Grundig TK 830

[DMcMahon]

Being a glutton for punishment, I recently purchased a Grundig TK 830 the big brother to my TK 819 and it has arrived today.

It is supposed to partially work with various problems and a damaged case.

I am sure it will be a major long term job to try to get it to work properly like my TK 819, but at worst it will make a nice table ornament.

The case repair may be a really serious challenge but I will totally ignore that until hopefully get some working life out of it.

[hillmanie]

For putting together the broken fragments I've found duper glue OK but not yet stress tested

TT

[DMcMahon]

I knew the case was damaged before it shipped from Germany and saw photos of the damage, difficult to be sure but I don't think the damage has got any worse during shipping.

I have not yet really inspected the damage, I don not think it is really bad but also not good. Seems to be a very common issue with lots of the old Grundigs that have the perforated outer plastic case. You see lots of them advertised that have really severe damage, I have a TK 30 with really bad damage, many of the tiny broken bits are probably long gone.

I have always assumed that the damage was physical damage caused by getting knocked/abused, although did wonder why there are so many with the damage.

The German TK 830 seller suggested that due to age the perforated plastic weakens and just crumbles apart (maybe degradation of the plasticiser used), I think he may well have a point.

When I said about repairing the case, I was actually thinking about the possibility of stripping off the outer perforated plastic shell and fabricate a new outer case using a perforated plastic or metal sheet (loads of different stuff available), of course does not have to be perforated. It may well be a tall order especially to get it to fit correctly.

[Ted Kendall]

These plastic wraps are a headache - they do embrittle with age and are difficult to fix. My own TK8 is going the same way, Some of the early TKs had metal mesh instead, and of course this lasts better. I've only seen it in brown, though.

[hillmanie]

In fact there's one just been on 'that' auction site with a great hole in the mesh, front
It does seem like a lot of work - but if one likes the machine well enough then it's worth doing. Re damage reporting, i have failed because the two week window of opportunity had passed (late in unpacking the box) Of course the law may over ride this but it was too much hassle for a sub £10 purchase, carriage something similar.
TT

[DMcMahon]

What happened to you post on this thread about your damage experience, was it deleted by a moderator (seemed harmless to me).

[hillmanie]

Originally Posted by DMcMahon

What happened to you post on this thread about your damage experience, was it deleted by a moderator (seemed harmless to me).

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I never question Mod's decision on these matters. After all he knows what's best for the Conference and is merely acting in the best interests of us all


TT

[DMcMahon]

Have done an initial quick visual inspection. Apart from damaged case externally cosmetically looks quite good condition for its age. The top of the magic eye is very close to the top panel unlike all the others I have seen including my 819 where there is a noticeable gap.

The case has a split on the left front side and worse damage on the right front side, the black cloth behind the right side damage is broken but I think the loudspeaker cone directly behind is OK. The unit has 3 speakers for the "3D" sound.

The mains cable is hardwired so no replacement of mains connector this time although will replace the 2 core cable with 3 core/UK plug. As Ted referenced in another thread the signal connectors now are DIN sockets rather than Jack sockets like the TK 819.

With top panel removed looks quite dirty but not bad. No obvious sign of those horrible leaking snubbers, not sure if this model has CR snubbers. The heads are worn, but look better than the TK 819 so hopefully some life left in them. The first tape guide either side of the 2 PB/Record heads are quite worn.

Like the 819 there is no insulated top hat piece fitted to the top of the capstan shaft. The contact set that is operated by the centrifugal piece of the capstan shaft looks different in operation to the 819, i.e. if the centrifugal piece lifts up when spinning up, the 2 pairs of contacts will not break/open but 1 other pair will break ?

The crepe rubber on the 2 pressure rollers looks in somewhat better condition than the rock hard/cracked rubber on the 819 but in the 830 they have been repaired with some black felt type material that is rubbing off.

All 5 drive belts are intact/fitted and look OK condition wise.

Both reel tables have wires going into their solenoids and hopefully these will work. Have not yet inspected the top hubs of the reel tables to see if any clutch rubber material left in good condition or totally decomposed like the 819.

Unit is supposed to be basically a runner but I will not risk powering it up until I have done a proper thorough inspection and checked out some of the critical components.