[R-390] Cleaning Gears & Cams

[tfrobase]

Grew up in Lima, OH, spent 20 years in Allentown PA.  A great junk place in
Reading, PA is LB Metals, only open Friday and Saturday.  An amateur is the
store manager, Lou, W3LOU, great call.  An unbelievable amount of hardware
and stuff all sold by the pound!  The same outfit has a scrap yard southeast
of Reading, that is where I found the ultrasonic cleaner.  It came off of a
conveyer and it was not heated.
 
As for repair, I started my career in the early 70's running a service shop
in Lima, doing most anything to make a living, mostly industrial gear.
Fixed 390's and 392's part time for a local company in Lima (guess who) the
owner is one of my closest friends!
 
About a year ago I got the bug to restore a few radios again, started out
with a few BC-348's, but when I completed them they were still a BC-348's.
I ended up purchasing several R-390A's, a real radio!!, keeping the very
best for myself and moving the others along.  
 
An additional explanation of my RF deck cleaning procedure is as follows:
 
I disassemble the mechanical section form the electronics chassis, Jan
Skirrow has this procedure documented on his web site.  Once the separation
is complete, I remove all of the RF inductors from the chassis opening and
cleaning each can and trimmer.  With the base chassis clear I clean the
chassis with spray cleaner on a rag, following up with alcohol and anti-ox
on the sockets.  Once that is complete I test the tubes, reassemble the
electronics deck and clean the mechanics as stated earlier.
 
My day job is managing people, my lifelong love is fixing and restoring
electronics, I would be interested in doing this for others, please contact
me offline, as this is not the scope of this forum and I hope I have not
over stepped my bounds ... tom, N3LLL

  _____  

From: ampop at comcast.net [mailto:ampop at comcast.net] 
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 12:08 PM
To: tfrobase
Cc: ampop at comcast.net
Subject: Re: [R-390] Cleaning Gears & Cams


Hi Tom, Sounds great - I was raised in Pittston - between Scranton and
Wilkes Barre - course we always referred to it as northeastern, Penna.
Where are you living now and are you going to go into the business???
Based on the photo - I would think you would do rather well. BobW
 

-------------- Original message -------------- 

> 
> Several years ago, while living in eastern Pennsylvania, I found an 
> industrial ultrasonic cleaner at one of my favorite scrap yards. It has 
> become invaluable in the restoration of r-390a's. 
> 
> I have been fully immersing the detached gear assembly and the inductor 
> racks, with the inductors removed. I use a solution of water based 
> degreaser in fairly high concentration. It takes about 3 - 5 minutes to 
> complete the job. After the ultrasonic cleaning I thoroughly rinse the 
> assembly in hot water and dry. I then apply heavy oil lubrication with a 
> hypodermic. My experience has been excellent, tuning has been smooth as 
> silk ... Tom, N3LLL 
> 
> Take a look http://www.kitparts.com/misc/390-gears.jpg 
> 
> Thomas L. Frobase, N3LLL 
> 
> 
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