Busted test equipment

[electra225]

One of my first tasks when I get the shop done is to go thru my test equipment. A majority of my test equipment is WW2 vintage, property of my stepdad. When he passed away in 1987, I got every scrap of his equipment and related junk. He never spent a dime on anything he used to make his living. Much of the probes and wires are taped and kluged together. And the intervening nearly 40 years have done it no favors. I need new probes and leads on nearly every thing I own. My little Greenlee meter I use for around the house chores is totally dead, as is my Fluke meter. I used it when I worked on cars. I assume it's worth fixing. My old TV 7 tube tester needs sent to Mr. Nelson for a good tune-up, a new meter and calibration. My little Heathkit scope doesn't show a trace, and my old Tek 532 that the stepdad used is so old and crabby, it is only good for decoration. It has 77 tubes, so it is amazing to see it turned on. It has a 6AL5 that hangs upside down that has a wonky tube socket. I want to go thru the B&K 1077B , finish recapping it then find some transparencies for it. By the time I get test equipment fixed, I'll be too old to work on anything else. While I'm thinking of it, I tossed my "electronic" silicone when I moved. I forget the name of it. Do any of you TV repair guys have a name of the non-ammonia silicone used on flybacks and things like that so it doesn't corrode electronics?

[Firedome]

Sounds like plenty 'o fixin' to do before they can be used for fixing' other stuff!. Other than a old GR variac that has always worked fine, I went and got a new DMM to supplement the old Simpson 260, and the last time my inherited Tek 310-B was turned on 7-8 yrs ago it worked, but if I needed one I might be tempted to buy a new/inexpensive Chinese made one, they're not bad or so I've been told. A friend checked out my old Heathkit Dot & Bar gen last year and it worked well, but not something I'd use normally. Sold the Heathkit cap checker last year, I'm prone to just replace any ?-able caps anyway.

[electra225]

I may have made things sound more dire than they are. Most of my test equipment works, exceptions noted, but most of it also needs TLC. I know I could replace much of it with new, but I don't have the heart to toss it, since most of it was my stepdad's. And I like having tube stuff around to fix tube stuff. Just me, I guess. I hope we have a test equipment guru on this forum who can talk me thru this when I get stuck.

My stepdad's old Triplett VOM uses an expensive 30 volt battery that has long been dead. I've been thinking about resurrecting that old meter.

[hermitcrab]

Only old test equipment I own now are two signal generators one is a precision 200, and the other is a Eico 315... I had a old tube simpson VOM that was neat , but I did a dumb and fried the meter movement ... so I stripped that down for parts ... everything else I have upgraded ... I am looking at one of those new digital oscilloscopes but I have heard both good and bad about them... my old heath kit scope I built is getting tired .. and sometimes the screen will not even light up anymore...

[Firedome]

First thing we learned in 1st year 101 labs was that with any measuring device calibration is Job 1, hard to do sometimes with old obsolete test gear. Sometimes proper calibration costs more than buying new. I got rid of my H-P 200CD, Heathkit cap tester,, and 4 Hickok and TV-7 & 10 tube testers. The B&K 607 does what I need, and I didn't need or use the other stuff. It seems that some people (usually guitar nuts) will pay really stupid money for certain popular test gear like Hickok, and I was happy to sell it ton them. Other stuff you have difficulty even giving it away. When my late uncle died we donated and gave away a bunch of stuff: huge power supplies, a Boonton Q-meter, several big tube-chassis Tek scopes with extra plug-ins, and most of his TV testing stuff that no-one would buy, even for next to nothing.

[electra225]

I sold a half coffee can full of used bumblebee caps I had removed from old electronics to a guitar amp guy a couple years ago for $200. Complete junk as far as I was concerned. He thought he got the deal of the century and I got rid of items destined to go into the dumpster in any case.