GE A-66 new refurbish job
 

Greetings!

I just opened this up today and it's certainly new ground for me. The oldest thing I have redone is a '72 Sansui stereo amp receiver. This is really amazing. It's Oooold! Any input would be greatly appreciated. Some things that come to mind are what not to use for chemicals if any. I'm not sure if it's OK to use Deoxit or denatured alcohol even. Some of these parts look more like Halloween candy. (BTW, notice my snack in the upper right hand corner of the first pic.) Should I replace the caps with modern electrolytes or go to polyprope or???? Other parts I have never seen before; I have no idea what they are. But I'll go a step at a time.

Any help? 'Looks like fun to me.

I don't see any of your pictures :headscrat

Oooops

Ah, much better :D

Cool radio - early 30s I believe. Looks to be in rally good condition.
Just about all of the cylindrical parts you see below are capacitors. A few are resistors like the big yellow bugger with an orange spot on the right - AKA a "dogbone".
I'd use polys for all the caps below including the two metal box caps.
Modern electros for the two big caps on top.

Thanks much for the information. Underneath, what is that brown square object with the multi colored dots on it?

Glad to help. That's a molded mica capacitor. They rarely go bad so I'd leave it alone. Check out these links for the color code:
http://www.vcomp.co.uk/components/ca.../cap_codes.htm
http://www.radioremembered.org/capcode.htm

Fantastic!

.. a couple very general but necessary questions before I start this project...

Are there any abnormally toxic materials that could be found in parts of this period?

Are there any bad combinations of chemicals that I should avoid either that could be hazardous or could cause damage to these wonderful ancient artifacts?

and.. is there anything that is delicate that I should just leave completely alone?

Thanks again...

The yellow colour of the chassis comes from cadmium plating. It is quite poisonous, so wash your hands after handling the chassis. Other than that, the solder is partly lead. This accounts for most of the toxic materials.

Whew, good to know. I noticed that part of this chassis has a greening look to it. Mold? Copper? Arsenic???

That's probably cadmium oxide too. I've been running into it a lot lately. I posted a thread about how to remove that oxide and polish it up. As amptramp said, it's toxic so beware!

If you're wondering why they used it - it's prevents rust, is easy to solder to and looks nice. At least at first.

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread...=246991&page=2

There is one of those languishing in a warehouse here in Lancaster. It's a big junk shop and they have about a half dozen old consoles rotting away there. While they are way overpriced, I did buy my first tube powered radio there (an RCA) the GE was my second choice, as I liked the drum-shaped tuner. For a first restoration, this should be an easy one-not a lot to replace, and a very open, easy to work with chassis design.

That's great news. It looks like a really interesting fix-up.

I am making a parts list for replacement and there are 2 silver paper board boxes on the underside that have familiar markings but unfamiliar presentation:

One says - 4mF 450V GEP-5, 3mF 150V DGP-2
The other says - 450-25V 4-10mF, SGP-2 CCCW

They sound like caps but what does it mean when boxed like this? I can't see what's inside and one is riveted to the chassis.. and the GEP, DGP, SGP are unfamiliar. My guess is the CCCW is 300 watts??

help?

Each of these boxes contain two capacitors. The first one has a 4uF at 450V and a 3uF at 150V. The second box has a 4uF at 450V and a 10uF at 25V. I am not familiar with the GEP-5, DGP-2, SGP-2, or CCCW. I would guess they are manufacturer part numbers.

If you haven't found a schematic for this set you might try this one:
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByM...4/M0007754.pdf
Nostalgia Air does not have a listing for the A-66 (other than 1 page in the Changes section of Riders). I am assuming the 6-14 on one of the silver boxes was put there by someone who had worked on this set previously. It corresponds to a Riders manual page for the A-64 and A-67 models.

Those mid 1930s GE sets are very good performers and are very well built. They are under appreciated by collectors.

Thanks for the map! I had no idea things like that were still around.

I promise to stop bothering you guys as soon as I can get my chicks in order but I was wondering, where does one find some of these caps? E.G. 16uF and 8uF @ 500V and some of those other high voltage things? I can only find 450 to 475 in those 8 and 16uF caps. The others I can basically find but it's a mishmash polyprope, polystr, metal film and small electrolytic. Some have to have much higher voltage ratings to fit the uFs. I looked at Mouser and DigiKey.

The other thing are those dogbones. I have a pretty good idea how they read but not in any really solid way, just an old chart that's from the 40's. Is there a solid chart or explanation that can be relied upon with no discrepancies with the Philco versions?

I've never fished these waters before...

Thanks

I believe all the old dog-bone resistors use the "BED" body,end,dot code...
More charts here:

http://www.vintageradio.me.uk/info/Componentinfo1.htm

Have fun!
jr