[ARC5] BC-454-B Dymamotor Question

Sat Jan 19 16:53:19 EST 2013

It all comes back in the future. See "Mad Max", The Road Warrior", "Beyond Thunderdome".
Jay

-----Original Message-----
From: J. Forster <jfor at quikus.com>
To: Mike Hanz <aaf-radio-1 at aafradio.org>
Cc: arc5 <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sat, Jan 19, 2013 10:24 am
Subject: Re: [ARC5] BC-454-B Dymamotor Question

One reason for kids not working on cars anymore is the heavy boot of
overnment. You cannot get plates without safety inspections and emissions
hecks, and if you modify anything, you will likely fail those tests.
Even lawn mowers are regulated, so go-carts may be illegal in some places.
So, government regulations have essentially stopped any experimentation or
nnovation.
Lack of any hands-on skills is just collateral damage.
YMMV,
-John
=====================

> I have to agree with John on this. Reference the dynamotors, the manuals
 are full of notes like the need to maintain surgical cleanliness of
 bearings, not spinning them with compressed air, and using a sleeve and
 solid support to press on new bearings, just as examples.  It's not
 rocket science.  The fit used with all the dynamotors I've worked on is
 considered an HN 1 "light drive fit" in the interference fit grades
 listed in Machinery's Handbook, so it doesn't take a big hydraulic press
 if the shaft is clean and polished.  I use the old WWII arbor press
 shown at http://aafradio.org/garajmahal/arbor_press.htm and it presses
 the bearings on without any real effort at all - just a bit of care. The
 training textbooks are surprisingly comprehensive in theory, unlike the
 ones in use now that are simply gigantic flowsheets that doesn't take a
 lot of training or functional knowledge to follow...this from my son, a
 former ET on boomers.

 My father was a budget guy for the AFSWP (later DASA) in Albuquerque
 after the war, but he worked on his own car (replaced all the pistons
 and crankshaft at least twice while I was growing up), repaired just
 about anything in the house, and was a whiz at cobbling together
 something to make a recalcitrant device useful again.  Most of his
 friends were that way as well.  Popular Science and Popular Mechanics
 were full of building projects for father and son that involve mangling
 wood or metal.  Maybe it was the Great Depression that made them that
 way...  I'm having a hard time finding any kids today that have that
 kind of "get your hands dirty" interest.

   - Mike

 On 1/19/2013 12:20 PM, J. Forster wrote:
> I wouldn't bet on that assumption.
>
> In the 1920s and 1930s, Americans were not infected with afluenza. Also,
> technology was a lot simpler, and much more repairable.
>
> When a radio or toaster or table lamp broke, they fixed it or had it
> fixed. Also, many more grew up on farms, where machinery had to be
> repaired. Kids bought old cars, like Model Ts and As.
>
> The point is that skills to fix machinery were far more widespread than
> today.
>
> If your latest iToy breaks, it instantly becomes iPoo. If your car stops
> running, do you have any idea how to fix it, other than filling the gas
> tank? Can you even gat a wiring diagram or the 'puter diagnostic codes.
>
> Anyone who can strip and fix an engine, could probaly be trained in a
> few
> weeks to reliably refurbish dynos.
>
> Also, there were plenty of radio repair shops in civilian life pre-war.
> I'm certain some of those guys went into the services. Fixing a table
> radio was not very different than an ARC-5 receiver.
>
> There are pretty comprehensive TMs from the era on most things
> electronic.
> They would certainly give any reasonably intelligent person a fair
> grounding in the theory. You don't need to be a design engineer to
> understand most circuits. Analysis is far easier than synthesis.
>
> YMMV,
>
> -John
>
> ===================
>
>
>
>> I would have assumed most of the "techs" were none too savvy in that
>> era.
>> Ball bearings in general would have been quite novel in those days, and
>> even
>> now, most people don't know how to handle, install, clean, lubricate,
>> or
>> pre-load them properly.  Radio specialists during the great war were
>> processed through signal corps school in a not too effective fashion,
>> and
>> even if they did retain most of what they were taught, they had
>> precious
>> little experience when they hit their duty station, and not too much
>> time
>> to
>> hone those skill afterward.  They probably did the best they could by
>> swapping parts.  I would assume the "tough dog" problems were relegated
>> to
>> the junk pile.  The great logistics monster that was created during
>> WWII
>> eventually made deep troubleshooting and repair unnecessary (Witness
>> the
>> huge amount of surplus now in our hands that causes us to ponder these
>> things now, some seventy years on.
>>
>>
>> Scott W7SVJ
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net
>> [mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
>> On
>> Behalf Of Kenneth G. Gordon
>> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013 5:33 PM
>> To: ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>> Subject: Re: [ARC5] BC-454-B Dymamotor Question
>>
>> On 18 Jan 2013 at 16:22, WA5CAB at cs.com wrote:
>>
>>> Probably because the field installation of the bearings was done with
>>> a hammer and something like a 1/2" socket.  And they bent the outer
>>> shield and/or brinnelled the races.
>> Well, I had thought of that too, but I figured that not every radio
>> tech
>> in
>> those days was a dolt. ;-)
>>
>> Ken W7EKB
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> ARC5 mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> ARC5 mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>
>>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>

 ______________________________________________________________
 ARC5 mailing list
 Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
 Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
 Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net

 This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
 Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

_____________________________________________________________
RC5 mailing list
ome: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
elp: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
ost: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
lease help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html