Photo-Genic

I had to say a sad farewell to my Sharp 9292 boombox the other day, things being what they are and money being tight, he had to go.

A few years ago, I had fully stripped and cleaned it, replaced the motor, replaced the belts, made new idlers and various other bits and pieces on the lathe and even managed to source a new record play head. Everything was perfect. Still, it went to a person who really does appreciate it so I’m not so sad about that. Farewell my outrageous friend.

This poor little radio has been lurking about for years and years at the back of the bench waiting for me to do something about it.

All stripped down and amp board recapped.

Top plate all polished up and shiny again.

Some protective strips to help stop the top display from being damaged.

And for now, that will have to be it, as sadly the country has gone back into lockdown for another month. I’ll have to see how things go, but hopefully the restrictions will be lifted enough for me to visit the workshop a few more times and finish this off before Christmas.

So it’s now been a few weeks since my Pro Canon 1DX series camera body died and I’m still reeling over the loss. Yes, I know it’s just a camera body, yes I get it, however this is no cheap and cheerful point-and-shoot camera, this was a professional £5000+ camera body, which I’m hardly ever likely to be able to afford again.

I wouldn’t mind, but this isn’t the first time, a professional piece of Canon equipment, has failed on me, only a few months ago, my EF28-300L series lens also decided to die, and proceeding that my Canon 1V film camera also died as well, and was unrepairable due to the fact that it was 1 year old.

To top that off I also have other 1 series cameras, which have also failed in various ways.

I wouldn’t mind, but I wrap all of the equipment in microfibre cloths and all of it is in mint condition.

Add to the fact that it’s nearly £1000 inspection fee to look at the camera and you realise that if you buy any digital camera from Canon it’s already written off before you turn it on.

This is frankly unacceptable, and Canons response is they just don’t give a shit, go buy another camera.

They are currently brainwashing everyone who’ll listen to throw away all of your current camera equipment and buy a ‘shit ton’ of mirrorless crap, because you can’t possibly take a photo with a camera containing a mirror, as the entire universe will implode.

It works out that every single photograph I have taken with the 1DX series costs approximately £1.50 per photo, so I’ve decided to take the bold move to go back to film, as it’s substantially cheaper. I now have a little Canon A1, and a handful of second-hand manual lenses, plus a Canon EOS 1n to use with the EF lenses I still have that work. 😛

To be honest, I’ve had a blast. B&W film, developing said film at home, trying lenses that cost no more that a tenner, sometimes less than a fiver and not worrying that the whole lot is going to suddenly disappear into a black hole.

Yes, yes, I can hear you scream at the monitor, “But you’re still using Canon equipment” well, after decades of faithful ownership, I have a fair amount of nice legacy equipment. I’m not yet at the point of just abandoning the whole lot in a fit of temper. That would be financially irresponsible.

No, I will use what I have and use it well. I will of course, keep an eye out for a second hand digital body, but it would have to be damn cheap. In the mean time I’ve dug out a couple of point and shoot jobbies for the odd bit of video now and then and shoot film until my anger subsides.

Canon’s lack of any kind of empathy, is honestly what surprises me. I have a Gold level of CPS ownership, and it means absolutely bloody nothing. The money grabbing bastards.

If you’re reading this, go and buy a Nikon camera, the display’s are a unreadable mess, but it will probably work in twenty years, the Canon equipment will all be in landfill.

Yours, mister grumpy bastard.

Apologies for this post being so late, various things going wrong but worst of all, my favourite Canon video and stills camera decided to die so I had to use my iPhone to finish off this video.

Not the best of starts.

Enjoy. 🙂

A nice old 1947 classic typewriter today.

The base is cleaning up nicely, the lid will get the clean and polish treatment later as well.

And the final result, (it’s behind glass, which is why there are ghostly images in front) Re-inked and serviced. It actually is quite nice to use, which is a surprise to me. I’m quite fond of it, but I can’t keep everything. 😀

Technics SL-PG490 CD player first, this one just needed a quick alignment and clean.

Sorry about the poor quality photos as I had to grab these from the video.

Next up is the Denon.

This one needed the headphones buying control pot cleaning, as well as the usual cleaning and calibration.

That’s it for today.

Well, it is, and it isn’t, this is the updated version of the original.

Not bad though, it almost had me fooled when I saw it.

Time to whip the back off and start cleaning it up.

Nicely laid out.

I need to remove the front grille which has seen better days. Just bend back these tabs.

A quick sand and ready for spraying.

All done.

Back in the cabinet.

Final clean up screw back together and polish.

Electronics wise it is working perfectly and has a rather pleasing sound. Now it’s all shiny and new looking it can go in the window for sale.

Another nice and easy repair.

I’m starting work on the box full of radios I bought a few weeks ago.

All sorts and kinds of radios.

See if you can spot the problem with this one ;P

Just some of the finished ones.

This one is a bit tired and doesn’t fast forward or rewind. Play isn’t great either.

To get to the mechanism I need to remove the circuit boards first.

The bits I need to get to are behind here, so almost there, one more board and the capstan thrust plate to go.

Lots of old grease and some worn out rubber.

The part that needs to be replaced is this rubber ring.

Since parts are no longer available for this cassette deck, I had to improvise using an o-ring from an o-ring set. It worked out quite well.

With new belts and a new idler the deck was now working but the playback was distorted and blown out in one channel, this was sorted by cleaning the REC/PLAY switch and the level controls with contact cleaner. A final check for speed accuracy and correct record and playback, and the deck was given back to the customer.

Hello and welcome to todays vintage technology workshop.

On the bench today is a little orange pocket radio.

Now I can hear some of you saying, “well, what’s the point in spending time on that”. Well, I have fond memories of listening to radio comedies on one of these little noise boxes when I was little, so there is a certain level of nostalgia fuelling this repair, plus there’s the whole “why not” point of view.

All radio’s need love.

All these little radios seem to conform to the same basic design, and they were everywhere in the seventies and eighties. I had one of the black ones and really wanted a green one but never managed to get hold of one.

Here you see me going through the motions, faultfinding the radio and measuring things along the way.

The lighting changes a little during the video, as this is because it is spanned between the two workshops one and two, so you’ll notice the test equipment change as well.

This is purely because of time constraints and other work coming in taking precedence where necessary.

It’s the first video of mine with multiple camera angles too. Fun.

I’ve tried to reference the American and English descriptions of various parts of this radio to make sure I don’t leave anybody out, so apologies if it’s somewhat confusing at times.