[Boatanchors] headphone element needed

[howard holden]

Back in the beginning of June I sent a message to these reflectors about getting a new ANB H-1
Western Electric headset element or possibility of repairing same. I had one response from
"down under" but I eventually decided I had nothing to lose to try and open up the
bad element and see if I could effect a repair. The element is built into a length of
drawn steel tubing, and the end with the terminals is swaged over. Had I still been
working, I would have put it into a suitable collet on a lathe and machined the swaged
end off. Lacking my own lathe, I carefully pried at the swaged area, and worked a little
less than half way around out to the tube diameter, and removed the internal workings.
Visual inspection showed the coil winding broken at the point where the beginning of the
winding exited the coil, rendering a simple fix impossible. Measured the wire as #40
enameled, and based on the resistance of the good element there is approximately 125
ft of wire on the coil. I ordered a small quantity (2 oz, or about 4150 ft) of wire from
Remington Industries. Surprised they sold such a small quantity because the cost was only
$6.22, and shipping was included!!! I managed to get about 100 ft of wire on the bobbin,
not surprising because the original was obviously machine-wound, with nice layering of the
turns and under constant tension, where I did it with a drill, a Rube-Goldberg holding
fixture, and my hand for wire tension. It does work however, and should it ever break
again, I’ve got lots of wire……… BTW #40 wire is nominally .003 inches diameter, about the
average thickness of hair.

Howie WB2AWQ