Pye 19A.

[Boater Sam]

Split from this thread:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=156253

The consensus on 3 forums is that I should restore this basket case set, Pye 19A are not too common it seems.

Biting the bullet today, strip out the cabinet and clean it out. The speaker was half full of fluff, cleaned and resprayed black. Straighten and respray the grill in gold. The glass will have to be left as is, if I remove the gooey rubber strip from the back it will take the screen printing with it.

Woodwork is sound but stained on top, may need to be refinished in colour as a last resort, it will be different anyway. Will have to make a back and find the 2 larger outer knobs. One felt foot is missing

So to the chassis. A rewind on the original output transformer later, remove the second imposter. Removed all the valves and dusted it, reveals a clean blue painted chassis with no damage, its the best part in the set! Turning it over I hear the dreaded click of loose IF cores. Time to find out how hard it is going to be to fix them, this could right the set off.

The second IF has been unsoldered at some time and the Phantom Twiddler has been here before me. They come out and apart easily, the construction is 2 paxolin discs, thin paxolin tube former and 4 through stiff wires, quite fragile.

This afternoon's angst is to see if I can fix them. The brass threaded adjusters are in brass knurled bushes pressed into the former tube, a wire spring retains and locks the adjuster.They will not pull out without being loosened a bit first, tried heat, squeezing etc. no go. As a last resort I cut down through the tube where the bushes are with a sharp knife letting the tube open slightly, they come out with a good tug. I find 3 of the 4 of the slugs are loose, having broken off the brass adjusters.

Stuck them back on with superglue ensuring they were as concentric as I could manage. Followed up with a fillet of epoxy. Found some peeling inside the former tubes, this is probably what caused them to break off. Reassembled, tested and refitted onto the chassis.

That took a full afternoon. Glad I don't do it for reward! Committed now, will have to finish it.

[See_Mos]

The knobs often appear on ebay, usually mixed in with a few others. I have seen a few that have turned white, distorted or broken and glued back together.

I put the model number in a search engine and there are a few pictures of sets with duff knobs.

I can't be sure but I think I may have a spare set of knobs from a 15A.

[jonnybear]

I made up one of these pullers 4 years ago and posted thread.https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=115466.
John

[Boater Sam]

Wonderful idea John, thanks. I was just exploring how bad they were and got carried away as usual. The paxolin tube does seem very delicate after working with plastic formers for years. Now to find an 8BA nut.
I could do with making a proper trimming tool for these cores too, using a bit of heatshrink is not very professional.
I was surprised to find that it was peeling inside, never seen that before.

[See_Mos]

I used a similar idea for an extractor as well. For the trimmer tool I used a pan head bolt that fitted the core adjuster and somehow extended. the thread end.

I'll see if I still have it.

[See_Mos]

Found these.

The bolt is bigger than I remember.

Knobs are black, tuning, volume and wave change LW MW SW and they appear to be undamaged.

I should be able to find 8BA nuts as well.

Send a PM if you would like them.

[Boater Sam]

PM sent, thanks, See Mos.

[Boater Sam]

More progress today.
Succeeding with the IF cans spurred me on, terrible weather so inside today, the work on the boat will have to wait.

Removed the Imposter Output Transformer, its a Radiospares universal which I have not seen before. Obviously quite old, grey painted, lots of terminals.

Removed and stripped the original, unwound and counted turns, 3000 in the primary, 1600 in the feedback winding so its a lot of copper. Laminations very tight in the bobbin with some rusting.
Found a bit of greenspot winding corrosion on the corners of the bobbin on the start of the primary, its not burnt at all.

Patiently rewound it with new 0.07 wire, reused the speaker secondary winding wire as it is fine and I didn't have any new of the same gauge, the bobbin is very full. New lead out wires and cleaned up the tag strip.
Reassembled and insulation tested, its a goer.

That's 3 hours, start to finnish, a record for me.

Still pondering on the plastic trim moulding, its a complicated shape, nothing springing to mind yet. I'll have a go with boiling water but the plastic is degraded and shrunken.
Could try moulding one freehand from Sugru bit will cost a lot for a possible failure.

[See_Mos]

looking at my trim tool, a 4mm or 5mm bolt glued into a pen case or fiber pen case would have been safer

[Ambientnoise]

Sugru was mentioned above as being expensive. A good facsimile can be made by mixing ordinary silicone sealant (the vinegary smelling variety) with cornflour. It’s a bit hard mixing them but it’s does work. The cornflour ensures that it cures throughout within a reasonable time. Try a web search for sugru substitute.

Ken

[Boater Sam]

Another gray weather day so more work on the 19A. Incredible thunder storm this afternoon, big bangs and hail, May? Really?

Found a set of valves, an ECH35 instead of the CCH35, a Mazda EF39 that still has the metalising so it may not oscillate, and a short proper EBL31 so that the top cap connector will reach and fit. The original AZ31 is OK. I seem to have lots of red Mullard EF39s and they all oscillate badly, but then they all need re-metalising or used in screening cans.

Onto the isolation transformer via a lamp limiter, no bangs or smoke, a fading glow so give it the beans and there are sounds.Radio 4 on long wave tunes in, a few whistles and crackles but there is life in the set.A quick twiddle of the IF transformers and it improves but there is an obvious problem with the frequency changer and the IF amp valves not making good contact with their sockets. Inspecting the sockets reveals several broken pins, they are the horrible paxolin ones with the brittle brass connectors.
Two new octal sockets need fitting, luckily I found the last two with the same fixing centers as the originals. Pick off the connections, the usual over wrapped wires are a pain, drill out the rivets and fit new with nuts and bolts.Refit all the components and wires, power it up, and it works but its coming and going, the HT is intermittent.
The wirewound smoothing resistor has a bright spot and is in need of replacing. 2K5, 10W not in stock, make it up with three 5W, 1K, 1,2K and a 300 ohm in series and a tag strip to hold them.

Back on and it is working really rather well, radio 4 longwave, plenty of medium wave stations, the BBC seem obsessed with football, even some short wave stations which is surprising with the workshop short indoor aerial. HT is a little low at 209V, should be 230V but it will be enough. Run for an hour, nothing distressed, the electrolytics are still cold.
It needs a full alignment of course but the If transformers are peaking "by ear" so that is encouraging. Amazing how well it sounds for what is only a 3 valve plus rectifier set. The EBL31 is a super valve for economy radios.

I will finish the chassis and put it away whilst I get stuck in to the cabinet.

Not come up with any good ideas about that troublesome trim yet and not decided whether to do a see-through back or a hardboard one, a lot depends on the woodwork, if it comes good and I can lose the stains I will re-polish it and keep it original, otherwise it will be a colour paint job with perspex back. Its a good looking chassis, shame to hide it away.

[Nickthedentist]

Well done for your perseverance, I've followed this thread with interest.

I too love saving things that most people would chuck out as beyond hope, not only radios but anything unloved but useful really. For example, I recently brought a very neglected 1951 Rudge Whitworth bicycle back to life; SWMBO declared it "too far gone" when I dragged it home, but I proved my point by getting it up and running (after 30 years in someone's damp shed) in just a couple of evenings, then taking it on our family cycle ride over the bank holiday weekend, where it glided along silently without a single hiccup.

Back to the Pye... Could the trim be replicated by making something out of MDF with a router, perhaps?

Nick.

[Boater Sam]

Nice idea Nick but its a complex shape, part fits into the front cutout and part on the surface. Its thin, about 12mm across.
I will try to get a photo', if the sun will come out, with something to scale it with.

[Mike. Watterson]

Fimo, then sand and polish after baking?

[Boater Sam]

Possibly too big for the oven, cute idea though. Rock cake mix?
Its such a thin trim, could be very delicate.
Sun is out today, will try a pix.

[Mike. Watterson]

Use a heat gun then to harden the Fimo after air drying, maybe a some thin steel wire or mesh as core.

[Boater Sam]

Got a snap of the trim today, then the camera battery died and it needs a battery to download to the computer. Rats!

Did a full alignment and everything peaked as it should, the first IF is very peaky, second is wider in tune.
Its working really well now, the HT has come up to 228V so the capacitors must have reformed, can is still stone cold. Stations throughout the medium wave, 4 or 5 audible on long wave with some also on the short wave bands, listened to the cricket on Radio 4.

Its been on all afternoon, no more squeaks or whistles now it has a decent screened iF valve. Strangely with a noisy peeling EF39 the output valve motorboats even with the grid top cap off, it must upset the HT line.
After rewinding the transformer to exactly the same as original I found I had to reverse the feedback winding, it must of been incorrectly connected before and the extra output transformer must have done the reversal.

Cleaned and lubed all the bits on the chassis, I'll put it aside now and get on with the cabinet, stripper, bleach and oil to see what it looks like.
If its too bad it will be grain filler, undercoat and paint.

Could we have a poll on what colour would look best? I favour Oxford blue or darker.

[Boater Sam]

New camera battery, pictures of the horror trim.
On the inside the holes are for tiny self tapping c/sunk screws, the double holes are only used for one screw.

[Boater Sam]

And some pictures of the cabinet.
The metal tabs are where the screws go for fixing the trim.
As possibly you can see, part of the trim section goes into the aperture over the edges of the ply, and the outer edge overlaps the cabinet front.
Its tricky to think how else the edges could be trimmed.
What I need is a long length of the plastic adjustable curve used in engineering drawing!

[Mike. Watterson]

Trunking or PVC edging for flooring and a heat gun to do the corners?