[Ron Ramirez]

Thanks Ed!

I've removed the knobs from their Evapo-Rust bath, and all of the spring clips inside the knobs are now clean save for the outer tuning knob; it could have benefited from an overnight soak but it will be OK. Evapo-Rust did not harm the Bakelite but it did dull the knobs; I shall have to polish them now.

Soaking the pieces of the ball bearing tuning mechanism removed eight decades of dirt, grime, and old grease. The two tiny ball bearings and the tiny spring came out from inside the assembly. I also removed the three larger ball bearings. All of the pieces are in a tiny zip bag; I will grease and reassemble all of it tomorrow.

The inner tuning shaft had quite a bit of rust where the knob pressed on to it, so it also received a good soaking in Evapo-Rust after its naptha bath. The rust is gone now! It looks clean and smooth. This Evapo-Rust is pretty amazing stuff.

I was finally able to remove the dial pointer - and without damaging it! Removing the dial scale is what did the trick. I never would have been able to get the pointer off otherwise. With no dial scale, I was able to get some PB Blaster at the very back of the pointer - which, as it turns out, is where it needed to be applied. Applying at the front of the pointer would never have had any effect. I can illustrate better with pictures, and if I don't forget, I will do that tomorrow as well.

This project is really coming together now. I will order a dial scale and appropriate decals from Radio Daze tomorrow, also.