Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015 — I’m STILL in the hunt for that Beugler pinstriping tool … the side benefit of course is that there’s more of the shack floor visible, hi hi!
I have a not-so-great photo of the J-37 project base with its coats of black paint but without the striping or clear coat. I’ve used lacquer on it so far, but the striping will be enamel, and so will the clear coat. I would prefer to use an enamel with a hardner so I could wet sand the final coat of clear and polish it for a really smooth finish, but I’m not sure I want to try that on an enamel clear without a hardener. Back in my bodyshop days I tried that and the results weren’t spectacular (meaning that I wound up shooting another coat of paint).
The part I need to focus on now is drilling holes anyway, and laying out how I want to have the keys placed on the base.
I’ve decided that I will use the Vibroplex style terminals, I just need to order them (I may have three in my Vibroplex parts box, I need to check). I still need to decide if I’ll use just three or five … five seems like too damn many terminals. My plan is to drill small holes under where the keys will be to allow the wiring to connect to the terminals under the base, if that makes sense. In fact, I should get the layout decided and go ahead and drill the holes prior to final finishing. That way, if I ding the paint I can fix it prior to the final clear coat
I need to get/purchase the right size chuck key for my drill press. My brother gave it to me, but did not give me the chuck. I bought two — both incorrect — so I need to get the right one. I have some things on my “to-do” list prior to striping anyway. I’m going to mock up the keys and try to see what sort of spacing I should use for easiest use and the best look.
HALLICRAFTERS HA-5. In my efforts to find the Beugler, I rediscovered the Hallicrafters HA-5 VFO that I purchased from a ham at a hamfest a couple years ago. These VFOs are fairly uncommon on eBay, and they often fetch quite a chunk of change when the do sell. This one was sold as a fine working example of one, “guaranteed” by the gent who sold it to me. On top of that he cut me great deal on it — hell, I could easily put it on eBay and triple my money.
Yeah, but only if it actually worked!
I have one HA-5 that I bought years ago, and I paid a good price for it, so buying one at the price I paid was a deal — even if it was DOA when I got it to my shack.
My ham friend guaranteed that it worked just fine the last time he used it. Which century that was I can only guess. When I pulled the cover, I found a broken tube — one that had apparently been broken a long, long time. On further inspection, I found that a clip-in style fuseholder had been hacked into the incoming AC line, and was dangling loose under the base (one lead was broken from wherever it had been soldered).
What I thought was going to be a quick fix — replace a tube and go — isn’t going to be quite so simple. That’s ok, I appreciate a good challenge, perhaps it will increase my interest in ham radio the more I stay in the shack.
At this point, I’m putting the Heathkit SB-102 maintenance off until I clear the HA-5 off the bench. The tube should arrive Monday, so perhaps I need to check the schematic and see what the hell the Mr. W1ANON did to cobble together that fused power lead in the HA-5. I plan to keep the fuse holder, though it would have been simpler to to install a fuse holder that allows you to change/check the fuse without disassembling the HA-5.
SB-102. I’m looking forward to working on the SB-102 … in fact, I could go ahead and buy o-rings for it now and get those done. I’m going to go do a little research on restringing the load control now, so 73 es CUL … de KY4Z CL SK … dit dit …