McMichael 135.

[therave]

May as well start somewhere. I found a McMichael 135 in a skip on Thursday so I'm going to have a go at a seven day restoration.

Today, day one, stripped and started with all that bad veneer. Also I have the stand for it.

Internally, the only thing that looks bad is the caps on the drivers and the tuning cap.

Anyway, have a look. All input welcome.

[mark pirate]

What a find!
I am glad you have rescued it, and what luck to have it's stand as well
I will be watching this thread with great interest.
Good luck.

Mark

[AlanBeckett]

There's a challenge for the 'Cleaning Tuning Capacitors' Thread
Alan

[chipp1968]

Good luck with that . It will be a great restoration well worth it .

[Steve_P]

Electronics wise, the only really difficult thing would be if any transformers or IFT's need to be rewound. I have read the thread about cleaning tuning caps and that one does not look too bad. Just stick it in the dishwasher.

When the chassis works, and I'm pretty sure that one will, then go for the cabinet. I'll leave that area up to others as I'm really electronics only.

The McMicheal 135 service sheet is up top there by the way, and well worth the money.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Steve P.

[therave]

day 2 i know its a bit back to front but i have started with the case the idea being that at worst i will have to rewrap the transforma's going for new caps tomorrow i hope before you say it yes i will be useing the old one's as covers sat down last night and had a go at wraping cotton around new cable not happy with it at all there must be a easier way.. today the case had some repare's and i had some fun with the veneer never repared it before found out that hand cream makes the stuff softer so i could work with it, just useing pva to glue it to case. right this is where you lot come in should i dye and varnish or wax it all ideas well come.

as i type this the tuning cap is in the dishwasher tried this before on a su carb and it went black and was not usable after that fingers crossed

[bosscock]

How did you find the veneering? easy to do? Photo restore threads are the excellent,

keep up the great work
Neill

[Oldtimer74]

Hi there. What a nice find. I have just restored one of these electrically so give you some advice.
The electrolytics will need reforming - hopefully not replacing though that is not difficult. You will almsot certainly find that all the tubular paper capacitors are leaky and must be replaced if you want the set to work properly and not damage any valves. From memory there are about 8 of them. I removed the original insides and reused the paxolin tubes, fitting a modern small cap of suitable working voltage inside and resealing with paraffin wax (Not candle wax). If you dont want the trouble of doing that just replace with modern ones but do keep the old ones in case you ever change you mind (or the next owner does!). I found that almost all the resistors were within 20% tolerance so did not need to replace. I hope the coils and IF transformers are OK, as well as the loudspeaker field winding. Not a difficult set to work on. Any query just ask me.
Good luck

Pat G3IKR

[therave]

well the tuning cap is out of the dishwasher also removed before rinse

here's one for the tuning thread

the dishwasher will not remove the rust

but what a good job it did on 50+ years of c**p

i am not going to do any more with it i dont think the rust will get any worse in my life time



please bare in mind this is not a restore for showing just one for my living room but i am going to hide new caps wire etc just want it to look like it's not been restored but in good condition



7 day restore i must be mad no just a week of work i think this is a bit more interesting than gardening

if only her in doors knew what i was puting in her dishwasher

just one word of advise wear a mask when sanding old things as i am finding out tonight


as for the venner it was not to hard just laid the bits i had over the bad bits and used a craft knife and cut through the two layers with the bits i have i am not going to get a left and right match but its better than nothing with the venner that had lifted i just used a syringe to get the glue in then used a roller over it seems ok i know that some guys/gals would tell me to strip all off and lay new but that would not be true to the age of it and way over my £30 budget for this 7 day bulid.

all this is just a big learning curve haveing never gone this far before with somthing this old.

most of the time i spend looking after u-matic's and 1" videos(sorry vhs did not happen)

any way hears looking at day 3

[therave]

oldtimer--- you are going to have to tell me how to do this ---The electrolytics will need reforming----- this is new to me,, can we not just put new ones in there?
or is that to easy lol

.
.
.
also tonight just got the maching 78 player what a find --same skip and thats got the stand but there is only wood worm holding it in one or ten bits so its scrap but i will put it at the back of the shed..

as for the stand for the radio one leg has the worm and tonight it sits in a mix of pva and dont ask (wee) to finish it will get car body filler there is no veneer left on it so it's going to get a rust mix and car finish the last coat a car gets the stuf that makes a car shine you have till 2.00pm day 3 to stop me.

any way thats it night night

[chipp1968]

can we have pic sof the gram unit? Are the legs on the radio cabriole? if so they arnt veneered ,prob solid beech .
With the rust , I would paint on some rust killing fluid which will make it go dark .

[therave]

Day 3 The case is now finshed dyed it and used shrlack found somthing that does not look to daft for the speakers --if you need any i have 10 metres of it blue on one side silver and blue on the other side i did leave some of the vernner peeling to show it's age. i think for a first go it turned out ok.. next time new vernner and french polish but that's next time.

Did not get out for new caps today lets hope i get time tomorrow. still looking how to reform some of the caps.



here's looking at day 4

As for the gram i think i will let it die but will take some pics after i have done this restore or i will get diverted--

[Boom]

That is coming along absolutely beautifully. If you wanted to make sure the rust is dead you could brush a drop of HCI on it.

[HamishBoxer]

Just run the set up slowly via variac to reform electrolitics or via 100W bulb

[Tim]

Awsome!!

[therave]

well day 4 came and went and what have i been up to got the caps.. set about re'useing the paxolin tubes what a messy job that is and smelly if you are going to try this do it outside the smell is like tar and dust. i looked every where for paraffin wax no luck so i am trying bee's wax seeing as the melts a lot higher that candle wax hope i have done the right thing. also what a long job, if i was to take a hour to change one cap i think that i would get the sack. any way only four more to go. i can only find one electrolytic in the set unless there is one unmarked? i had spare time while wax was seting so got the meter out and went around all the resistors and most are 10-20% tolerance so i will leave them be. only thing that i cannot find on the service sheet is the value of the caps on the speakers mind you i can just have a good try.

[therave]

still day 4, Also spent time on the chassis did note that at some time the tuning wheel had come away and somone had solderd it,, also its made of brass so its a posh one. The bit thats gets my back up is why does one have to put oil and grease on anything that moves why why! would you put a grease gun in the back of your new radio just cos knobs move lol.. So one bit that is not geting any cleaning is the thing that moves the indicater on top..Also if you have long round poles in it like this has, put them in your drill and use sand paper.

When this unit was new was it just a gray paint that was used?

Two vales must have had a silver cote what can be used? tin foil?

Last one for tonight, can we put a mains ground on it dont like the idea of no ground? I dont mind but haveing two little ones runing round with little fingers things happen.

[mark pirate]

Looking good
The job you are doing on the caps is fantastic, well worth the effort, the resistors in these sets are of good quality, mine had been out of use since the mid-fifties, but were all still in spec when i restored it in 2005.
I had to re-stuff the electrolitics on my set as they were leaky, but you may be lucky with yours.
What sort of condition is your tuning dial in?
As for grounding the chassis, no problem, as it's an ac only set.
I fitted 3 core cable to mine, connected earth to a convinient point on the chassis.

Mark

[therave]

i know somtimes that a q like grounding may sound daft but i was only taught on new ish things and when you mess with old things the rules change well thats my excuse..

[bosscock]

Well done the rave, this post has been not only informative but quite exciting waiting for the next post..

keep up the good work, your forum needs you.

Neill