Re-stuffing the waxies.

[Heatercathodeshort]

During the recent overhaul of the Ekco TSC112 television receiver I thought it would be in order to maintain the under chassis view much the same as it would have been back in 1949. I decided to re-stuff the Hunts and TCC capacitors employed and set about the task using a simple method requiring only basic tools to obtain a satisfactory end result.
I had a slight scare when half way through my experiments. There was a loud knock at the door and peeping through a knot hole observed two rather sinister looking men in white laboratory coats similar to the ones worn by the engineers at Alexandra Palace during the early days of 405 line television.
They had finally got me I thought and the proof of my madness was the mass of soft wax covering my hands. I opened the door and surrendered myself to them only to discover they were two guys from DEFRA enquiring about the remains of a sheep that had fallen in the brook last December..Try the farmhouse I told them..
Fright over I returned to the re-stuffing and I will attempt to explain the pictures.
1 Place end of waxie in vice
2 Using a heat gun, soften the capacitor sleeve.
3 Gripping a pair of pliers give a sharp tug in the remaining wire end and
pull off the end cap.
4 Turn the waxie round. Warm up the sleeve and using paper draw off the
outer wax leaving a clean sleeve.
5 After further warming grip the sleeve in paper and pull it off the remaining
end cap. If your lucky the contents will come out with it but if not it's
only a simple task to apply more heat and poke it out with a screwdriver.
You now have a clean sleeve complete with clear logo that can be fitted
with a modern capacitor. The ends of the sleeve can be sealed with
candle wax and the whole thing given a coat of clear lacquer if you feel it.
needs it.

Once you have recovered the sleeve there is a quicker way of maintaining originality especially if a large number of capacitors is required to be tackled.
Cut cleanly down the length of the sleeve with sharp scissors. Warm until the wax is soft and then fold it flat as shown in the second pictures. This can then be scanned on the computer and printed onto thin card. This can then be wrapped around a new capacitor and secured with clear 'magic' adhesive tape finally sealing the ends as previously described. A quick spray of clear lacquer presents a very convincing capacitor. Any number a sleeves can be printed in seconds and this certainly cuts out some of the dirty work once a few pattern scans have been completed.

[Heatercathodeshort]

The remaining pictures show the method used to scan the sleeve and the finished capacitors.

1 Removing the contents.
2 The prepared sleeve.
3 The slit sleeve and scanned replacement outer cover.
4 Finished cap containing modern capacitor shown.

Regards, John.

[Kat Manton]

You make it look easy. OK, I give in; I'll do that with the sticky furry things in the 'Ekco in a posh frock'. I wasn't going to bother...

[murphyv310]

Looks good John
I really like the idea of scanning the old caps.
Perhaps you could give us a demo if you would like to come to the Scottish Meet. Go on you know you want to come, try Stansted to Prestwick!

[mark pirate]

Nice work
I agree with using a heatgun to soften them up, also you dont get grief from SHMBO for using her hairdryer

Mark

[Heatercathodeshort]

Just make sure you put the hot air gun back in the workshop and not in SWMBO's bedroom...J.

[Billy T]

Just a thought, but given that we all hope these radios will be preserved for future generation, what do you do to stop some next-gen enthusiastic 'restorer' from taking one look then clipping out all the 'wax caps', not realising that they have been restuffed. Same for refilled electrolytics? Do you pop a note under the chassis, an envelope in the back, or what?

Cheers

Billy

[Heatercathodeshort]

That is a very good point Billy. I have already fallen foul of that very situation! I restored a Ferguson 988T around 30 years ago and completely forgot I had re-stuffed the capacitors. A fault developed and I immediately went for the waxies to discover they had all been replaced back in the 70's. Just a simple card should do the trick.
Regards, John.

[oldticktock]

Hi John your post answered a long standing query I had. Which was, did TV engineers re-stuff back in the day or is this a new phenomenon. I was sort of convinced that an engineer back in the 40's, 50's & 60's would have just grabbed what was at hand and performed the repair, time is money and all that.

It would seem that is not the case.

The other one was do you re-stuff regardless or is it just on those special sets that warrant it.

I don't have any special sets to speak off, but I quite like making a nice neat job on Radios and the TV's letting the new work show adding to the provenance/lifecycle of the sets life

Chris

[kalee20]

On the one hand, I'm thinking that I don't like things pretending to be what they ain't. On the other hand, I do admit to admiration for what Heatercathodeshort has achieved!

Originally Posted by Billy T

Just a thought, but given that we all hope these radios will be preserved for future generation, what do you do to stop some next-gen enthusiastic 'restorer' from taking one look then clipping out all the 'wax caps', not realising that they have been restuffed.

My thoughts entirely - so if the sleeve is scanned on the computer, how about simply adding , in a suitable font, 'Polyester' (or whatever) and the current date? Then, at least you'll have something which looks right, but can easily be identified as something that's (hopefully) not a replace-on-sight part for the next custodian!

[Boom]

There is a difference between original and stuffed caps' which can be spotted fairly easily to those in the know. Polyesters have slightly thinner leadouts.

Dave

[Heatercathodeshort]

I thought this might open a tin of wax...No OTT we certainly did not re-stuff capacitors when carrying out a domestic repair. We were only too glad to put a nice new highly coloured component into place!
David Boynes and myself were very early collectors of television receivers and carried out repairs/restorations to vintage receivers long before it became even remotely interesting to the average radio enthusiast. I have sets that were presented to me 30 odd years ago and at that time it was satisfying to see an under chassis view that was not far off the original construction date, hence the capacitor rebuilds all those years ago. As far as today is concerned I don't always go to so much trouble but think it worthwhile to carry out the time consuming task on interesting sets such as the Ekco, most sets with rubber leads [usually pre 1950] and rare but probably worthless receivers that are interesting to me from a technical standpoint.
The scanned sleeved capacitors look fine and take off that new look but are obvious to an observant enthusiast. I don't think it matters and if someone wishes to do a better job in 2048, good luck to them! Small decoupling types cannot be re-stuffed and are usually numerous in the I.F./R.F. sections. Modern Mullard/Philips or BVWS types are ideal but would require resleeving with the scan option if you were very fussy. I also give a dab of 'GOLD PEARL' nail varnish to each new solder connection. This tends to 'kill' the bright solder and can be very convincing. I must admit the task of putting on a posh frock and high heels to buy the nail varnish is a tiresome ordeal I could well do without but us vintage guys must not be put off by mild embarrassment...
I would just add that I am in no way attempting to make perfect copies of the original components, just making the under chassis view of a vintage television receiver a little more pleasing. Thanks for your interest. regards, John.

[ppppenguin]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

.... I must admit the task of putting on a posh frock and high heels to buy the nail varnish is a tiresome ordeal I could well do without but us vintage guys must not be put off.....

While it's always nice to get out the posh frocks etc I don't find it necessary in all cases. Messrs Boots the Chemists are quite happy to serve me with the stuff regardless, even if I take ages about choosing the right colour.

PS: Getting drips of wax on nicely varnished nails is such a nuisance

[oldticktock]

you guys have definately been at the lead solder far to long

[Heatercathodeshort]

Don't worry OTT, your almost half way there.. J.

[oldticktock]

I'm going to give your technique a go on the TV22 (not the frock, the surgery on the cap). The Hum cancellation cap C60 (trader) C28 (RT&S) is a big fat waxie of an odd value 0.75. I will try and stuff it with some parallel caps to the nearest I can .25uF if i'm lucky. The nearest i have in class X are .1 somehow I don't think 75 of those will fit

[jjl]

You'd only need 7.5 of the 0.1 uF caps OTT.
The half a 0.1uF (100nF) cap could more easily be replaced by a 0.047uF (47nF).
I doubt that the value of the 0.75uF cap in the TV22 is in any way critical. I suspect that the Bush designers chose the largest value waxy that could be justified on cost and the available space.

John

[murphyv310]

Hi.
Yes that .75uf cap in the TV22/24 is an odd ball and I really don't get any change with it connected perhaps only a slight drop in HT no change in the smoothing dept, I keep mine disconnected but still have it "looking" as if its wired up!

[Kat Manton]

I still don't think I have an excuse to buy a heat gun!

I reckon my hairdryer will suffice; it'll melt pitch, shrink heat-shrink sleeving (and dries my hair.) A versatile appliance is the 1.5 kW hairdryer...

[oldticktock]

I meant 7.5 missed the "."

Without wanting to steal Johns thread thanks for the tip Trevor & JJL