Just wondering if anyone here has owned or used on of these. I'm becoming a living testament to the fact that vintage test equipment can be as addictive as the other stuff we hoard and need the test equipment to test or repair. I just decided I guess to make the whole vintage radio and TV thing more challenging in taking on a bunch of a new kind of box that does essentially the same thing.:banana:

Anyway, just when I thought my thirst was nearly quenched in purchasing old capacitor testers I find this old Jackson unit. I have come to realize that nearly every company on the planet made some version of a Wheatstone bridge based tester with load testing capability back when electronics was ELECTRONICS, so I have tried to narrow my purchasing down to the effective simplicity of Heathkit's models so that I can focus on a few key models to do a little work on and sometimes turn over for almost nothing considering the time involved even if I just provide a good working power supply. These old leakage testing units are supposedly catching on since they really don't make anything for any remotely reasonable price that can do a leakage test. Actually, I don't know if even Sencore makes the ultra high priced units they were making. At any rate, I hope to evolve into being able to provide a fully restored unit for a very reasonable price to anyone interested.

Anyway, to the topic; I have never owned anything by Jackson and I couldn't resist the look of this unit with an actual meter; not for current readings, but only capacitance value which may really be overkill when they could have done more good by having an on board ammeter. But hey; people are paying hundreds of dollars all of a sudden for Sprague TelOhmike TO-5s and TO-6s and they are the kings of overkill in my opinion. So I am hoping that there may be some good press on these Jackson testers. There is almost nothing on the web that I have found except one comment I think was on Steven Johnson's vintage test gear site noting a similar model to be extremely accurate and compared to his Sencore unit.

I don't think that it has a meter... It looks to me like a dial scale with a knob at the bottom center and an eye tube located at the top center. Unusual, for sure.

edit add: found a larger pix:

https://www.google.com/search?q=jackson+capacitor+tester&client=tablet-android-samsung&biw=768&bih=1024&prmd=sivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiG9IGghtnNAhVI4mMKHUELA4wQ_AUICCgC#imgr c=mLdpGvZHlvKQGM%3A

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The sprague TO-6 is an amazing piece of gear, overkill or not it's wonderful to use, very objective, and can even test small electrolytics for solid state equipment. The leakage test gives hard data instead of some sort of guessing game about how fast or so low an eye tube moves. I've been using a borrowed one to test my stock of capacitors and I am surprised by which ones pass and which ones fail. The meter its main selling point to me, it works just similar to a hi-pot tester but at a low voltage.

To reduce the guesswork, I have found it useful to do a rough calibration on my vintage Heathkit C3 condenser checker. On my unit, it takes about 15 to 20 uA to fully close the eye, while 1/2 closure is obtained with a leakage of around 7 ua and 1 ua just barely causes moment of the eye (on the paper & mica setting). The readings are almost 1000 times higher on the electrolytic setting.
I find that "close enough" for my vintage radio service work, but if I desire more detail a 0-500V supply and uA meter will provide it.

jr

Just an update on the Jackson unit. The thing is both larger and heavier than I suspected. It's built like a tank with superb craftsmanship and/or quality. The "meter" I was excited about was not a meter as another member suggested but simply a scale to reference the bridge and unlike most any Heathkit I have run into, it reads spot on no matter what I am trying to read (paper,mica, electrolytic, resistor).

To describe this unit's quality in a comparison the name that comes to mind is Hickok. Some may not agree, but I love Hickok stuff. Actually, I've never seen a cap leak tester by them, but the old 209 series meters and the same period tube testers are great!

Back to Heathkit C3s, I have found that for some reason the older, tan units often show up relatively if not exactingly precise in bridge readings and close enough leakage test voltages. Whereas the gray (newer) units may be VERY far off and also need the two 10mfd power supply filters replaced immediately. My guess is that the older stuff was being put together out of WW2 surplus parts that were made far better than peace time parts for sale to non government business's would ever be. Beyond that I haven't a clue...