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Vintage Test Gear and Workshop Equipment For discussions about vintage test gear and workshop equipment such as coil winders.

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Old 9th Nov 2019, 12:11 pm   #21
David Simpson
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Aberdeen, UK.
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Default Re: Valve tester advice

Me thinks that if you were to test a huge pallet sized box of 2nd hand valves in one long session over many weeks - in say an AVO VCM Mk3, or MK4, or CT160(all maybe 60 odd years old now) - you would probably phook a very expensive piece of equipment. We're talking £400, £500, £600 quid plus.
Best bet - manually sort out all the chaff - loose/broken valve bases & caps - valves that have completely lost their identity numbering - white misty valves, and so on. Then sort into different valve base types - B7G, B9A, IO, MO, B5, B7, UX5, UX7, and so on. Then just test for heater continuity with your multimeter - many valves with the same base have the same pin numbers for heater/filament.
What's left - if their are large numbers of one or two valvebase types such as B7G, B9A, IO - consider building a homebrew tester. Could be a Sussex, could be DC Tester built with redundant &/or 2nd hand circuitry/components.
Yep, I've a decent AVO MK3 & a fancy homebrew DC Tester. But recently was given, say half a pallet size, load of 2nd hand, pulls, NOS, etc valves. Bollox'd if I was going to thrash my decent testers - so did a big "chaff" sorting session. Lo & behold, over half went off to the skip.
There are heaps & heaps of grubby old valves being discovered after "silent key" clear-outs, etc. Quite frankly many of them are skip quality, and not worth running the risk of causing problems whilst testing on expensive valve testers.

Regards, David
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Old 9th Nov 2019, 12:39 pm   #22
ionburn
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Default Re: Valve tester advice

My approach was to design my own in modular format so modifications can easily be made (and have been) without tinkering with the assembled units. The design is more geared towards curve tracing etc rather than go / nogo so does require an understanding of what is happening. It has taught me a lot about valve testing and their specifications. It is probably not what is wanted here but for someone wanting to learn but has electronic experience I think it is a great approach.
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