[Hallicrafters] panel silk screening

[Kenneth Laine Ketner]

Greetings tubular people:

I am starting to work on a Halli SR-75 which I finally found one of.
There ain’t too many of these around. Some folks think it was the first
factory produced ham transceiver. Certainly an interesting item. Its
50L6 is a final audio in RX and a final PA on TX with about 10 dirty
watts out. Probably a real RFI beastie. Two D cells are used to key the
relay which makes the code happen. (Wonder what the RX sounds like when
all the RF goes whizzing around inside the S-38 side of things.) Tune-up
is by way of the glow from a number 49 pilot lamp — One doesn’t dip the
final, one dims the final at resonance. I guess a lamp is cheaper than a
meter. Rather an neat engineering solution for an entry-level crystal
controlled XCVR.

This particular one is a marginal restore. The battery was left in, so
it had turned to two rusty cruddy globs, like cells from King Tut’s RCA
beach portable. Battery electrolyte rusted about 1/5 of the chassis. I
guess I will need a new can of Naval Jelly. I think I can bring it back
to relatively clean and functional, but it will be challenging. Will
keep me off the street this winter.

The cabinet has some non-factory holes in the top, and it will need to
be powder coated after the holes are deburred and patched (they are
definitely not good holes). The front panel is sound but rocky in the
art-work. So I think it could use a complete sandblast, hole patching
with JB WELD, and then powder coating followed by a new panel silk
screening. I can do everything here except the screening.

Does anybody know who might be screening panels these days?

I could send the cabinet if someone needs to duplicate the artwork for
screening. Then the cabinet could be sent back here for blasting,
patching, coating, then sent back for screening onto the new coating.

As far as I can tell, the cabinet is formed from a panel front piece,
and then the top and sides are a second piece. The two pieces appear to
have been spot welded together. If I could separate the two pieces, I
might be able to salvage the front panel without a stripping and
re-screening on it. But if I can’t unweld them, because the top is so
holey, the whole thing must be stripped, patched and repainted. Anyone
know how to separate the two pieces?

Or some other strategy?

73

--

Ken Ketner
ARS KA5ELD (Extra Class)
  Personal Webpage: http://www.wyttynys.net
  Office Webpage: http://www.pragmaticism.net
Email:
 home: ketner at arisbeassociates.com
 office: kenneth.ketner at ttu.edu

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