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Old 11th Dec 2020, 12:46 pm   #1
Wendymott
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Default Apprentice in the 60's

Ahhhh memories.... the word "Apprentice"........ making tea... valve pin cleaning.. turret tuner cleaning...vaccuming the TV out so the "engineer" didnt get his hands mucky.. Cleaning the Fireball Tuner was favourite as long as it didnt have the FM addition..... and the AB "Allen Bradley" fitted to the Pam 600. Heaven help you if you lost the ball bearing.. then progression to those Band 1/3 tuners fitted to the Bush TV125 or Murphy equiv.. with the slide brass slugs on a plastic stick.. which invariably broke.

Our shop had the PYE/Ekco and Bush/ Murphy agencies...so we saw a lot of the Pam 550/551/600....... and the various Bush models....

Ensuring the valve box in the van was well stocked.. EVERY day.... BY100 rectifier kit "made up".. Labgear "White stick" jammed into the van side..Oh yes... spare Pickstone soldering iron wire elements....

For a small town in west yorkshire "Ilkley" we had.. 5 TV shops..... Ronald Smiths "us".. Allen and Walker.. Cleggs... Jack Parker... Arthur English...
Now..... I dont think there are any.


I had posted this in the Items for sale section.. but I moved it before the Mods did
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 12:54 pm   #2
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Ah....the fireball tuner , carbon tet. or Duraglit and MS4.

Lawrence.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 1:06 pm   #3
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Carbon tet sends shivers down my spine ( or it use to, memories fading a bit).
As an apprentice in mid 50,s I was expected to make sure all the sets leaving workshop were cleaned, so when I had my first Bakelite set to clean, you guessed it right, I thought I would try Carbon tet, at first it looked lovely and shiny, but oh dear not for long, the cabinet soon became a mess. Cut long story, my boss at first was very angry, but when he calmed down he said I had not received any guidance or instructions and was not to be blamed. Was I lucky ?
John
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 1:27 pm   #4
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Carbon tet...... do NOT... repeat NOT clean the Vol/Brightness/ Tuner Plastic escutcheon on a Pam 600... it melts ..... windowlene was the preferred..... but this one was sooooo manky.. and we had no spare ones from the loan sets..
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 1:40 pm   #5
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Carbon tet./Duraglit was standard issue for switch and valve contacts back then at the firms I worked for.

For cabinet cosmetics/cleaning it was soap and water, Stergene, Windolene, Topps, Duraglit etc, foam cleansers weren't common 'till later on.

Lawrence.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 1:41 pm   #6
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

I think carbon Tet was supplied in those Yellow tins with a spout on top from Radio Spares.
Awful stuff and not for plastic!
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 1:43 pm   #7
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Quote:
Originally Posted by HamishBoxer View Post
I think carbon Tet was supplied in those Yellow tins with a spout on top from Radio Spares.
Awful stuff and not for plastic!
Spot on HB.

Lawrence.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 1:50 pm   #8
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

I have 2 of the aluminium spouts, no cans. Les.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 2:26 pm   #9
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Quote:
Originally Posted by ms660 View Post
Ah....the fireball tuner , carbon tet. or Duraglit and MS4.

Lawrence.
MS4
Wasn't that a tube of silicone grease that SOME engineers slapped onto everything? I was never a convert, was the idea of smearing tuner contacts with it to create a barrier to cigarette tar?

The carbon tet stuff in the metal can with a spout was called Ambersil, it was difficult to keep in your field toolkit without leakage.

Did anyone use Joynes Waxless Polish in their workshops?
Granada had their own branding on the label, the bottle was a glass medicine style bottle that was easily knocked over. Mind you, as a "Junior Improver" polishing the benches and sweeping the floor was my domain.

There seemed to be a rule about not supplying anything in a convenient aerosol package, The head-cleaning fluid (IPA) came in a little screw top glass jar with an inner plastic seal that flew off with a pop in warm weather.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 2:48 pm   #10
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by ms660 View Post
Ah....the fireball tuner , carbon tet. or Duraglit and MS4.

Lawrence.
MS4
Wasn't that a tube of silicone grease that SOME engineers slapped onto everything? I was never a convert, was the idea of smearing tuner contacts with it to create a barrier to cigarette tar?
Yes, definitely MS4, I think it came in a Yellow squeeze tube with a black cap as far as I can remember, see tuner and write up in the link:

https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/ID...arch=%22ms4%22

A thin smear was all that was needed.

Lawrence.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 3:49 pm   #11
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Back when I was there as a student, HP used a solvent cleaner in an aerosol can branded "Inhibisol" it was exactly the right stuff to make all the polycarbonate plastics HP used for board extractor levers, 8640 gears and all the panel control knobs rapidly go brittle to the point they cracked up the moment you tried to use them. What a coincidence!

David
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 4:01 pm   #12
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

The crumbling/crazy paving of various slider control panels and tuner panels and other bits due to spray contact cleaners was very common in the R&TV trade.

Lawrence.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 5:46 pm   #13
Wendymott
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

I seem to remember "Autolube" was the valvepin cleaner in our shop... always referred to as "lube".... That smeary grease stuff was used... after cleaning tuner contacts....with lube.
No doubt some of you got "caught" with the GEC crt with the external final anode metal cone..Oh take that up to the attic.. we might need it..... charged with a few volts.. swines. These days it would be called "bullying".... then it was all in a days work... I know which time I preferred.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 6:21 pm   #14
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

It would be 1965 ish as an apprentice ,I was cleaning a radio dial with meths you know what is coming next ,yep all the printing started to disappear , to make things worse a new dial was unobtainable , I never knew how they resolved that one .
Saturday at five thirty ,was bull time we had to clean all the bench tops with carbon tet it was like a thick lino , we felt dizzy after and had to go outside to get some fresh air, we liked to keep Collin the stores man on his toes ,a few 0.47uf 1000v were charged up off the boost rail carefully placed in the draw , a bit later ask Collin for a 0.47uf , OUCH!
he got wise to it after a few times , then he would poke at them with a screwdriver before handing you one , happy days . Mick.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 6:29 pm   #15
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Mick that brings back memories of my first day I walked into workshop, the Tech said to me “Hi John, catch “ which of course I did, I let out a yell, it was a fully changed 32uFarad.
John
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 6:53 pm   #16
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

I was never an apprentice but I do recall some of the things that used to go on amongst the bench-techs at one place who dealt with some of my stuff.

A solder-sucker, used to fire nuts/old capacitors across the room. That one was stopped after a nut dropped inside the mesh cage over a HT rectifier-stack and caused a flashover.

TO-3 transistors removed from a mobile-radio inverter; one bench-tech had a blanket on the seat of his chair, and he found the several concealed TO-3 transistors - pins-side-uppermost - one friday when he sat down following a 'late-back-from-lunch' sesh at the pub.

Signal-generators-witn-modulator-input: we once played a fun joke on one tech by modulating a sig-gen with off-air Radio-1 and tuning the genny to Radio-3, then running the output of the generator to a dangly-wire 'antenna' run under his bench. He wasted a whole afternoon checking the tracking/alignment of a radio because he was getting Radio-1 where Radio-3 should be.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 7:40 pm   #17
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

First day I started work in Manchester I was told "Being a new apprentice means that you're going to get your head flushed in the bog" trouble was they didn't say when, I waited and wondered, a couple of weeks went by so I thought I'd escaped the initiation ceremony.....not so, when it was over the service manager on the floor I was on said it was against company policy to wash one's hair during company time.

I also remember my first pay day, the floor manager said to me as he handed over my wage packet "You'll never forget this day".....Too right...£2 Ten shillings for the week....a pound of which went to my folks for my keep, about a pound or so on travel fare and some compulsory savings via my Mum, that left me with Ten bob....Wow.

Someone on that service floor had built a trick capacitor tester (unbeknown to me in my ignorance) it looked pukka, I was given an electrolytic to test.....Bang and a shower of bits, matey said go and have a look what's written in the bottom corner of the panel....."The Handy Mains Blower, Pat Pending etc"

After a while I managed to get a transfer to another depot for the same company but a lot closer to home, the first trick someone played on me was "The Smoke Bomb".... I was working on an old TV on the bench and I had gone out for dinner, when I came back I switched the TV back on then smoke/pong....Remember those celluloid type license plates that were fitted to most stuff back then? Well one of the guys had collected some, wrapped some dropper resistance wire around a bundle of them, connected it across a suitable part of the circuit and hidden the said inside the TV, I soon learned to do that trick myself.

Another one was the wire spider trick (no not connecting a spider to the supply God forbid) A length of insulated multi strand about an inch or so long, half strip then fan out all the conductors at right angles to the insulated bit, then casually approach someone at the bench troubleshooting a TV which was powered up, holding the insulated bit and then dropping the said device into the works.....sometimes spectacular, sometimes it just created a really annoying fault, especial in transistor/IC TV's

Just a few that I can remember.

Lawrence.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 7:49 pm   #18
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

MS4 I think we used to clean "FireBall" biscuits and wipe on the contacts afterwards.

I have some I think,certainly Silicon grease but in bluey green tube?
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 7:52 pm   #19
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

The initiation ceremony was not the head down the toilet where I worked ,it involved black boot polish!

Thankfully I fought back and escaped.Yes and I was on fifty shillings a week when I started too.1961/2 era.

Autolube ,I used Electrolube in the poly bottle.
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Old 11th Dec 2020, 7:54 pm   #20
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Default Re: Apprentice in the 60's

Yes, definitely tuner biscuits HB and there was also a Philips mono TV where the system switch could be easily taken apart for contact cleaning, same procedure with them.

Lawrence.
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