You can get a lot of satisfaction from completing a totally unnecessary job.

[Doghouse Riley]

In my den,... Ok... our front room, I've;


2015 : Panasonic Viera TV
TV is with memory stick with 3000 plus mp3s on it.
2015 : Panasonic SU-HT B18 Soundbar.
2015 : Humax HDR 2000T
2010 : Panasonic S75 DVD/CD player
2004 : Sony SLV-SE740 VHS recorder/player

1980 : Leak 2000 tuner/amp

1972 : Philips 308 turntable
1972 : Sharp RT442H cassette player
2003 ; 3 x 3rd gen I-Pods

1972 : 2 X Goodmans Havant speakers

Plus....

This, a Tyros 5 "work station" (they used to call them leccy pianos)

A Yamaha YTS tenor sax.

My two Rock-Ola jukebox wall boxes which I can use to select tracks on the i-Pods via an adapter and play through the tuner/amp.

Now everything is in working order. I fitted new belts to the turntable and casette player a few years ago and I've still spares, though they aren't used much.

I've a lot of CDs/DVDs, VHS tapes and vinyl albums, but retained only a few cassettes. I noticed tonight that one of the tapes (I've no idea how long it is since I last played it) had no contents insert. so I googled the cassette, searched images, found what I needed, downloaded it, adjusted the size on my printer, to fit the cassette, printed it off and stuck it in the case.

"I'll sleep easy tonight."

 

[Retired]

Hi,

I bet your neighbours live miles away Doghouse.

What a nice lot of kit you've got; how often do you play the sax or run the turntable? I've got an "1931 Ultra Tiger" gramaphone which I fully restored many years ago but not played it for a long time; I wouldn't be at all surprised if the electrolytics in the chassis now need reforming or replacing?

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

Hi,

I bet your neighbours live miles away Doghouse.

What a nice lot of kit you've got; how often do you play the sax or run the turntable? I've got an "1931 Ultra Tiger" gramaphone which I fully restored many years ago but not played it for a long time; I wouldn't be at all surprised if the electrolytics in the chassis now need reforming or replacing?

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Kind regards, Colin.

Yes the electroytics often need replacing. You can buy a kit of the most needed, capacitors and resistors for most jukebox valve amplifiers. it should the same with radios.

I did have a Bush 64 back in the the sixties I bought second hand. As we lived in Shepherd's Bush at the time, you could get the BBC TV programmes sound on the VHF.

Our neighbours in the adjoining semi are well into their eighties/nineties and both deaf!

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Yes Doghouse; kits of capacitors used to be available for vintage radios from a supplier in Canada; I don't know if they still are but I used to buy in bulk of the most common sizes because I used to restore lots of vintage radios; your Bush radio brings back many memories; below are a couple of pictures of what I used to do to these old radios and I used to look for the really rough ones to restore. This too is a Bush from I believe around 1938.

I used to have a decent radio repairing shack and the picture below shows a bit of the test kit I had to play with. I packed in radio restoration a few years ago and now spend any spare time in my workshop or on projects around home.

Kind regards, Colin.

Fully restored in French polish and also fully working.

The same radio as bought it being an ugly duckling and the previous owner was going to strip it for its valves (tubes) I paid £10 for it but no longer own it; at one point I had over 70 of these vintage radios and they were taking over; once fully restored I then lost interest in each of them so I had a massive clear out.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

Your last photo reminds me of this.
it's a message board called "Derelict Places, Documenting Decay."
I look at sometimes.

Contributors get into, closed, abandoned and derelict buildings, (I wouldn't be be surprised if they broke into some!) But just to share photographs.

This was a TV repair shop where the previous occupants, must have just walked away.

https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/misc-sites/19322-repair-shop.html

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks Doghouse for the assorted pictures; I hope you weren't comparing my wonderful radio workshop too closely to these.

Looking at the pictures though it isn't hard to realize the reason the shop ceased trading; apart from the old motorcycle the lot should have been dumped?

Kind regards, Colin.

As a raw novice I adopted restoring vintage radios as an hobby when I retired to keep me busy during our long dreary winters; I enjoyed this hobby for about ten years gathering all manner of test equipment and components; I learnt how to veneer and French polish; I could wind transformers; chokes and coils in fact I could do just about anything regarding restoring these old sets; I fell victim to my own success because I became so good at these restorations I then lost interest and wanted something else to offer me new challenges. I enjoy trying new techniques and doing things others tell me are impossible. I'm currently metal spinning which I find to be fascinating.

Keeping busy is the key to keeping young.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

In my very early twenties, my first job in retail management was running a branch of a chain of radio/tv/electrical appliance stores, in north London.
It had the typical staffing set up, Manager, salesman, cashier, engineer, driver.

We were all about the same age. The engineer his wife and mine, became life-long though long distance friends. He and his wife have sadly recently died.
One of the regular sales promotions, was an offer to take any TV set or radio in part exchange at a fixed price for particular TVs. The part-exchange value was built into the retail price of the new set.
Most of these PXs were non-working. These we sent with the driver down to the local tip on monthly basis. However, any TVs the engineer could get working we privately sold to the barber over the road.and he'd display them in his shop and sell them to customers. We all made a few quid out of them. Often the tube were a bit dim, so we'd change the voltage from 240 to 200 on some, which gave them a brighter picture for a short time!

The Bush VHF64 radio I acquired was one of these part exchanges my engineer got working.

When the driver took the non-working sets down to the tip, the staff of the tip would gather round the back of the van as he chucked them out. It amused us that on one occasion on his return, he said that when he went into the office to pay the weighbridge charge for the rubbish sets, he noticed they had one of the sets he'd taken down the month before was up on a shelf and working! We assumed the jolt of being chucked onto a pile of rubbish had got it going.
When you think back, a thump on the top of a TV or valve radio, sometimes re-connected a dry joint or whatever and got them going again.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

As it's been raining all day, So I've been stuck indoor no gardening or golf, it prompted me to play and record a "rain song" on my Tyros 5.

This was a one hit wonder back in 1962 for The Cascades. They've made a living playing it at live venues across the USA ever since. Such a nice tune.

https://app.box.com/s/q627rd64djl6m4j1sgu15ngcsnmhkffl

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks for your interesting story Doghouse; like you I used to enjoy job perks but mine was in raiding the scrap metal skips and stillages at work; the research/ load test department used to test electric motors then the motors would be scrapped; I had chums on the lookout for me and I obtained quite a number of these scrap motors which actually were still like new in fact I was also tipped off when ex demonstration motors were being dumped; not only the small stuff either; I bought a lovely big Colchester Triumph metal lathe costing me £25 but had to pay a further £100 to get it home; a Clarkson tool and cutter grinder and other machines being scrapped were fair game. When the "W" world series motors were introduced the warehouse disposed of lots of these prototypes and I still have a few; I was well known for my workshop activities and I was generously given many motors on the promise I would never sell them that they were for my own use only; I adhere to this promise to this day. The guys in the main stores put a shelf aside for me; any fasteners they thought of use to me that were being dumped were left on the shelf and I used to pop up to the stores with the fork truck to collect them; I don't mean a couple of nuts and bolts I mean full boxes which were no longer needed. Bar ends in both BMS and stainless steel I could have as many as I liked all I had to do was to ask. This is about the only thing I miss of the job I occupied for 24 years.

The Cascades tune and song are indeed nice and we play this and many 60's music videos via YouTube never tiring of them; we don't bother with more modern stuff which is heard then instantly forgotten; rapping I'm too polite to add my thoughts?

In spite of the rain I've just enjoyed an hour in the workshop metal spinning and I'll update my metal spinning thread next.

https://www.diy-forums.com/threads/metal-spinning.289525/page-2

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[helvetic78]

Lucky you to have that kind of neighbours. Love the sax.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

Hi,

Thanks for your interesting story Doghouse; like you I used to enjoy job perks but mine was in raiding the scrap metal skips and stillages at work; the research/ load test department used to test electric motors then the motors would be scrapped; I had chums on the lookout for me and I obtained quite a number of these scrap motors which actually were still like new in fact I was also tipped off when ex demonstration motors were being dumped; not only the small stuff either; I bought a lovely big Colchester Triumph metal lathe costing me £25 but had to pay a further £100 to get it home; a Clarkson tool and cutter grinder and other machines being scrapped were fair game. When the "W" world series motors were introduced the warehouse disposed of lots of these prototypes and I still have a few; I was well known for my workshop activities and I was generously given many motors on the promise I would never sell them that they were for my own use only; I adhere to this promise to this day. The guys in the main stores put a shelf aside for me; any fasteners they thought of use to me that were being dumped were left on the shelf and I used to pop up to the stores with the fork truck to collect them; I don't mean a couple of nuts and bolts I mean full boxes which were no longer needed. Bar ends in both BMS and stainless steel I could have as many as I liked all I had to do was to ask. This is about the only thing I miss of the job I occupied for 24 years.

The Cascades tune and song are indeed nice and we play this and many 60's music videos via YouTube never tiring of them; we don't bother with more modern stuff which is heard then instantly forgotten; rapping I'm too polite to add my thoughts?

In spite of the rain I've just enjoyed an hour in the workshop metal spinning and I'll update my metal spinning thread next.

https://www.diy-forums.com/threads/metal-spinning.289525/page-2

Kind regards, Colin.

Here's my version of another "one hit wonder" from that era.

The Fleetwoods.

https://app.box.com/s/g8rcyqw6b4r729lgftakbi3p4wi9v1hm