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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc.

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Old 31st Oct 2017, 7:00 pm   #21
ionburn
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Default Re: Thought this might amuse you...

I have seen quite a few over the years, but the mention of WD40 brings me out in stitches!

One day while at work a patient phoned (I was in healthcare) and asked if I could look at his desktop computer as it was not starting up properly. As our clients often used their computers for essential communication (they were disabled), I said that if he brought it in I would have a look. It was not someone I knew but others looked in horror when I mentioned him and said (in no uncertain terms) I could sort!

When the client came in with the computer I could smell the WD 40. The problem probably was that the hard drive had failed, but on opening the case I could literally pour the WD40 out. He must have used an entire can because everything was coated.

Needless to say I advised and got shut asap. Luckily (for us) it was not a computer we had provided hence had responsibility for.
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 7:06 pm   #22
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Default Re: Thought this might amuse you...

I remember once finding a TV where a failed dropper-resistor had been replaced by one of the cylindrical 'corn cob' ceramic heaters as used in the old parabolic-bowl electric fires, with some of the turns short-circuited.

This was mounted on a piece of (by now well carbonised) wooden dowel screwed to the inside of the [wooden] case. I guess combustibility-testing was something that had been left to the customer to complete.
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 7:11 pm   #23
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Needs must when the kids are screaming for the latest edition of 'Doctor Who' ...J.
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 7:19 pm   #24
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Default Re: Thought this might amuse you...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Philips210 View Post
... The 'repairer' finds that XXX is faulty, replaces it and doesn't fully resolve the problem. Surely he should've thought to himself could the replacement be faulty or in this case be completely the wrong type? Instead, he undertakes an elaborate bodge ...
This seems to be characteristic of a particular mindset, reflecting some people's entire attitude to life. I used to work with a technician like that. When something went wrong he rarely just replaced whatever had failed. That would have been too uninteresting. Instead he would create a work-around, the more imaginative the better. Sometimes the work-around worked better than the original design (we were a research facility so few pieces of kit were 'off the shelf') but sometimes it failed too. If it did then our tech would get the setup going again, usually with another work-around. In a large system the work-arounds might be quite remote from the original source of the problem. Needless to say this induced responses ranging from bemusement to utter fury in his colleagues who sometimes had to step in and make repairs when the chap behind all this was away on leave.

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Old 31st Oct 2017, 7:19 pm   #25
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Default Re: Thought this might amuse you...

I wonder if this bodge evolved the other way round? If the 'repairer' found the missing supply, perhaps he used the wall-wart to feed in volts and check his diagnosis and that there were no further faults (I might do something similar myself). Fault confirmed, he finds that he has no suitable replacement diodes, so tries a standard rectifier on the off-chance, but no go. OK, let's tidy up the test lash-up a bit, and leave it in place while the correct diodes are on order to keep the set going. Then, as often happens, something or other intervenes, and the proper repair never gets done.
Doesn't excuse it, but perhaps something of the kind explains it.
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 7:24 pm   #26
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Default Re: Thought this might amuse you...

I experienced many quite incredible bodges as you can imagine over my many years in the trade.

I was called to repair an elderly gentleman's current receiver at that time, I guess around 1966.

When I had finished he proudly showed me his method of clearing a heater cathode short on his original Ekco TS114 that he was using as a second receiver.

He had rigged up an old fashioned door bell with the striker positioned on the base of the CRM121B by way of a made up bracket. A battery was connected via a bell push he had screwed to the side of the console cabinet.

When the short occurred he pressed the button resulting in the vibrations temporarily clearing the short. That was typical of the make do and mend approach of his generation and I must admit I admired it. John.
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 8:35 pm   #27
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Blimey ! Makes you think what other quick fixes he did .
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 8:55 pm   #28
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Not exactly electronics but at least electrical. The Morris Minor had an electrical fuel pump. It contained a pair of contacts similar to the ignition contacts that old cars had. Just like the ignition contacts, the fuel pump contacts tended to weld together after a while if they weren't kept clean and filed flat. Someone I knew was having problems with the fuel pump. He wasn't the brightest and cleaning the contacts was a bit beyond him. In fact he probably hadn't realised that there were any. However he had discovered that he could get it working again if he gave it a good thump. So he rigged up a hammer under the bonnet arranged to hit the fuel pump and activated by a piece of string passed through a hole in the dashboard.
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 9:22 pm   #29
kalee20
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Default Re: Thought this might amuse you...

Quote:
Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
If the 'repairer' found the missing supply, perhaps he used the wall-wart to feed in volts and check his diagnosis and that there were no further faults (I might do something similar myself). Fault confirmed, he finds that he has no suitable replacement diodes, so tries a standard rectifier on the off-chance, but no go. OK, let's tidy up the test lash-up a bit, and leave it in place while the correct diodes are on order to keep the set going. Then, as often happens, something or other intervenes, and the proper repair never gets done.
I reckon that's about it! Sometimes bodges are necessary, just think of Apollo 13 and what they did to get back to Earth. (Though at least that craft didn't fly again...)

There was a minor concession to safety, in the ice-cream tub to contain the mains voltages.

Not much excuse for leaving it all like that, but I bet it saved the day at the time!
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 10:10 pm   #30
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I'll pop back later...
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Old 31st Oct 2017, 11:55 pm   #31
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort View Post
He had rigged up an old fashioned door bell with the striker positioned on the base of the CRM121B by way of a made up bracket. A battery was connected via a bell push he had screwed to the side of the console cabinet.

When the short occurred he pressed the button resulting in the vibrations temporarily clearing the short. That was typical of the make do and mend approach of his generation and I must admit I admired it.
In my mind I am imagining him 50 years earlier, as a Marconi radio officer, receiving Morse with a self-restoring coherer.
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Old 1st Nov 2017, 12:44 am   #32
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I had a couple of cases where the antenna contact on a non isolated chassis broke and were replaced by the user. The original contacts had capacitors isolating the chassis, the replacemens didn't. As we use the IT-electric power distribution system in Norway you were guaranteed to send mains through the antenna cable. Adjusting the antenna would be a bit tense ant it was interesting on a cable system, things used to og bang.
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Old 3rd Nov 2017, 3:27 pm   #33
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There are horror stories everywhere. Have a look at the photo. This was the prototype for a unit that was to be sent to the customer. I've cropped it pretty tight so you can only see the really scary bit. The thin black wires are the incoming mains being linked to the power supply module. The other solder pads nearby are low voltage. The mains input was a 2 pole figure 8 IEC (C8), the outgoings were three pole IEC C13 with no earth connected. The outputs were single pole switched, so depending on insertion of the figure 8 it was switching either L or N. Luckily the SSR was also wired wrong so there was never any output anyway.
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Old 4th Nov 2017, 4:32 am   #34
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Wow, that's hilarious! Even I wouldn't do something like that!

I admit that whenever I fix vintage tube (valve) electronics, I usually don't worry too much about what the chassis looks like...I don't bother restuffing original capacitor cans and things like that. After all, I just don't see the point in doing so much work when you would have to take it apart to notice and for something that most people will never see. But I do at least make sure that the wiring is safe, and that nothing is going to come loose and short out or be a shock hazard. It might not look too pretty, but at least it's safe and it works, and that's really all I care about!

A transformer just sitting inside a plastic bucket...wow! They could have at least duct taped it! (Hey, that stuff will fix anything!)
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Old 4th Nov 2017, 11:17 am   #35
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Default Re: Thought this might amuse you...

Oh tape bombs.
It is the most common bodge done by people that want to extend a mains lead.
I have got an old tuner amp that was FOC with the power cable primed with a tape bomb.
The normal fix is a new mains lead.
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Old 4th Nov 2017, 11:35 am   #36
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Had one of those at work whilst PA testing, TV mounted to the wall with the cables going into a wardrobe where there was plastic trunking and re-appearing lower down the wardrobe near a plug socket.
This in itself was not the problem but what piqued my interest was the fact that the cable coming out of the TV was flat twin core and the cable emanating from the plug being round, took of the cover from the trunking and you guessed it, the cable was twisted together and wrapped in insulating tape which would probably have separated if the cable got tugged (and kids will tug anything).

The really annoying thing is that it got red stickered (plug and device), recorded as having had failed but left in situ as it was not one of the caravans owned by us, so they have to liaise with the owner to get it fixed. naturally this meant the failed stickers ended up being removed .

Got fixed in the end though by just putting a plug on the TV cable section and not having it routed through the wardrobe.
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Old 4th Nov 2017, 11:42 am   #37
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Quote:
Got fixed in the end though by just putting a plug on the TV cable section and not having it routed through the wardrobe.
So did the owner wait until you were gone before priming the tape bomb again?
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Old 4th Nov 2017, 11:49 am   #38
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Nope, maintenance fixed it (we have a sparkie on site) and it hasn't been changed back thankfully.

Luckily in terms of actual dangerous bodges I have seen very few and the only one I can remember was the use of an ungrounded plug adaptor an a schuko plug feeding a grounded LCD monitor, why a UK lead wasn't used I have no idea.
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Old 4th Nov 2017, 12:18 pm   #39
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Quote:
Luckily in terms of actual dangerous bodges I have seen very few and the only one I can remember was the use of an ungrounded plug adaptor an a schuko plug feeding a grounded LCD monitor, why a UK lead wasn't used I have no idea.
Would the earth have been snapped off at the inlet to the LCD monitor in order to get the 2 pin lead in?
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Old 4th Nov 2017, 12:29 pm   #40
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Nope a bog standard IEC 'kettle' style lead but with a SCHUKO/French 7/7 plug on the other end, this has either top and bottom contacts for earth or a hole for an earth pin that sticks out of the socket.
This was plugged into a travel adaptor which only made contact with the live/neutral pins ONLY.
Naturally replaced with a UK lead which it should have been in the first place esp. given that the monitor would have been supplied by the company I believe on a HP contract (all the monitors and PC's are HP).
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