[R-390] Slug Rack Lube?

[Roy Morgan]

At 04:02 PM 5/15/2005, Cecil Acuff wrote:
>... an R-390 recently that is also exhibiting the squeaking noise on a 
>couple of the racks.... I noticed the cores are also coated with some type 
>of shiny outer coating as well.  Maybe to aid in friction reduction.

Cecil,

It may well be that the core material turned out shiny after the 
manufacturing process.

I suggest you find a bit of car wax, butcher's wax, or bowling alley 
wax.  If you garage doesn't have any car wax, look in the housewares 
section of the grocery store.  You won't need much money.  Put a little wax 
on a Q-tip and wax the inside of the coil form, and the outside of the 
slug.  I'll bet the squeak goes away forever.

If you want to use the ultimate was, get Rennaisance Wax, designed and used 
by the curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum,  London.  Expensive, but 
archival quality. Ultra fine microcrystalline structure or some such stuff.
One source is: http://www.restorationproduct.com/  (200ml (7fl. oz.): 
$20.00 per can) where the price is about the same as at 
http://www.lightimpressionsdirect.com  ($19.95 for 8  oz.)  The first place 
offers a 12 ounce quantity for less.  This stuff is good for any radio, 
metal, painted, wood, bakelite, or whatever.


>I have heard of guys using a ceramic stone and polishing those contact 
>points.  I would assume some type of lubrication would also be in 
>order.  I have used the Mobil 1 synthetic lube at those points as well 
>with good luck.

I assume you mean the metal parts, not the coil slugs or phenolic 
forms.  Just the smallest bit of grease of almost any kind will do the 
job.  The wax brobably would, too.

Roy


- Roy Morgan, K1LKY since 1959 - Keep 'em Glowing!
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