[R-390] Gear Train Guru Wanted

Sat, 3 Aug 2002 09:43:29 -0400

Hi Walter:

The photo sequence and instructions on your site are terrific -- many
thanks.  However, I see where you started to move from "baby steps" to giant
ones, no doubt owing to the web storage limits.  Later on, you go with more
of a verbal description.

I just spent about 30 mins., so need to look over it more to see where to
add intermediate steps.  Meanwhile, I humbly submit the following
suggestions:

1.  Superimpose number labels on the gears that are about to be removed.
Maybe I'm a dummy, but I had to flip back and forth between adjoining photos
a few times before I could spot what was coming off.  It might be a good
idea to use the numbering scheme from the manual blowup.

2.  Use arrows in addition to "spotlight" highlighting.  In particular, it's
a bit difficult to make out the two gears that should not be meshed.

3.  Do a step by step reassembly sequence, not simply rely on the "assembly
is simply the reverse of dissasembly" approach.  Fact is, it's not, and
that's where a lot of the vebiage comes in.  You can re-use most of the
disassembly shots, but the key difference is this is where the
synchronization takes place.  (Actually, the _assembly_ sequence is more
important than the disassembly -- it's generally possible to take something
apart with little or no instructions, however, tradition has been the ol'
"reverse of dissassembly" thing.)

4.  Maybe I didn't notice, but along the way I recalled some advice from
various posts to the reflector.  For example, the split gears may have
burred or chamfered over from wear such that they won't slip smoothly
against each other -- which is easy to test with the gear sets out and the
springs removed.  Someone had recommended (Nolan?) to lightly polish the
mating surfaces with very fine grit abrasive - or maybe a wet stone?  May
not be necessary in most cases, but this would be the time to fix them..

5.  I test printed everything in black & white on a 600 dpi laser printer,
just to check if all the detail comes through.  Sometimes, even starting
from excellent quality color, detail is lost when adjoining parts are of
similar color or shade.  They print quite well in B&W -- the detail and
contrast hold up.  Only thing I'd point out is the superimposed text about
the two-gears-not-to-mesh is hard to read in B&W.  While the color contrasts
on screen, the shade is too close for B&W.  It's over a shadow, so yellow
would work better when printed in B&W.

6.  It would be good to illustrate directly how to set up the intermittent
gear, rather than refer to the manual -- so your creation can be a
stand-alone.

7.  I strongly (but humbly ;-) suggest that you leave the disassembly be for
now, and start with the assembly sequence.  This will make it clearer as to
what additional shots are needed.  In many cases, photos can be the same
between the assembly and disassembly sequences, so it won't be added
storage, just an html photo link.  You probably have a lot of the photos
already.

8.  I dunno -- might be better to break it up into pages with "next"
buttons.  This would help control the pagination for printing purposes and
it might make it easier for you to clone assembly from dissassembly pages by
doing a "save as" as a first step before editing.

9.  Now this one will illicit an involuntary ROTFL reaction in some readers,
but ... For a real gear-train-for-dummiies no-brainer approach, someone
could put together a grid that prints out on, say 4 pages to be taped
together which would have a place to lay down each part as they're removed,
with the corresponding reference number.  Many of the gears look different
enough, some look similar and some may be the same/interchangable or maybe
not, duhhhhhh.  Eventually, we could turn the R-390A into a true Heathkit
experience. ;-).

10.  An emergency 24/7 hotline to call.  OK, I've gone too far.

Great site, though.  Hope you use this in the spirit intended (everybody's a
critic, yadda yadda).  I posted my suggestions in case some one else has
additional or alternative ideas.

Barry

----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter Wilson" <[email protected]>
To: "Barry Hauser" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2002 7:31 AM
Subject: Re: [R-390] Gear Train Guru Wanted

> You may have seen the pictures I have posted on my website already.  I
think
> there are only eight shots taken during disassembly, but I've used these
> pics a number of times when rebuilding gear trains, and they work well for
> me.  If you'd like more pics added to this sequence, give me some idea of
> where you'd like to see more details.  At one time, I was limiting the
> number due to web space size restrictions, which is no longer an issue.
> http://r-390a.us/gear_train_rebuild.htm
>
> Walter Wilson - KK4DF
> http://r-390a.us
> (REAL Radios: R-390A, R-390, T-368E, Ranger, Thunderbolt, KWM-2A)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barry Hauser" <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2002 12:40 AM
> Subject: Re: [R-390] Gear Train Guru Wanted
>
>
> > OK Gang,
> >
> > Hate to be a wet blanket, but I have an on topic type post here I've
been
> > sittin' on.
> >
> > One area for improvement in the Y2K manual is in the gear train
> department.
> > What we still have there is that exploded line drawing with dotted
zig-zag
> > lines.  I don't know about you, but it doesn't really fill me with a
whole
> > lot of confidence to pursue a full teardown, cleaning and reassembly
with
> > that as a guide.
> >
> > Sooooo... it would be great if one of you geartrain experts with a
decent
> > digital camera would do a teardown/reassembly, stopping at each baby
step
> to
> > snap a photo, so the rest of us can have a shot at it one of these days.
> It
> > could use a little bit of narrative, but the pictures would do most of
the
> > talking.
> >
> > Any takers?  Who's gonna be the hero?
> >
> > Barry
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > R-390 mailing list
> > [email protected]
> > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/r-390
> >
>
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