Ferrograph series 2 (almost!)

[arjoll]

This has got to be a record for the longest time taken for a (partial) restoration! Other than one (hopefully) minor issue with the capstan motor its finally sorted after starting to research it in 2001!

Some history - this Ferrograph was originally purchased new in the UK by a gentleman who worked for the UK Post Office. Apparently they were only available for export but he pulled some strings It had quite a bit of use before he emmigrated to NZ and met my dad in the late 50's. In the early 60's he purchased a new one and dad bought the old one from him.

It had a lot of work until the early 70's when dad replaced it with a stereo Sony (which he hated) and then an Akai 4000DB. I remember it being the recorder I was allowed to use - probably to keep me off the 4000DB and his GXC-46D cassette deck!

Through much of the 80's I used (abused?) it, mostly using it as an amp. Certainly by the late 80's it held no appeal to me at all!

Fast forward to 2001, I thought I'd track down what happened to it (family history and all that - dad recorded a number of operas/musicals etc that mum was in when they were coutring). It was still in storage 'out the back' at my parents place, and dad suspected it had some issues - he remembered issues with the capstan motor freezing and sparks last time it was powered up. I tracked down George West's Ferrograph site, and started with intentions to sort it out.

Nothing happened. We had a very young family, things were busy, changes at work etc etc.

In March 2005 I had another look at it and actually started work on it. I stripped it down, gave it a rough clean up, tidied up the meter which I must have 'fixed' with hot glue at some point in the last 20 years.

Around that time i tracked down the source of the sparks - the solenoid. In the Ferrograph the hold-in solenoid is in the HT line to the amp - I'm guessing its acting as a choke for some more smoothing. THe problem is its bolted to a nice big hunk of metal sitting at 0V - and in this case the insulation appeared to be breaking down. I replaced it with a resistor around the same value, and everything worked nicely.

In 2006 I bought a solenoid from a user here who was parting out a series 2 deck.

Another two and a bit years later I decided that these holidays would be a good time to actually finish a couple of jobs, so grabbed a stock of appropriate caps from Jaycar and the NZVRS and yesterday started on the electronics.

Firstly I replaced the mains connector with another Bulgin one I found in a box of assorted 'junk' I had lying around. I managed to break part of the original and bend the rear panel in the mid 80's when I stood the recorder up with the mains cable still in. I also replaced the earth lead which seemed a little lightweight and not quite long enough to get in to the new connector easily!

I replaced all the electrolytic caps, the grid coupling cap (between the last EF86 and the EL84 output valve) and two 470k resistors which were a bit out (I only checked higher value resistors, above 200k or so, and only these two appeared to have issues).

I then replaced the old solenoid with the replacement.

Putting everything back together things started up nicely -, and feeding a signal into input 2 gave a lovely sound from the built in speaker. Playing back had issues with tape speed, so I cleaned/lubricated the capstan motor as mentioned in the thread in Vintage Tape Recorders. At that point playback was good, recording surprisingly good (once I tracked down an earth loop with the other gear in the workshop!).

I did notice two more minor issues - the power lamp blew while testing (it was ok when I first powered up!) and it sounded like I had some DC on the bass control. The latter appeared to have around 2V on it, so I replaced C4, a 0.1uF cap feeding it. I also cleaned/lubed the control. All seemed fine, but after this (and dinner) I had motor problems again

So as it stands I need to track down an 8V 0.2A MES bulb and sort out the capstan motor. I do not plan to take another 7-8 years to do this though!

The first photos are the deck as it was when I started on it in 2005. It had been in storage for a long time!

[arjoll]

This details the meter - as you can see it wasn't pretty, but fortunately hot melt glue doesn't stick too well. I cleaned it up and re-glued it with polyurethane glue which worked very nicely.

[arjoll]

This is the old solenoid, removed from the deck, and the new one installed. You can't tell from the photos, but the old one had a destinct 'blackened' look to it!

[arjoll]

Finally the re-capped power supply, amp and the (almost) finished deck recording.

This thing has had a lot of use over the years, and I don't plan to do too much more cosmetically - its all part of its history.

[Michael Maurice]

Congratulations, its pieces like this that make our hobby so worthwhile, You've done a fantastic job, its very professional. I hope you'll be able to use it and that you'll get a lot of nostalgic pleasure from it.

[Tim]

Nice job Arjoll.
I love those decks, not much to go wrong.
The hold in solenoid must have given some problems as in later models of Ferrograph it was operated from the LT.

ISTR a couple I worked on where the suppression capacitor across the coil went s/c, result motor constantly running(against the brakes in some cases).

[arjoll]

Thanks.

I've re-lubricated the capstan motor shaft where it passes through the bearing, and 24 hours later still had good operation so will treat this one as sorted - for the meantime. I don't fancy having to remove most of the flywheel/idler assembly just to remove the capstan motor (unless anyone can suggest a better way to remove the last screw!).

I have also replaced the blown power lamp with an ultra-bright LED. It's almost too bright now (even running on < 10mA) but I couldn't find the right lamps in NZ, and postage from the UK was several times the NZ$3.50 the LED cost!

Finally, one cap I forgot to mention I'd replaced was the coupling cap which feeds in the 'input 2' socket (which doubles as an output). Seeing this point brought out to the front panel and used as an output I thought it best to replace this.

Considering C4 was leaky (and one of the TCC tropicalised caps used elsewhere) I probably should replace more of the caps, but it sounds quite good now so will leave it as-is.

BTW I don't expect to actually use this deck much - I have a Tascam 32 and an Akai GX265D that I use for copying material through a Tascam US122 interface - but its nice to know that its in working condition - even if I may need to re-lubricate the capstan motor shaft from time to time!

Now onto the series 3....

[arjoll]

Tim - interesting what you say about the hold-in solenoid. I must admit when I first struck the issue I considered putting in a small 12V transformer just to run the solenoid, but then the replacement came up!

I'd need to rewire the autostop and manual stop switches, and work out whether to keep them in parallel with the solenoid and put an appropriate resistor in series with the lot (so I'm not shorting out the transformer) or put in some logic and just cut the power to it. Paying a few dollars to get a new one shipped over was easier

[Kat Manton]

Hi,

Nice work, I love these machines. Reading this has inspired me to dig out my Series 4 (liberated from school a long time ago and barely touched since) and my very poorly Vortexion W.V.B. (same deck.)

Originally Posted by arjoll

This thing has had a lot of use over the years, and I don't plan to do too much more cosmetically - its all part of its history.

That's helped make my mind up. The Vortexion is a bit 'cosmetically challenged' but I think I'll leave it as it is, apart from a bit of cleaning. That's had a lot of use as well. Though I've no idea what its history is, it's definitely got some.

I'll be restoring it to use rather than look at; if I painstakingly restored it to immaculate condition I might be afraid to use it.

Cheers, Kat

[Herald1360]

Re picture of PSU- is the curious mounting for the transformer something to do with adjusting for minimum hum?

[arjoll]

Yes - the transformer can be rotated for minimum hum pickup.