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Old 26th Oct 2017, 6:21 pm   #21
Philips210
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Default Re: How can I clean up a rusty transformer laminated core?

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Originally Posted by Herald1360 View Post
Do they have concours d'elegance for TV chassis?
That's an absolute beaut and the TV chassis as well!

Argus25, your restorations are truly outstanding, it's a pleasure to see such high standard work.

To clean the transformer lams, I usually use a small wire brush with a little WD40. Those little PCB cleaning brushes with a brass rather than fibre glass insert are quite good for small transformers.

Regards
Symon

Last edited by Philips210; 26th Oct 2017 at 6:29 pm. Reason: Added text
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Old 28th Oct 2017, 2:41 pm   #22
turretslug
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Default Re: How can I clean up a rusty transformer laminated core?

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One interesting thing about many UK sets is the preponderance of aluminium, but in American sets, hardly any, they were very big on steel.

Apparently, a very large amount of aluminium stock was shipped to the UK during the closing months of WW2 by Alcoa and Alcan to back up ever more ambitious warplane production schedules- as UK post-war aircraft production tended to be in dozens rather than thousands, perhaps this was part of the explanation? Aluminium would seem to be rather an expensive luxury in consumer electronics chassis otherwise without the market distortion of redundant Lend-Lease. The US continued to churn aircraft out in very large numbers, so maybe mild steel continued to be the rational choice there for consumer goods, rather than cost-price aluminium?
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Old 28th Oct 2017, 4:37 pm   #23
MrBungle
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Default Re: How can I clean up a rusty transformer laminated core?

Also apparently Americans believed in design lives so they’d expect it to go rusty just before or just after it was thrown in the trash. My father used to rant about this a lot. Not sure if it is true or not however.
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Old 28th Oct 2017, 5:09 pm   #24
G6Tanuki
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Default Re: How can I clean up a rusty transformer laminated core?

On Aluminium: Immediately after WWII and for some subsequent years there was a significant shortage of steel for use by UK manufacturing-industry but aluminium and its alloys were much more freely available (where from? Was there a stockpile?) without the need to go through the longwinded Board of Trade materials allocation process that applied to steel.

The result was that a lot of made-in-the-UK things immediately post-WWII used aluminium where you'd have expected steel. Probably the best known example being the original Land-Rover, but my mother had an "ADA" washing-machine dating from around 1950 whose tub was spun-aluminium rather than enamelled steel, the outer casing was folded aluminium sheet riveted to an aluminium angle-profile frame, and lots of the mechanical parts (including the big 'agitator' in the centre of the tub) were aluminium diecastings too.

I guess if you were a TV/radio-manufacturer facing the choice between have-it-next-week-and-all-you-want supplies of aluminium or fill-in-this-form-and-the-man-at-the-Ministry-of-Supply-will-get-back-to-you-with-a-materials-allocation-in-3-months you'd go aluminium!
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Old 28th Oct 2017, 5:21 pm   #25
ms660
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Default Re: How can I clean up a rusty transformer laminated core?

Birmabright.

Lawrence.
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Old 28th Oct 2017, 7:03 pm   #26
M0FYA Andy
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Default Re: How can I clean up a rusty transformer laminated core?

Yes, that's the stuff Landrovers were made from!

I wish I'd kept my Air Portable (aka Lightweight) Landrover, it would be worth quite a bit now, they've become hard to find.

Andy
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Old 28th Oct 2017, 7:12 pm   #27
M0FYA Andy
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Default Re: How can I clean up a rusty transformer laminated core?

I'm intrigued by the comment 'One interesting thing about many UK sets is the preponderance of aluminium, but in American sets, hardly any, they were very big on steel.'
This may be true post-war, but during the war practically all British military electronic equipment, even airborne where weight is important, used steel, whereas American equipment used mainly aluminium.
I guess in Britain there was a shortage of aluminium during the war, so it was reserved primarily for aircraft structure, but this turned into a glut once hostilities ceased. Even used for building the famous 'prefabs', which I lived in for the first three years of my existence although I don't remember it! My mother was always very enamoured by them, although I think they weren't generally popular.

Andy
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Old 28th Oct 2017, 9:24 pm   #28
MotorBikeLes
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Default Re: How can I clean up a rusty transformer laminated core?

One factory I worked on had a large array of stiilaging to carry the web boards. These were all made from Wooden vertical supports, with 1" diameter solid aluminium rods onto which the ware boards were placed.
There was also a large quantity of Aluminium "Pyrotenax" which had been used on electric kilns built around 1950.
The well known Vincent motorcycles used aluminium extensively from 1947 onwards said to be because of the easy availability.
Les.
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 8:19 pm   #29
GW4FRX
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Default Re: How can I clean up a rusty transformer laminated core?

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aluminium and its alloys were much more freely available (where from? Was there a stockpile?)
A lot of it presumably came from the enormous numbers of aircraft scrapped after the war.
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