Making a Murphy SAD94L happy again! - Page 2 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

mark2collection · 22nd Mar 2020, 11:34 am

Fantastic work there Lloyd, she's coming together nicely.

I'm with Kevin on the dials. I tend to steer well clear of rare or unpopular sets with very poor/missing dials or, significant cosmetic damage. It's not laziness, I just know my own ham-fisted muppetry would not do, and would be unhappy with a restored set, great on the inside .... aaaaand a bit, well, you know, on the outside! I've made plenty of back panels, which turn out ok, but dials? It's rare the results are good this end.

As for your illumination, it may be worth placing silver tape around the edge of the glass. I did this on my Cossor 501AC (The Snowman set), down the sides & along the bottom. The light being reflected by the tape gives a pleasing look.

Looking forward to the next instalment, good luck.

Mark

Lloyd 1985 · 26th Mar 2020, 7:55 pm

Cheers for the nice comments

I have toyed with the idea of using a car polisher on cabinets, never got round to buying one though, I agree it would be great on large flat areas.

Normally a duff dial would make me turn away, but if the set is dirt cheap I can’t resist! Sucker for punishment, I am! The new dial on this has certainly made the project worthwhile, I’m impressed at how well it came out, if it hadn’t been for Robert’s cleaned up scan I think it’d look a bit home made, as I was planning on using a slightly fuzzy photo of a dusty one on eBay, it might have worked, but only been ‘ok’.

As for the illumination, even with the correct rated bulb fitted it’s worse than pathetic, even in a dark room! I think it may have been intended as more of a ‘power on’ indicator than proper illumination to help read the scale in poor lighting. I may try fiddling with the parallel resistor’s value to make it glow a bit more.

I’ve got some caps in stock now to make a start on replacing the wax ones, I’m going to do a restuff on all that I can, I’ve done one so far, but then another Murphy took my attention! I spied a lovely little U472 in green Bakelite, for sale in one of the antique shops in Grantham, it had been turned into a Bluetooth speaker, I grabbed it last weekend just before all the shops were made to close, and have removed the Bluetooth part and turned it back into a radio! I’ll save it for another thread though

Regards
Lloyd

Station X · 19th Sep 2021, 7:07 pm

Thread reopened at OP's request.

Lloyd 1985 · 19th Sep 2021, 7:52 pm

Many thanks, Graham!

It's been a while since I started this one, all kinds of stuff got in the way, and it was put to one side, mostly lack of parts! Well, today I finally finished gutting and re-stuffing the wax caps, they were all made by Hunts, and were quite easy to do, simple cardboard tube with 2 metal end caps that pull out neatly, then just push out the guts, the new caps were all ones made by TSE and JB, they look to be decent quality caps, and they are not overly expensive either, they fit into the tubes of the old caps with ease, I rolled a bit of paper round them to fill out the tubes, even being daft and signing and dating the bit of paper, you never know, someone might find themselves restoring the set again in 50 years time! I then stuck the end caps back in and soldered the new leadout wires to them, and finally gave them a coat of candle wax to finish them off. I did them one at a time so I couldn't put them back in the wrong place.

I've also replaced a lot of the wiring with silicone covered stuff, bought from the NVCF a good few years ago, some wiring was ok so I've left it for now, if it crumbles in the future then it'll be replaced, but I need to stock up again before that happens! The mains cable was non-existent when I got the set, so I bought some braided stuff off eBay, 0.75mm 2 core, it looks like a piece of old cable, well, more like a bit of old rope! I could probably have got away with the 0.5mm stuff.

One final thing to do is replace the main smoothing and reservoir cap, the one fitted is the wrong diameter can, and just rattles around loose, it's a 16uf + 16uf can, around 33mm diameter, the one fitted is only 25mm! Jellyfish audio have one that will fit nicely, so I'll probably buy one, if I don't spot something suitable at RetroTech next weekend.

The radio is working well now, pulling in plenty of stations, it even picks up the strong ones without any aerial connected.

Regards,
Lloyd

22nd Mar 2020, 11:34 am	#21
mark2collection Hexode Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Royal Berkshire, UK. Posts: 471	Re: Making a Murphy SAD94L happy again! Fantastic work there Lloyd, she's coming together nicely. I'm with Kevin on the dials. I tend to steer well clear of rare or unpopular sets with very poor/missing dials or, significant cosmetic damage. It's not laziness, I just know my own ham-fisted muppetry would not do, and would be unhappy with a restored set, great on the inside .... aaaaand a bit, well, you know, on the outside! I've made plenty of back panels, which turn out ok, but dials? It's rare the results are good this end. As for your illumination, it may be worth placing silver tape around the edge of the glass. I did this on my Cossor 501AC (The Snowman set), down the sides & along the bottom. The light being reflected by the tape gives a pleasing look. Looking forward to the next instalment, good luck. Mark __________________ Slowly turning the 'to-do', into 'ta-dah'

26th Mar 2020, 7:55 pm	#22
Lloyd 1985 Nonode Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Coningsby, Lincolnshire, UK. Posts: 2,819	Re: Making a Murphy SAD94L happy again! Cheers for the nice comments I have toyed with the idea of using a car polisher on cabinets, never got round to buying one though, I agree it would be great on large flat areas. Normally a duff dial would make me turn away, but if the set is dirt cheap I can’t resist! Sucker for punishment, I am! The new dial on this has certainly made the project worthwhile, I’m impressed at how well it came out, if it hadn’t been for Robert’s cleaned up scan I think it’d look a bit home made, as I was planning on using a slightly fuzzy photo of a dusty one on eBay, it might have worked, but only been ‘ok’. As for the illumination, even with the correct rated bulb fitted it’s worse than pathetic, even in a dark room! I think it may have been intended as more of a ‘power on’ indicator than proper illumination to help read the scale in poor lighting. I may try fiddling with the parallel resistor’s value to make it glow a bit more. I’ve got some caps in stock now to make a start on replacing the wax ones, I’m going to do a restuff on all that I can, I’ve done one so far, but then another Murphy took my attention! I spied a lovely little U472 in green Bakelite, for sale in one of the antique shops in Grantham, it had been turned into a Bluetooth speaker, I grabbed it last weekend just before all the shops were made to close, and have removed the Bluetooth part and turned it back into a radio! I’ll save it for another thread though Regards Lloyd

19th Sep 2021, 7:07 pm	#23
Station X Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4, UK. Posts: 21,288	Re: Making a Murphy SAD94L happy again! Thread reopened at OP's request. __________________ Graham. Forum Moderator Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron.

19th Sep 2021, 7:52 pm	#24
Lloyd 1985 Nonode Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Coningsby, Lincolnshire, UK. Posts: 2,819	Re: Making a Murphy SAD94L happy again! Many thanks, Graham! It's been a while since I started this one, all kinds of stuff got in the way, and it was put to one side, mostly lack of parts! Well, today I finally finished gutting and re-stuffing the wax caps, they were all made by Hunts, and were quite easy to do, simple cardboard tube with 2 metal end caps that pull out neatly, then just push out the guts, the new caps were all ones made by TSE and JB, they look to be decent quality caps, and they are not overly expensive either, they fit into the tubes of the old caps with ease, I rolled a bit of paper round them to fill out the tubes, even being daft and signing and dating the bit of paper, you never know, someone might find themselves restoring the set again in 50 years time! I then stuck the end caps back in and soldered the new leadout wires to them, and finally gave them a coat of candle wax to finish them off. I did them one at a time so I couldn't put them back in the wrong place. I've also replaced a lot of the wiring with silicone covered stuff, bought from the NVCF a good few years ago, some wiring was ok so I've left it for now, if it crumbles in the future then it'll be replaced, but I need to stock up again before that happens! The mains cable was non-existent when I got the set, so I bought some braided stuff off eBay, 0.75mm 2 core, it looks like a piece of old cable, well, more like a bit of old rope! I could probably have got away with the 0.5mm stuff. One final thing to do is replace the main smoothing and reservoir cap, the one fitted is the wrong diameter can, and just rattles around loose, it's a 16uf + 16uf can, around 33mm diameter, the one fitted is only 25mm! Jellyfish audio have one that will fit nicely, so I'll probably buy one, if I don't spot something suitable at RetroTech next weekend. The radio is working well now, pulling in plenty of stations, it even picks up the strong ones without any aerial connected. Regards, Lloyd Attached Thumbnails