry and the toilet bowl flange is inset into the wood. It was a nice touch and also made a good insulating base.
To wind the secondary I used a Variac to run a drill motor and double sided tape to get a good rap on the windings. The primary is 9 turns of 1/4″ copper and worked out nicely. The initial prototype used a simple air gap which doesn’t give you much control as far as the resonate frequency of the circuit is concerned, but I had to start somewhere.

I used Miller Lite beer bottles (brown) for my first bucket capacitor, but after repeated tests one of them exploded and shorted the cap. Salt water and oil is rather messy to work with so that has slowed things down a bit, but it’s no game changer. I’ll rebuild the cap with clear glass bottles next time.

Given the unstable frequency of a simple air gap I decided to build a rotating spark gap and that proved to be quite the challenge. As it turned out the thing is balanced and works great. Not an easy thing to do even if you are a machinist. Things are a lot easier with the proper tooling, but I made do.

Without coupling another transformer into the circuit and boosting the HV primary this seems to have worked out OK. What I really need is a Pole Pig with current limitation on the primary.That would be a whole different ballgame. LOL

The Variacs are used for the Rotary Spark Gap speed and NST voltage feeds and just adds to the control over the circuit. I also had a cheep Chinese 8″ plasma globe with failed electronics. So I cut off the base and dropped it on top of the toroid. The tube was still gassy and made for a nice experiment.

This is a 1941 Singer industrial sewing machine that I’m restoring for a friend. When I first got it I juiced up the motor with all the old cloth coated wiring still in the circuit and the drive head spun up the flywheel/clutch assembly with no problem and was as smooth as could be. I didn’t run it for very long and then gave the drive unit a good cleaning and replaced all the wiring. I also tested the 12mfd 330v cap, which had started the motor previously, and it checked out OK.

After reassembly I powered the unit up again and used sand paper to clean the rest of the rotating parts. Then I noticed one side of the stator was getting hot and starting to smoke. Vandalia Electric Motor has offered to rewind the stator for a fair price and once we get by that hurdle I’ll reassemble the drive head/motor end and carry on from there.

The table top was fabricated by a local craftsmen and I refinished all the metal parts and the wooden cross bracing. The parts and pieces had been in storage for over a decade and some of it was missing, so there is a bit of fabrication involved. The drive unit motor mounts had to be rebuilt and details like that, but most of the dirty work is done for now.
 

Update: 03/06/12

Vandalia Electric did a great job on the stator rewind and in good time. They’ve got a well equipped shop that can handle any size motor in any configuration. Thanks Kurt!

I hadn’t taken time to really look at this old piece of gear so I thought I’d dig a little deeper. As it turns out, the circuit was built with high quality components, other than the filter cap, so I re-stuffed that can with a couple new 10mfd electrolytic caps. I also gave the case a coat of hammered bronze paint and replaced the brittle test leads while I was at it.

So far the biggest problem I’ve encountered with this project has been replacing the rubber coated wiring that had turned brittle. In the process I’m having to remove the IF transformers and other major active components to rewire and secure the leads. I used original colors for the wiring and retained the original black heavy filament feed wires that also had brittle insulation. My choice to fix that problem was sheathing them with heat shrink tubing. Looks pretty big for something feeding a filament circuit doesn’t it?

Of course that’s just one of the many steps, but so far the windings on all of the inductors are good at least. I’ve also been checking the wire wound resisters when they’re out of the circuit, and most seem to be intact and within tolerance. The rectangular capacitor units (4 caps each) are something else that I’ll have to deal with sooner or later. The cans are soldered together and re-stuffing them would be a challenge to say the least.

That’s the  2nd detector IF transformer in the lower left hand corner of the pic.

Update: 02/13/12

I replaced the rest of the brittle wiring and installed a new 8mfd filter cap. From there I powered the chassis up without the 80 rectifier tube to recheck the secondary voltages. Everything checked good on that end and I decided to test the field coil speaker to make sure that was good. Unfortunately the speaker mounted audio output transformer was open on the primary side. On a positive note both the field and voice coils are good at least. I removed the transformer to see if the problem was in the outer layer of windings but that was a failed attempt and it needs to be replaced.
 

Visit Nostalgia Air if you’re looking for the schematics and or the component values for the AK85.

Here’s a link to the PDF courtesy of Nostalgia Air:

http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Resources/501/M0001501.htm

I think my next move is to see if Mark Oppat at oldradioparts.net has something compatible on hand or can offer some advice to get around the problem.  Either way it’ll be a project worth pursuing, as long as the lights are still on.

I finished up the home brew VAT/charger so that project is out of the way now. Being able to carry a high amperage charger/load tester around this easily will make it a great addition to the toolbox. A friend gave me the old Tripp Lite UPS and I refurbished it also.

I recently dug out this old VAT combination charger I built back in the 80’s just to see what components I could salvage from it.This was a high amp charger and loading device and would kick batteries at about 40 amps. It was polarity protected and nothing happened if it was hooked up backwards. Anybody could use it if they figured out what all the switches did. It also had a Matco charging system analyzer with amp-probe mounted in it. Pretty typical of one of my projects actually.

I tore it apart and was amazed at the quality of the old components and decided to trick the idea out a little if I could. I had a nice Wiegmann enclosure Jackster had given me and it looked like everything would fit, so I jumped in again. After considerable sawing, drilling, grinding, and cursing I ended up with this.

I’ve also made provisions to add the front panel LCD amp/volt meter and shunt when it gets here from China in a couple weeks, if I’m lucky. LOL  Some things never change I guess…

Before

After

I used an old 24v printer power supply for the relays and low amperage trigger circuits. The high amp side is done with copper buss and heavy gauge wire and with the cooling should be sufficient. It’s compact and easy to handle and operate. The high current relay on the lower right makes the switch from load to charge settings anytime power is applied and it’s fused up where necessary.

I acquired a couple of pretty nice old computers from Chromedome recently and decided to have a closer look at them last night. While I was inspecting the said computers and looking the MoBo over on one of them, with my trusty Pelican CR123A equipped flashlight, everything suddenly went flash-bang on me. It didn’t just go “poof”, it was more on the order of a gun shot in the ear sort of thing. Fortunately it blew out the front end with the bulb and heat sink assembly rather than the tail cap that was pointing at my face. The body ended up 6 feet behind me in a box on one of the shelves and took awhile to find. One of the batteries hit the wall and was on fire when it dropped behind the bench and everything else and the other battery ended up in the computer I was checking out. It filled the place with smoke/fumes and had me ducking for awhile before I could get the exhaust fans going. Bad stuff.

Basically these batteries won’t tolerate excessive charging or discharge rates. The built in current limiting of these so called “protected batteries” can and does fail on occasion. Another issue to be considered is the fact that most of your cheap Chinese chargers for these type batteries are prone to failure and over charging/regulation issues. That puts repeated stress on the protection circuit built into the battery which then fails. If it goes “poof”, no problem, if it blows up in your face or starts a fire that’s a whole different ballgame.

It was kind of funny in a way. Until my flashlight disappeared.

Anyhow, a hat/tip goes out to Chromedome for the bit boxes!

I took some time to look into some more of the old test equipment I had on the shelf and decided to refurbish some of it. I cleaned up the cases and stripped them where necessary, and for the ones that still had a good crinkle coat, well, I spayed over them with a hammered dark bronze top coat.

Basically all that should be required to get the stuff up and running is to do a recap on the individual units. I’ve made the list of what I need and will make the order shortly and start working on re-capping the stuff. Hopefully some of it should make for some viable test gear.

From left to right:

Heathkit CT-1 Capaciti-Tester

Eico 221 VTVM

Heathkit SG-8 RF signal generator

Knight KG=650 RF signal generator

Eico 950B Comparator

RCA WR-64A Color bar/dot/crosshatch generator

I had this old piece of television test gear stored and decided to give it a closer look. The case is currently soaking in a tub of water with baking soda and 24v dc applied and should be bare metal shortly. Using electrolysis is the only way to fly when it comes to stripping metal. Anyhow, I’ll get it out of the solution and prepped for painting with a gray hammer coat of paint later.

In the mean time I cleaned up the chassis and from what I can see so far replacing the electrolytic filter caps should put it back in business. I’m not sure if I want to start relearning how to work on old TV’s again but you have to keep all your options open and hopefully preserve a piece of history in the process.

Here’s a bottom view of the chassis.

I got the cabinet repainted, installed a good leather handle and replaced the rubber feet on the bottom. The next step will be to recap it.

I purchased these two Hitachi scopes via e-bay and thought I’d run them through the paces to see if I’d made a good buy or not. The one on the left is a V-422 40 Mhz and the other one is a newer V-252 20 Mhz scope. They both locked onto the audio signal I’m feeding them here and do what they were intended to do, which is analyze wave forms. I would much rather have a good digital scope that displayed voltage and frequency along with other pertinent data and the wave form, but that’s out for now unless something happens to “fly by” on e-bay. A little math and and a VOM will do the same thing of course, but it’s still nice to be able to see what you’re doing in a visual format.

I put this together for a friend to help regulate the firebox and water temperature in the heating loop for the radiators in his home. There’s a similar setup controlling the draft door on the stove and this will further help throttle the water temperature. Both systems utilize Red Lion process meters mounted in stainless steel boxes on the front end, and actuators running through a 4-20 ma loop to do the heavy lifting at the other end.

The stainless is rather hard to work with, but it’s worth it in the long run.

This is one of the better tube testers I’ve acquired in that it excepts the older 4 and 6 pin tubes commonly found in vintage gear. It worked but sometimes the meter would develop a 60 hz “buzz” at the pointer (1/16″), and do other weird stuff anytime you “clunked” a switch or made any adjustments. It did however show signs of life, so I dug into it a little further today and got it repaired.

I first disassembled the 200 ohm sensitivity rheostat and cleaned it, and then the contacts on all the other switches. It still had the same issues. So being the rational type(?), I pursued the problem and pinned it down to the selenium rectifier and a capacitor in the leakage detection circuit. Problem solved!

Here’s a bottom view of the chassis:

This is a closer look at the replaced components. I had a bunch of NOS selenium rectifiers on hand, so I decided to fix it that way rather than use a semiconductor replacement.

It was a successful project and made a nice addition to my “tool box”. In the following photo it’s warming up an old globe style 80 rectifier tube.

I’ve acquired/salvaged some pretty nice vacuum tubes recently and thought I’d give you an idea of what I’ve managed to save from ending up in a trash heap. Heh, I still have people ask me what they’re good for.

Mark Oppat over at http://www.oldradioparts.net/ mentioned that this particular chassis was rather rare and also known for having bad power transformers. I put it back on the bench to have a closer look and was pleasantly surprised with the results. I pulled the 80 rectifier tube and disconnected the filter cap as it showed obvious signs of leakage. I then powered the set up slowly with a Variac while monitoring the current on the line in and got good voltage rise on all the secondary windings. A lot of the rest will have to be re-caped and resistance values checked, but so far it looks to be one of the better sets I’ve acquired.

This is a neat old AM/FM tuner chassis I acquired recently.

What makes it unique is that it utilizes 2 6ME5 “eye tubes” for tuning indicators.I took time to clean things up a bit and then powered it up without first changing the filter caps. That’s usually a bad move, but it worked OK this time. I monitored the current inrush and the filaments lit up, so the power supply and basic circuit is intact. I patched it into an amp and got some static out of it, so there’s some hope for this one. I’ll probably just put it on the shelf for now. I’m kind of busy trying to find a real job.

The sweet potato and tobacco crops both did nicely. I got 40-50 lbs of spuds and probably 1-1/2 lbs of processed tobacco, with more tobacco on the way.