Beauties of the sixties

[Skogsgurra]

There's something about the fifties and the sixties.

Cars were monsters, but many of them were also beautiful. I happen to live in a district where lots of people restore old "Yankies" and meet to show them to each other and to the broad public. It is a feast for your eyes.

On another plane - but similar - there are the huge electronic instruments of those days. The HP, Tektronix, B&K and many other makes of instruments. Built with a certain engineering aestetics and also with a "cost is no objective" philosophy with a lot of attention to details.

I have always admired those monsters. They may actually have contributed to my deep interest and involvment in electronics. I now try to keep a modest collection of such instruments - my heart can't see them go to the scrap heap. But, most of them have deteriorated. Screws and knobs missing, scratches. Dirt and ink marks that still wait for the ultimate detergent. Dents and broken plastic details. In short, not so beautiful any more.

And then - I found this Tek 575! Untouched, in its original box, with its original manual. Not a single screw missing. No dents. No ink markings. Pristine! Happiness!!

I just wanted you all to know - and share.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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[zeitghost]

Does it work? )

 

[Skogsgurra]

YESS!

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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[ScottyUK]

Well, I've just bought an old Holbrook toolroom lathe which was built a long long time before I was born. It may well have been new around the time my father was an apprentice. It was certainly a brand familiar to him.

It is due to arrive here tomorrow. My wife has no concept of what I am so excited about but she is pleased for me anyway. It weighs roughly 2 tonnes; a modern Colchester of similar capacity weighs less than half that. It looks a little dated but the build quality is unmistakeable: a little piece of the engineering that once made England great. I can't wait to get it cleaned up and back to how it should look, then start using it.


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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...

 

[Skogsgurra]

My 575 weighs in at just above 30 kg. Poetry in glass, aluminium and steel plate!

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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[GregLocock]

I used to work on a Holbrook. 6 foot bed. Lovely old thing from a shipyard, I think we got it for 200 drinking vouchers.





Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[UcfSE]

I had to look up a Tek 575 (never heard of it). In the process I found this interesting site with old, very most cool-looking instruments and thought I'd share with people who have heard of them and know what they are. I sure don't

http://www.gifford.co.uk/~coredump/oldsad.htm

 

[ScottyUK]

Hi Greg,

It's a Model 13 type B, roughly 6.5" C.H and 40" B.C. The tailstock must weigh 60lb alone. The bed is about 15" deep along the full length; I guess castings were cheaper then. I got a full set of collets from .25" to 1" in sixteenths too.

http://www.emcoaustralia.com/2ndhand/pdf/20089.pdf

is a similar machine in your part of the world. The headstock is a little different - mine does not have the clutch lever at the right side of the headstock - and there are some detail changes to the saddle. I guess that is a slightly younger one. From the price Emco want for that machine I may have got a bargain.


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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...

 

[GregLocock]

Oh that's a baby ! Someone could probably make a living buying old but good machine tools in the UK and shipping them by the container load - we do seem to pay a lot for grot out here

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Skogsgurra]

That's a little more than my wife would love me to bring into the house. It is a beauty, though. And probably from the sixties. If you find any old transistors there, I can test them for free on my Tek 575! Brawn and brain takes on a new meaning...

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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[zeitghost]

People do make a living doing that Greg; after all someone just shipped an entire car production line from Birmingham to China....

 

[sreid]

I once delivered a Tektronics scope to be repaired (by Tektronics) and watched the scopes going through water baths to be cleaned before testing/repair. I cringed at first but clearly a good way to get rid of dust (and cigarette film, etc.).

 

[GregLocock]

Well I suppose you could say that it was a sort of stress test! I'd have cringed as well.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[unclesyd]

At one time I had a collection of Fathometers, fish finders, and Lorans, mostly from the 60's and 70's. I had one Loran in particular that I could relate to. It was one of the first to use a few transistors, along with a few glass tubes and the CRT. After we had used it couple of months we started getting intermittent service along with complete blanks on the screen. NO one locally would touch this Loran so I had to wait until a service man from New Orleans came over to service some other boats. After he checked it out he took the mother board our of the case carried it to the dock and proceeded to wash it down with a water hose. He shook it off and sprayed some dryer on the board and hooked it back up. It worked like a champ. The bill was $75 and I asked why so much. His answer was it was not the work but it was knowing what to do.

A good bath never hurt anybody or thing. We had to do this a few more times until the company came out with a new model with a tighter case.

 

[Skogsgurra]

My 575 will not need a bath for a long time. Hopefully not before Christmas. But, then, the whole family gets a bath...

I usually go first in the tub, then wife, then children. And after that stable-master, gardener and other domestiques. We probably have to change that and let the 575 go first - when water is clean.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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[danw2]

Do you know the history of the scope?

I'm curious as to how a scope from that era sat unused in its original carton?

Dan

 

[Skogsgurra]

Yes,

There is a school in the Swedish Navy (Berga Örlogsskolor) and they started a very ambitious project back in 1962 or 1963. This was during the coldest part of the cold war and Russia is right across the Baltic. So, cost was no concern. Lots of instruments were bought and course plans were set up.

It seems that someone bought "all" that could be had at that time. But the Tek 575 somehow never fit in the course plans and remained unused. The carton is rather dusty and with splashes of unknown origin, but the instrument, the accessories (transistor adapters) and the manual are in perfect condition. Mint.

I have powered it up. Those old instruments need to be woke up carefully. So I used a Variac to take voltage step by step over several hours. I have had bad experiences with electrolytic capacitors that didn't like being kicked wake after fourty+ years sleep and I try to avoid having aluminium foil all over the instrument.

It is a beuty. Even smells nice - that tube smell. Not dusty tube smell - just tube.

The base drive is a nice piece of engineering. Considering the technology available at that time. The "logic" is tube circuitry but the constant current drive stage has transistors. Tubes weren't a good choice when you need to deliver around 2.5 A DC.

No voltage "base drive". But, it is an easy matter to put a 1 kohms resistor parallel to the base drive and there you are! A voltage gate drive that goes all the way to around 12 V which is where the 15 V supply says enuff. So, I can run MOSFETs and IGBTs as well.

And - there's more - this instrument has the 1.5 kV option for break-down tests of diodes. Luvit!

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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[zeitghost]

You sound like a happy man... )

 

[ScottyUK]

My new toy appears to date from the early Fifties. The motors are by BTH, who ceased to exist in about 1958 when they were merged with Metropolitan Vickers to form AEI, ending the reign of the two greatest British electrical manufacturers. The headstock gears still have the marks from the manufacturer's grinder on the teeth, so it can not have worked hard for a living. It is in fairly good condition overall - I was up at 0630 on Saturday and spent all day stripping and cleaning it. I'm really disappointed that the main motor is 415V delta; my plan for an inverter running from 240V have been scuppered!


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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...

 

[Skogsgurra]

Congratulations!

It may be a good thing that you didnt connect that old motor to an inverter. The insulation systems were not up to PWM back in the fifties. If you want to run it off a VFD, make sure you put a good filter between VFD and motor. Or use a sinewave output inverter.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

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