Roberts R500 Rescued.

[GJR 11L]

Here's a Roberts R500 that very nearly ended up parted out and sold, in piecemeal fashion!

This set had been sitting in my garage for the past two years, having come to me as a freebie when I went to collect another set from its seller. The chap had given this to me as he couldn't get it to work and it was rather battered and filthy.

I took a green R500 from the pile, the original plan being to restore that one as it worked and only needed a SW aerial and the ferrite rod was snapped.
Then, looking for another to raid for an aerial, I spotted this one, which I had completely forgotten having acquired.
So I brought it into the kitchen and set about removing the chassis and aerial, as well as the speaker grille and all of the brightwork, the plan, at that point, being that I would use these parts to repair the green set and sell a bare, brown cabinet and non-working chassis.

Inevitably, as I had by this time a bare cabinet in my hands, I thought "why not?" and so set about cleaning it.
Well, after the dust and debris had been removed and the covering given a good seeing-to with the obligatory old toothbrush and gentle cream cleaner, I considered that what I was looking at wasn't actually too bad in its own right, so I would, therefore, re-assemble this cabinet and restore the chassis that belonged to it, rather than take the lazy route and restore the working set first of all!

Chassis repairs were carried out, though in fact all that was needed was a blanket re-soldering job and a couple of AF117s inside the module and the AF115 were found to have the usual malady.
Three electrolytics were slightly oozing and so the originals were "gutted" and filled with slim, modern caps for appearance's sake, the two dodgy i.f. devices in the module were replaced with AF127s that I had acquired in amongst some assorted spares recently found, hidden away in the wrong category of the eBay site! The AF115 was stripped of its innards and an AF125 stuffed inside the original can as this could be seen and this time, I wanted the "period" look.

A better dial from another scrap set was cleaned and used as the one that came with the brown cabinet had some nasty scratches and flaky paint syndrome was setting in, then the tuning gang mounts were simply tightened up a little, though oddly enough, the rubbers were perfectly serviceable.

Then to the grille, I couldn't find a single one in the place that hadn't received some damage at some point, so I simply laid the brown cabinet's rather wrinkled one on the wooden slab in the kitchen and applied heat to it from a borrowed hair dryer (thanks Clare, sorry about the grubby finger marks on the dryer...), followed immediately with a blast of very cold gas from an inverted can of compressed air. Bingo! One flat grille that then required only a little gentle dressing and a gentle scrub to make good, though not perfect.

So, to the aerial:

I, like many forum folk, have followed with interest the various bits of extremely useful restoration advice dispensed by our Mike P since I've been a member here and I though that it was about time I had a go at fixing an aerial for myself.

These R500 ones are easier than most to take on as a first attempt at aerial repair, since the end cap in the bottom tube is simply knurled for grip, then an interference fit inside the tube itself, but is not indexed to the tube in any way, so doesn't require quite such delicate hands, and mine are anything but delicate!
I only had to replace three sections of the aerial, and was able to take these from a spare that was damaged in every section except for the ones needed! Result!

For further details about the repair of telescopic aerials, see Mike's posts on the subject; follow his advice, and you won't go wrong.

Then reassembly followed, and a set that I'd expected to be scrapping was ready for a further 44 years of good service.

Here it is:

[img]http://farm4.static.***********/3219/2513899869_715b671e3c.jpg[/img]

With thanks to Howard, from whom I obtained a couple of those new Roberts badges some time ago, and Mike P whose information regarding the way to attack aerials proved so useful.

The set works very well, is uniformly sensitive and gives a stunning performance on a decent source, such as Virgin on MW. Loads of volume and just the right amount of bass but not too much.

And a view from above showing how Mike's aerial-related information saved the day!.......

[Steve_P]

Looks, and no doubt sounds, great! The R500 is a rare model actually.

Cheers,

Steve P.

[batterymaker1]

Dang--looks like you pulled it right out of the factory.

And they are rare? I'll have to take a look at mine again sometime.

[howard]

Well done John

Not easy sets to find these and even harder to find one in good condition. Yours looks very nice now.

I've got several R500s and all but one are scruffy and only one works properly. The rexine covers on these are poor quality, attempt to clean them and they lose their colour ....

Howard

[Mike Phelan]

Nice one, John, and thanks for the accolade! I prefer the appearance of the Roberts' of that era, rather than the later ones like the R700.

[Colin]

Great job John, I'm pleased you didn't break the old girl. She's scrubbed up well!

I like these sets too, I have one dark blue example which I've restored and another in tan which is awaiting the doctor. (replacement handle in tan anyone?) They do work well and look great. I particularly like the brass aerial. Never come across another set with a telescopic aerial in brass.

[GJR 11L]

Originally Posted by batterymaker1

Dang--looks like you pulled it right out of the factory.

And they are rare? I'll have to take a look at mine again sometime.

Not so rare that there aren't still four of them right here in my "To Do" pile!

Originally Posted by howard

Well done John

Not easy sets to find these and even harder to find one in good condition. Yours looks very nice now.

I've got several R500s and all but one are scruffy and only one works properly. The rexine covers on these are poor quality, attempt to clean them and they lose their colour ....

Howard

I find the quality of that covering variable between different examples of the same set; this one is a little thin in places, yet scrubbed up without losing colour and retains the subtle, grained effect that's often absent on the tan ones especially.

Originally Posted by Colin

Great job John, I'm pleased you didn't break the old girl. She's scrubbed up well!

I like these sets too, I have one dark blue example which I've restored and another in tan which is awaiting the doctor. (replacement handle in tan anyone?) They do work well and look great. I particularly like the brass aerial. Never come across another set with a telescopic aerial in brass.

I couldn't think of another off the top of my head where the aerial isn't plated with chromium or something, but many of them are brass underneath in any case. The sections of these, due to the nature of their use, cannot be lacquered, so keeping that shiny will be a weekly job for me I should think.

Originally Posted by Mike Phelan

Nice one, John, and thanks for the accolade......

You're most welcome, your technique will no doubt be used on some future projects too, and I'm no longer worried about buying sets whose aerials are less than perfect.