Thought this might amuse you...
 

Hi
I'm in the process of repairing a G11 for a forum member - the set is in a Dynatron period cabinet. In the base of the cabinet was an ice-cream tub (see photo). What? Two wires went from it to the fuse board soldered to two 5A fuses, the originals having been removed, and the other two wires went to the IF strip. What's in the box? An AC/DC universal adaptor, a rheostat (as I'm sure the installer put it) and a fuse.
So what on earth? Further investigation suggests that the set had no sound. Our repairer finds the audio fuse on the line panel open and its feed rectifier shorted. However he replaces said diode with a normal RS rectifier, but, as it's not a fast-recovery part, finds only a few volts available to the audio stage. Hence this arrangement to power the audio stage!
I don't know how long the arrangement worked for, if at all. I won't make any comment on fire hazards and safety - but it certainly represents an old-school approach to solving a (for the time) new technology fault.
Glyn

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

What on earth do you mean, Glyn?? I can definitely see a fuse there :-D

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

Wow, that's a major bodge even by the standards of the day, I can imagine the engineer scratching his head and wondering why the set was working but with low supply voltages to the audio p/a, happily such stuff is completely outlawed these days.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

MacGuyver would be proud!

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

Maybe within the trade. definitely not outside of it!

The evidence suggests either desperation or incompetence. I think the latter.
Bodges are still rife in the repair industry. I could write a book!

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

That really is a spectacular bodge. The repairer could at least have used a socket for the wall wart. If somebody touched the pins and died, there's a good chance that the repairer would have faced prosecution.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

8-o

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

To be fair (!) to the repairer the tub was actually inside the spacious cabinet, though not anchored in any way.The two 5A plug fuses were forced into the 20mm fuseholders on the mains input panel - as you know these should be 3.15A. Just to add to the fun, the set's mains switch was shorted so the box and therefore the audio stage would be permanently on even when the TV was in standby.
I must admit this is one of the more elaborate bodges I've come across, up there with the firebar element serving as a makeshift dropper in a Thorn 1400!
Glyn

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

I like that.

It reminds me of (a long, long time ago - honest) trying to fix the timebase in an ancient solartron scope, having no circuit and no clue. I poked the (tiny, Taiwanese, analogue, found in a bin) multimeter probes around (carefully; I'm still here) and suddenly the timebase sprang into life. So...I borrowed another multimeter, measured the resistance across the probes on the range I had been using, and soldered a resistor in across those two points. Hey presto ;D

I wonder if someone might explain why the attempt to replace the original rectifier was unsuccessful? I don't yet understand.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

It must have been a fast-recovery diode fed from a high-frequency power supply. The common 1N4007 type rectifier diodes tend to lose their rectifying ability at a few hundred Hz, so would not have substituted well in this application.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

To add to Julie’s answer.
The diode was probably fed from the Line output stage, quite common at one time.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

There must be a million dangerous bodge stories out there.

I was told by a TV service engineer that many years ago he had gone to attend to a faulty monochrome TV in someone's home. When he went to remove the back cover he discovered that there were 3 leads to the back of the set, the mains lead, the aerial lead and a third twin lead that disappeared behind the curtains. Sitting on the window sill was a large finned metal rectifier! The previous "engineer" couldn't get the large replacement rectifier inside the set (the original was a contact cooled type).

The safety advice offered at the time had been "don't touch this when the set is switched on". 8-o

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

Wow. At least UK (BS 1363) plugs have a fuse inside them. :)

Fivos

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

A general comment....

A lot of vintage radio restorers/dabblers never worked in the trade, being a field service engineer was quite a challenge for many of us back then, ridiculously high number of call outs per day with ridiculous minimum amount of spares carried and a stupid amount of service engineers service area shifting due to various reasons.

The hard fact result of that was that some fixes would be classed as a bodge but on the other hand the customer is screaming "Match of The Day (or equivalent will be on soon, can it be fixed for the weekend?" (In other words I want it fixed now (and so does my boss)) So it was fixed by whatever means eg: no video...video anode load OC...it's an oddball value and wattage so a string of resistors formed in the shape of a waggon hoop is made up and fitted...will return with proper resistor and fit as soon as poss...could always take it in and leave a loan set then get goolies chewed off for bringing in a set with such a simple fault plus even in that scenario sods law says no loan set(s) left in the van so back to the depot to pick one up, net result is some calls have to be missed which often meant goolies being chewed again twice in one day8-o......maybe....maybe you leave the firm or told the boss to where stuff his job (Usually both meant the same)...maybe the boss decided to transfer you to another service area.

In other words some "bodges" start out with good intentions but for whatever reason(s) remain bodges.

Lawrence.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

Incredible! That's one of the best lash-ups I've seen. Heath Robinson springs to mind.

It seems strange from a logical point of view. The 'repairer' finds that the supply rectifier is faulty, replaces it and doesn't fully resolve the problem. Surely he should've thought to himself could the replacement be faulty or in this case be completely the wrong type? Instead, he undertakes an elaborate bodge. I'd be interested to see if he actually succeeded with this mod.

I've come across a number of bodges over the years. I remember a BRC 1400 having a huge replacement W/W resistor hanging on thin wires from the mains dropper where one section had become o/c. Another one I saw involved a hewn piece of wood wedged between the chassis and line linearity coil in an effort to stop the whistling (magnetostriction). Silver foil across fuses cropped up a few times. Also badly joined mains leads where the owner wanted to extend the lead. With VCRs, the owner oiling the mechanism was another nightmare to deal with. All good fun!

Regards
Symon.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

A lot of VCRs and record players went into the bin after WD40 became widely sold. And all sorts of car electrical bits too.
Has anyone still got a roll of black cambric insulating tape? We called it insulting tape.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

Yep, me too, calling it insulting tape I mean...(aka installation tape :) )

Lawrence.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

Amazing. I think we need a new forum section for vintage bodges.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

I can remember a workmate of mine doing various bodges.
He had a posh name for bodges that were likely to stay in place. They were fixed temporarily for good.
My most common bodge in the late 1990s was replacing and in some cases digging out the innards of those awful first generation washing machine door timers. They were so unreliable that I just did not trust even a genuine new one to last long enough to satisfy the owner. The first one I did had been fitted with three new ones under warranty. There was no way I was going to fit another one of those.

Re: Thought this might amuse you...
 

Sounds like reasonable advice to me :-)

I must admit that many years ago when I was a young lad I bodged an old valve tape recorder. One of the valves was getting very hot and melting things. So I drilled a hole in the side of the case and installed a valve socket on the outside via a load of wires going through the hole and poked in the internal socket. That way the valve could get as hot as it wanted without damaging anything inside. It actually worked!