02-23-2014, 09:30 AM
You've possibly seen these lovely pics of the E-818 I got in the other day:
Well.. tonight I started to try to revive it. I super glued the pieces of the board back together (not an easy task on its own, since I had to patiently hold the pieces together till the glue set). Then I began to reinforce the cracks by bridging solder across the crack on each trace. Once that was done, I further reinforced the connections by running small gauge stranded wire all along the traces, attaching them to hard solder points at each end.
I've got filaments now, and 157 VDC at every B+ point, so obviously I've missed a break somewhere (not really surprising, there were a LOT of them!) Once I have found and repaired all broken traces, I plan to coat the entire bottom of the PC board with epoxy to prevent it breaking too easily again.
I've also patched the speakers, and mended the broken terminal strip on the loop antenna.
So far, this is what it looks like, at least from the front of the chassis.
So, now, supposing I get this all working properly, I'm not at all sure what I'm going to do with it, since the front panel is pretty well hosed, and I doubt there are enough pieces left to mend it properly. I have, however, repaired the wooden cabinet, and it looks quite presentable.
Well.. tonight I started to try to revive it. I super glued the pieces of the board back together (not an easy task on its own, since I had to patiently hold the pieces together till the glue set). Then I began to reinforce the cracks by bridging solder across the crack on each trace. Once that was done, I further reinforced the connections by running small gauge stranded wire all along the traces, attaching them to hard solder points at each end.
I've got filaments now, and 157 VDC at every B+ point, so obviously I've missed a break somewhere (not really surprising, there were a LOT of them!) Once I have found and repaired all broken traces, I plan to coat the entire bottom of the PC board with epoxy to prevent it breaking too easily again.
I've also patched the speakers, and mended the broken terminal strip on the loop antenna.
So far, this is what it looks like, at least from the front of the chassis.
So, now, supposing I get this all working properly, I'm not at all sure what I'm going to do with it, since the front panel is pretty well hosed, and I doubt there are enough pieces left to mend it properly. I have, however, repaired the wooden cabinet, and it looks quite presentable.
