Making parts for an antique radio

Round 2 for the spindle. I left it long because I'm not sure what to do about capturing the pulley's. My smallest drill bit is .040". My first attempt at drilling the spindle failed miserably. The little MicroLux drill I have is not a bad drill. The vise sucks. It's intended for model making not metal working. I need to come up with an easier solution for keeping the pulleys on the shaft. I want them to spin freely so Super Glue is out.

The original pulley's and aluminum spindle are in the baggie, almost finished pulleys and spindle are below the bag. The old spindle is to the right.

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Well this has been a new "thing" every time I turn around. My quick change tool post is an OXO. I ordered a pretty nice 5/8" grooving tool holder and insert from McMaster Carr so I could finish this thing. I don't know why but I thought the OXO holders I have would go up to 5/8". Nyet... 1/2" %*#((% so plan B, use the parting tool to grove the shaft very slightly, just set it back so that it's only a few thousands outside of where the other pulley runs. It didn't go smoothly but it went. Project complete. It only took 3 c-clips, the third one was a charm, the other two? Who knows where they went...

Top view

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End on view showing the little clip. 0.500" diameter on the pulley's

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Nicely done!

Now you get to see how many c-clips you can lose trying to put it on after the shaft is mounted in the radio :grin:
 
Hello all

I know this is a old thread however I also restore old tube radios. Just now restoring a Atlas 10D lathe for the shop and that progress is posted in the project section.

Was wondering how the final radio turned out for you?

Thanks
Dave :)

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Just got through working on two radios for a friend. The Atwater-Kent 20c got it so it will pick up a station:aok:. The Grebe Mu-1 unfortunately had the center tuning cap too seriously damaged:bawling:. The workmanship on both radios is just amazing.
 
Nice!! I have also completed a Atwater Kent model 20 sometime ago. Its sitting in my living room with the matching speaker horn.

Wonder if we have enough people interested in this we may start a group?

I'm working on my lathe and mill so a bit slow on radios at the moment however machinist or like me tinkering machines lol I have learned go hand and hand with restoration of old radios at times.

Dave

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Cobrage401 said:
Hello all

I know this is a old thread however I also restore old tube radios. Just now restoring a Atlas 10D lathe for the shop and that progress is posted in the project section.

Was wondering how the final radio turned out for you?

Thanks
Dave :)

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I literally just put the radio back on my bench this weekend. I still haven't manned up and restrung the dial. The pulleys are installed (n c-clips were lost much to my surprise). When I tested the radio with a homebuilt AC driven supply there was a very loud buzz as I tuned and landed on what I thought might be a station so I shut it down. I thought it might be the supply but I'm starting to think a resistor has gone bad. Maybe silver mica disease but I've dealt with that and this was different. I don't know yet but I plan to dig into it soon.
 
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