Rotating Table

Neil, my dad, a war time Radar Mechanic with the RNZAF in UK, and after the war a radio technition with the NZ Broadcasting Service, had as his first method of rectifying a fault, HIT IT hard, it seemed to work on the old valve radio gear. Ian S C

Simliar pedigree to my paternal grandfather. Radio/sonar operator on K-class and a number of battleships, teaching radar at Cranfield then selling/repairing TVs as a civvy. Dad was in the RE then went into his dad's business.

With HT and plated contacts a bit of vibration was probably enough to re-make contact in a valveholder.

Not all faults were as simple. My dad used to get alled round by an old lady who rented a TV to re-wire it. She used to put it in the (empty) bath in case Ted Heath tried to climb out and molest her.

He got fed up of this and had to retereat backwards from her flat using the TV to fend her off as she went after it with an axe. If I recall correctly he escaped with some assistance from the postie.

Just goes to show you can't trust politicians

Neil

I have found that electronic equipment can often be "repaired" by unplugging and simply replugging circuit boards and multi pin plugs. I found that on many occasions a diagnosis would be made and a board exchanged for a spare but when the faulty board was tested by reinstalling it was Ok. Despite having gold plated connections atmospheric pollution is able to force the connections apart creating a fault, the removal and replacement wipes the connection clean and normal service is restored. A soft pencil eraser is excellent for cleaning edge connectors. Pollution also causes problems with relays and contactors carrying low voltage low current signals. The uninitiated are amazed when a thump on a control panel chassis fixes a fault, this is usually followed by replacement at the next maintenance opportunity.

Mike

I used brake and clutch cleaner to do a fine job on the noisy volume pots of a guitar the other day.

Neil

My old PC on windows 95 some times comes to a stop, to get it going again, lift the front of the box about 2" to 3", and let it drop, and away it goes again. Ian S C