Restoration of ReVox F36

[reel-to-reel-man]

I haven't yet posted a success story so I thought I would post one now.



Recently I purchased a ReVox F36 off Ebay for £20 (Cheap) described as dirty and faulty. With the "buy it now" at £20 I snapped it up, when it arrived it was worse than dirty. I haven't got a picture before I started but I took one of the main plastic tape cover. The plastic had been etched by some sort of chemical and was beyond the soapy water treatment, it required sanding with 1000 grit wet and dry followed by a polish with Brasso.

The recorder didn't power up which I found was a simple switch problem, the valves where intact but the mechanics required a thorough service, the capstan was seized. The machine had arrived in bad condition however as the sender hadn't packed it very well, the recorder received damage to the top left hand courier where it had dropped and the metal framework inside had been damaged. After gluing the metalwork together and filling cracks with chemical metal the only thing left to do is to fill the cracked plastic which is around the top left hand screw.

The recorders lid was really bad, it took about an hour to clean, obviously the biggest problem is the lid could not be soaked and the inside of the lid had to cleaned with a damp sponge but the results are very good.

Over all with the repairs done and the cleaning of the bright work as well as the plastic this recorder took me a total of 5 hours to restore, now its working as new and sounds fantastic, so much so that I have been listening to it for a few weeks now.



In the full intention of selling the machine on to make a profit, I find its now a permanent fixture to my ever growing collection of recorders.

[Nickthedentist]

Very impressive cosmetic improvements there, a job really well done