So, I am now hopelessly sidetracked as I pursue my mania of renovating a complete "glowbug test suite" to equip my workshop. Definitely *over*equipped considering that I haven't built any of my planned receivers or transmitters yet. But I'm having masses of fun along the way and couldn't have done it without all the help I've been getting on this forum. The pictures are here:
http://tinyurl.com/7xqnnrs--Eico 232 VTVM. This one was a horrible mess when I bought it on eBay for $12, there was battery acid all over the chassis and the original battery was still there (probably about the same vintage as the meter, which is dated June 1962). The renovation is now complete and I'm very proud of this one. Completely disassembled the unit, cleaned off all the acid and sanded the chassis, rebuilt the corroded battery holder and installed a new shoulder washer, replaced the power cord, replaced all the capacitors, rewired the rest of the unit, found a NOS Uniprobe and a new set of probe leads, replaced the original "solder blob" probe connector with a BNC, added a "period style" neon lamp to fill up a hole in the front panel that had been drilled by a previous owner, cleaned all the switches with DeOxit and recalibrated the unit. It even worked first time I switched it on! Not bad, given that it was more or less the first time I'd picked up a soldering iron in 40 years.
--Eico 710 GDO. Again, this was a big mess but at least all the coils were intact. Otherwise, the meter face was broken, the perspex dial face had come unglued and had gunk all over it, the dial mechanism was jammed, the switches didn't match and the power cord was shorted. Found a second GDO, same model and in even worse shape, but between the two I was able to build one complete unit. Now enjoy "dipping" tuned circuits that I build at random, and annoying the XYL by "beating" with her Red Sox AM sports radio broadcasts.
--Eico 460 Oscilloscope. I obtained this despite strenuous advice from my betters, all of whom said to avoid this vintage of 'scope, just not worth the trouble. Sure enough, it was broken (no horizontal deflection) but after cleaning the Sweep switch, this problem was solved. Otherwise haven't done anything yet. There is a big pool of melted capacitor wax on the bottom of the case and a previous owner has made odd modifications, basically disconnecting various parts of the circuit and leaving the components "stranded" without replacing them with modern equivalents. I measured the resistances at various points and they are often very different from the test chart in the Eico manual. I am amazed that the unit works at all. Indeed it works "well" enough that I have already managed to learn quite a lot of hands-on things about how 'scopes work and how to use them. I am looking forward to doing a complete renovation.
--Eico 488 Electronic Switch. This one seems to be working OK, and I was able to turn my crude 'scope into the poor man's version of a "dual trace" unit (see photos). Won't really know how well calibrated it is until I have a properly repaired and calibrated 'scope.
--Eico 315 RF signal generator. I have disassembled this, cleaned the panel and chassis, and stripped the chipped paint from the dial bezel then resprayed with black gloss. This thing has a beautiful copper plated chassis and a huge dial (10.5" x 7") with an additional, separate vernier in the center. Very nice. Next, I will replace all the capacitors and clean up some of the cold joints but otherwise it is in pretty good shape. It is unusual in that it goes all the way down to 75 kHz (most sig-gens from this era bottom out at around 150 kHz) -- useful for aligning sets with a low IF of 85 kHz or 50 kHz.
73s and many thanks to all of you who have been helping me along the way.
Martin, KB1WSY
