BC-610H To Begin Restoration

[n2len]

Hello Everyone,
I just picked up this weekend the beautiful donated gift of a BC-610H.
Even though I missed Dayton this week, for me this topped any Dayton trip!
I wanted to query anyone here on the forum who went through the process of restoration with any information to share.
I needed to make 2 trips for complete pickup. Presently the Power Supply Deck and the Mod Deck was removed to make transit easier. The transmitter needed to be somewhat disassembled to make transit easier down a long flight of wooden steps.
I rented a heavy duty hand truck with straps to move the power supply deck. For some reason I thought it was heavier, but 2 people easily removed it out the back of my Excursion into the garage and placed on 2X4's.
Anyway, I only began cleaning out the dust, and wiping down each assembly.
This beast is quite clean, only a little amount of surface rust on the bottom of the cabinet where it meets the Dollie. It was stored in a dry environment for many years unused.

All of the tubes were removed and wrapped in newspaper and stored in a box since the early 80's. I have 3 tuning units. (2 of which suffered from some surface rust on the sides.) I also have 3 Coil units. I haven't unwrapped any of the tubes yet and have not inventoried any of the remaining parts in that box.

I want to first continue the clean up of dust and dirt.
I love the fact that everything is so spread out with a ton of room.
So my first question is:
Will the front cabinet pull apart enough without complete dissemble?
I want to continue cleaning the back of front panel.
Or should I remove the RF deck?

I have been contemplating a complete disassemble, in order to fully wash the metal cabinet.

Some far off ideas...
Can I excite with the VFO from my 101E?
Whats the best setup for use in the Am window?

Here is another question I have been wanting to ask for sometime. I usually use denatured alcohol to clean everything. Anyone have suggestions on how to properly clean the glass of a tube without removing the labeling?
I just have been wiping everything and carefully avoiding the labeling.

Tonight, a rainy evening will be skimming through the Tech manual, becoming quarantined with the internals.

Thanks,
Len N2LEN

I will post some pics to show my initial progress...

[n2len]

Some initial pics....

[KD0HUX]

TAKE YOUR TIME AND GOOD LUCK

[WA1GFZ]

W1CKI is a good source of information. He builds tank coils for different bands.

[n2len]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated....

[K3YA]

Congratulations!  I'm sure that you'll have a lot of fun with that transmitter.

I've brought back 2 BC-610's from a long period of less then ideal storage.  A 610-F made by the Bogan company.  The "Bogan Commander 610" that I eventually traded for a 2M HT.  And a Halicrafters 610-I that I bought at Dayton about 10 years ago and still have on the air.  

The 'F' was disassembled but pretty clean.  I wiped off the dust, assembled it, and it ran fine with just a little cleaning of the relays and switches.  From what I've herd this is typical.  They usually are pretty easy to get running if everything is there.

The 'I' was not so pretty.  On the way home from Dayton I stopped in Home Depot and bought a couple 2X6 boards and 4 casters to put under the radio.  I lifted the transmitter out of the station wagon an dropped it right down on the quickly constructed dolly on which it still rests today.  Then I gave it a good wiping down with 409 followed by some Naptha.  I pulled off the panels, knobs, and meters. Wire brushed the loose rust.  Masked the lettering with small pieces of masking tape and gave the rig a light overspray with simi-gloss black paint.  When I pulled of the tape over the lettering, the rig looked like new. I never pulled the chassis out of this one.

About this time the wife comes out and asks me when I got home from Dayton.  I guess I was preoccupied with the new rig.

The 'I' was missing a few parts and took more work to get going, but overall it too was pretty easy to get running.  Clean the meter switch, and put a half drop of oil on all the control shafts, including the tuning units.  If you don't have the 614 speech amp you can drive the 2A3's through octal socket in the back.  They need a lot of drive voltage.  You also need to wire in a modulator cathode current meter.

I am currently using crystals for mine, but a Heathkit VF-1 works well and you can easily steel the necessary power for it from the 610.  



  

[n2len]

Thanks for the reply....

I love reading about acquisitions and restorations of similar gear. I am taking notes. So you removed everything from the front panel and simply masked the lettering and added a coat or semi-gloss black.

That is giving me some ideas on how to tackle the cosmetics.
I am hoping that the transmitter won't require much component replacement.

I only began wiping down the 3 decks, remove the caked on dust.
Did you do any prep work before you painted? Or just 409 and wire brush the loose rust?

Again thanks....
Len

[K3YA]

The memory is a bit rusty, but I didn't remove the switches, just covered them with tape.  I did remove the knobs and meters, some of which were missing already.  And I was careful to control the over spray.  As far as the rust, I may have applied a coat of "Rust Converter" over the worst areas, which were rather small.  Actually the couple rusty areas near the bottom had some crinkle like texture that looked OK after the new topcoat of paint.  The places where the crinkle was rubbed off, but some paint remained, are more noticeable. 

This was certainly a second class "restoration" but it looks pretty darn good considering the little time it took.  I rationalized that I could always go back later and sandblast the cabinet, repaint, and re-letter it if I want to do it right.   But I know I never will.

[Opcom]

Aha! That is a very nice example! A good cleaning may be all it needs. I see the 'rust' on the high voltage relay there, but it should clean off. I have the same relay in a 3000V circuit as the "modulation transformer shorting" relay and it was like that. It had the same appearance and some slight leakage, not carbon tracking or anything, before it got a good scrubbing with Scotchbrite and Xylene.

The modulator/power chassis has that dull 'dust of the ages' look that might be a little oxidation mixed with the dirt. What will you use to clean it, or is it just the camera flash that gives that appearance in the picture?

[n2len]

The denatured alcohol wasn't strong enough. So I switched to 409 which is usually what I use on dirty chassis.
I was concerned about using the 409 do to the varnish covering on each deck, but it turned out quite well.

Today's project was cleaning the chassis mod deck just to remove the caked on dust, grime and dirt.

Here are the pictures after using 409, a rag and some Q-Tips.

Can you give me some more specifics on how you cleaned the relay?

[K3YA]

That yellow coating is a preservative that the military put on some radio's.  Looks like it did a pretty good job.  It's cleaning up very nicely.

For relays, I clean the contacts with cardboard, or if pitted 600 wet/dry sandpaper, or if really bad a jewelers file.  It's more important on relays that switch low voltages.  In some cases I have lubricated the pivots with a little grease or oil so they work smoothy, but oil traps dust and I'm not sure if that's considered a good idea or not.  I cleaned the meter switch with TV tuner cleaner, but mine is still a little flaky sometimes.

If you are going to over-spray the outside, naphtha from the hardware store is a mild degreaser to use before paint.

[Opcom]

Much of the relay cleaning, on that relay, was like buffing the light surface rust off the little brads etc, using xylene and M.E.K. because I did not have alcohol on hand. I think alcohol would have done as well. I see in the picture of your relay that it looks like some kind of brownish coating over the little brads. on mine there was no coating and they were oxidized. It was by 'elbow grease' although more like 'finger grease' applying lots of pressure to the scotchbrite and working in a circular motion. The metal strips holding the contacts were cleaned up the same way. the contacts were cleaned with scotchbrite and some of that 'silverware cleaner' I forget what kind, and then thoroughly washed with solvent to remove any residue because I was afraid it might eat whatever plating was on the contacts. Finally the contacts were pressed together with paper in between and the paper pulled through to sort of polish them. I also cleaned the fiber-ceramic 'plate' that carries the contact strips with the solvent and scrubbed it to get all the dirt off and make sure it would not conduct. The coil, I do not recall but I am sure I wiped it off with something and dried it. That's all I really remember about it as it was a few years ago, and this is how I clean, or try to clean, most of the filthy old relays I want to re-use. I also have some 1-1-1 trichlorethane cleaner I like to use, but it is not available any more as far as I know.

[w1vtp]

I gotta say that BC610 is in amazingly good condition.  What a joy to see one of the old warriors survive the years this well.

Al

[n2len]

That yellow coating is a preservative that the military put on some radio's.  Looks like it did a pretty good job.  It's cleaning up very nicely.

For relays, I clean the contacts with cardboard, or if pitted 600 wet/dry sandpaper, or if really bad a jewelers file.  It's more important on relays that switch low voltages.  In some cases I have lubricated the pivots with a little grease or oil so they work smoothy, but oil traps dust and I'm not sure if that's considered a good idea or not.  I cleaned the meter switch with TV tuner cleaner, but mine is still a little flaky sometimes.

If you are going to over-spray the outside, naphtha from the hardware store is a mild degreaser to use before paint.

I removed the relay to simply clean the chassis under it. Looking at it closely, it seems as though the contacts will clean up easily. One thing that I don't like doing is dismantling a relay, however my experience with relays were much smaller in size. This looks pretty easy. So maybe that will be tomorrows task.

I see you use TV tuner cleaner, Does anyone use Deoxit with with the older stuff for switches? Recommendations?

Regarding the PA Tank tuning capacitor, what can you use to clean it?

[n2len]

Much of the relay cleaning, on that relay, was like buffing the light surface rust off the little brads etc, using xylene and M.E.K. because I did not have alcohol on hand. I think alcohol would have done as well. I see in the picture of your relay that it looks like some kind of brownish coating over the little brads. on mine there was no coating and they were oxidized. It was by 'elbow grease' although more like 'finger grease' applying lots of pressure to the scotchbrite and working in a circular motion. The metal strips holding the contacts were cleaned up the same way. the contacts were cleaned with scotchbrite and some of that 'silverware cleaner' I forget what kind, and then thoroughly washed with solvent to remove any residue because I was afraid it might eat whatever plating was on the contacts. Finally the contacts were pressed together with paper in between and the paper pulled through to sort of polish them. I also cleaned the fiber-ceramic 'plate' that carries the contact strips with the solvent and scrubbed it to get all the dirt off and make sure it would not conduct. The coil, I do not recall but I am sure I wiped it off with something and dried it. That's all I really remember about it as it was a few years ago, and this is how I clean, or try to clean, most of the filthy old relays I want to re-use. I also have some 1-1-1 trichlorethane cleaner I like to use, but it is not available any more as far as I know.

Thanks for the reply. When I removed the relay for cleaning of the chassis, I noticed that they slipped a washer between the bottom of the relay and each leg bolt. I'm sure it will clean up nicely, the contacts were not really worn at all.

[n2len]

I gotta say that BC610 is in amazingly good condition.  What a joy to see one of the old warriors survive the years this well.

Al

Thanks for the kind words AL,  I totally agree!

This was a super gift to receive and a pleasure to work on!

Would you believe this is my therapy?

Last night I watched the video on Your Tube:
In 1944, Hallicrafters teamed up with the US Army Signal Corp to produce this interesting training film called, "Hallicrafters: Voice of Victory".

What a blast!

[n2len]

After contemplating the removal of the front panel, that was today's project. Cleaning behind the front panel would have been quite difficult and I want to really inspect all panel connections.  Now that the panel is completely off, I think my next step will be removal of all the switches, meter assembly, etc. That will make scrubbing of the front panel much easier. I will then make a determination whether or not to simply treat the rusted areas, mask the lettering and respray or a complete sandblast/screen.  This will require copying the artwork which I don't have experience with.
In my own opinion, I would rather keep it as original as possible.

However, Your opinions on the next step are valued...

[The Slab Bacon]

Scrub the black wrinkle paint off well with a stiff bristled scrub brush and some good detergent and allow to dry well.

After it has dried, take a trip to your local Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealer and pick up a couple of cans of a product called "S-100 engine brightener", it is designed to breath new life into black wrinkle paint and faded black plastic surfaces. Spray down well and sit back. You'll be pleasently surprized! It's a bit pricey, but worth every penny!

(It works great on any wrinkle finish paint color)

[n2len]

Scrub the black wrinkle paint off well with a stiff bristled scrub brush and some good detergent and allow to dry well.

After it has dried, take a trip to your local Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealer and pick up a couple of cans of a product called "S-100 engine brightener", it is designed to breath new life into black wrinkle paint and faded black plastic surfaces. Spray down well and sit back. You'll be pleasently surprized! It's a bit pricey, but worth every penny!

(It works great on any wrinkle finish paint color)

Thanks for the reply...
Do you think I can get away with masking the lettering with tape and spray those areas lightly?

[The Slab Bacon]

No need to mask anything, it is clear. Just scrub gently on the lettering so you don't scrub it off.

[W2VW]

R.F. from the Yaesu exciter can be coupled to the 807 grids via a few turns around the grid coil in the tuning units. I unplugged the existing driver tube for the 807 pair. You can even get fancy and use one of the capacitors to tune the load near 50 ohms for ricer exciters.

Always watch out for spurs whenever making changes to one of these transmitters. Mine used to pick up about 50 mills extra plate current when I reduced drive below where I wanted it for grid current on the final. It had an extra carrier about 100 khz low when this happened. Neutralization of the final indicated an almost perfect grid current drop off either side of the plate dip.

[n2len]

OK, Continuing this afternoon, spent a couple of hours dismantling all the controls from the front face.

The Excitation meter removed easily with no de-soldering. However, the Plate and PA meter wiring will have to be de-soldered to fully remove.

Also the 2 operation lights will need to be de-soldered, and the 2 smaller glass fuse holders.
Each of the 3 large fuse holders wiring can be unscrewed and removed. IN order for the entire wiring harness to be removed, all of the de-soldering listed above will need to be done.

Even though I have many years experience with soldering, I don't feel to keen about re-heating the contacts and undoing the factory wiring, which is probably wrapped well around the contacts. Much heat can cause the contact to free it self internally. So I thought about sniping the cables.

Now that everything is pretty much loose, I am also thinking about leaving everything in tack, taping the light holders, 2 fuse holders, and taping each hole and cleaning/paint etc...that way. But the 2 other meters would have to be removed. So something has to be done to remove them. One looks like it will de-solder easily, the other and all the other parts will require unwrapping the factory wiring at each contact.

Thoughts?

[n2len]

All of the nuts and washers were just placed back on each control (so they wont get lost and the right nut will go with the correct part)

Actually the de-soldering I am concerned about, will be removing the 2 light sockets.

[Opcom]

What is the little steel pocket on the lower part of the front panel to be used for?

[W7TFO]

What is the little steel pocket on the lower part of the front panel to be used for?

The calibration chart for tuning.  AKA cheat sheet.

73GD