"Life is like a play: It's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca
I've been missing a pretty vital piece of equipment for the electronics restoration hobby - a hobby which I haven't had time for recently anyway. That vital piece of equipment? A tube tester. I recently purchased an old-time suitcase vacuum tube tester. I've not had a chance to clean it up or put power to it yet - I'm still waiting on tractor parts at this point.
It's got a few paint spatters that need to be cleaned off of the controls, and the outside of the box could use a little finish work, but I'm sure this probably just got put away when everything moved to solid-state electronics. It probably won't work on some of the last miniature tubes manufactured, but it should be fine for what I intend to use it for - old 1930's radios.
2 comments:
I've got that old tube amplifier of dad's and it has a bunch of tubes in it. He never got around to constructing a top and back plate to cover the tubes. Figure it doesn't need a top or back with the heat it generates. Someday, when it's convenient to drive up there, I'll try and remember to bring it. Can use some help with the tubes and where each is supposed to go. And, of course, making sure the tubes work. I'm fairly certain they do but it has been a very long time since I powered it on. Don't recall dad having a tester for the tubes but imagine he probably had one in the shop at work. Nice post!
You should send me some pictures of that. It sounds awesome! Yep we can definitely go through it and make sure it's safe to power up after all these years. Fun project for sure!
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