[AMRadio] Thordarson transformer question

[Donald Chester]

>Mine is the one with the rounded corners, wrinkle paint on the end bells. 
>Nice nickel-plated 'acorn' cap nuts on the ends. The openings look too 
>small for a banana plug but they definitely don't looked threaded either. 
>What do these push pins look like and does anyone have a picture or know of 
>a site that shows them?

As I recall, the stock pins are mounted on little round plastic (bakelite?) 
discs that attach to the connecting wire.

>>I have not looked at it, but its likely possible to change out
>>the push pins, by replacing the entire insulators, or adding
>>a screw through each push pin with nuts, lock washers, etc.

>Looks like you'd have to pull the entire side panel off and replace the 
>insulators as one unit on this one

It would be a shame to ruin a vintage unit like that.  Those things are 
classics.  Another problem, some of them are potted with tar.  You would 
have to heat the whole transformer to melt the tar in order to disengage the 
side panel to get at the receptacles.  That would be messy, as best, and at 
worse, you could damage or ruin the transformer in the process.


>>I have some of the push pins, but you need quite a few in
>>some configurations...

>... One could probably stuff large diameter, stiff wire into the holes 
>too...

That would be the best bet until you can find some proper pins.  Murphy says 
that if you successfully modify the transformer, you will find a set of real 
push-pin plugs at the next hamfest.

>but I'd like to do it as close to 'right' as possible.

I'd stay away from doing anything to modify the original transformer.

Don K4KYV

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