beeswax in an oscillator compartment
 

I posted a few days ago about repairing a VHF marine radio. Thankfully I
solved my problem, locating three cold solder joints in the VCO, which
entailed removing metal shields and all the beeswax that coated all the
components. That was character building work!

I gather the beeswax is to ensure rigid components to maintain stability
of the oscillator? Any other reasons for it? Is it necessary for me to
remelt the old wax and spread it around as before, or can I get away with
just reshielding the VCO?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Larry VE7EA

--
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"Larry Gagnon" wrote in message
om...
I posted a few days ago about repairing a VHF marine radio. Thankfully I
solved my problem, locating three cold solder joints in the VCO, which
entailed removing metal shields and all the beeswax that coated all the
components. That was character building work!

I gather the beeswax is to ensure rigid components to maintain stability
of the oscillator? Any other reasons for it? Is it necessary for me to
remelt the old wax and spread it around as before, or can I get away with
just reshielding the VCO?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Larry VE7EA


Larry -

Beeswax and encapsulation seemed to be the fad for the Japanese mfg. in the
early 1980s. I have heard various reasons, but mobile operation (with
potential bouncing and jarring) is often mentioned.
Kenwood amateur gear had some noted PLL problems with their encapsulation
materials of that period -- although they were not the only mfg. using this
method.

I am curious to know the age of the transceiver and mfg.

Greg
w9gb

"Larry Gagnon" wrote in message
om...
I posted a few days ago about repairing a VHF marine radio. Thankfully I
solved my problem, locating three cold solder joints in the VCO, which
entailed removing metal shields and all the beeswax that coated all the
components. That was character building work!

I gather the beeswax is to ensure rigid components to maintain stability
of the oscillator? Any other reasons for it? Is it necessary for me to
remelt the old wax and spread it around as before, or can I get away with
just reshielding the VCO?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Beeswax has been used for securing the windings on toroids.

73, Leon

Beeswax has been used for securing the windings on toroids.

According to my boss in the late '60s and
early '70s,W.T.G. Glasspool (would you
guess he was British?), beeswax was widely
used in the past to secure coil windings,
seal slugs in the cores of forms and
transformers, etc.. Apparently it doesn't
reduce the "Q" too much, and was readily
available in those days.

73, John - K6QQ

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:21:28 -0800, Larry Gagnon
wrote:

I posted a few days ago about repairing a VHF marine radio. Thankfully I
solved my problem, locating three cold solder joints in the VCO, which
entailed removing metal shields and all the beeswax that coated all the
components. That was character building work!

I gather the beeswax is to ensure rigid components to maintain stability
of the oscillator? Any other reasons for it? Is it necessary for me to
remelt the old wax and spread it around as before, or can I get away with
just reshielding the VCO?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Larry VE7EA

Go ahead and remelt it. We always did when I used to work in Midland's Service
department back in the 70's. Never caused a problem.

Hi,

According to my boss in the late '60s and
early '70s,W.T.G. Glasspool (would you
guess he was British?), beeswax was widely
used in the past to secure coil windings,
seal slugs in the cores of forms and
transformers, etc.. Apparently it doesn't
reduce the "Q" too much, and was readily
available in those days.

73, John - K6QQ

I purchased some here in the UK from a local craft shop quite
recently. It is an excellent material for holding things together
as long as the temperature doesn't get too high and IMHO makes a
neater job than hot-melt for holding small items onto a PCB. The
trick is to keep an old iron bit especially for the job (and also
for starting holes in plastic boxes.) The stuff I got is in the
form of small beads and so very easily handled with a pin.

The wax in that VCO, BTW, is anti-microphonic in purpose and
definitely should be re-melted. This is particularly important if
the loudspeaker is in the same cabinet with the radio.


Cheers - Joe, G3LLV

"Larry Gagnon" wrote in message
om...
I posted a few days ago about repairing a VHF marine radio. Thankfully I
solved my problem, locating three cold solder joints in the VCO, which
entailed removing metal shields and all the beeswax that coated all the
components. That was character building work!

I gather the beeswax is to ensure rigid components to maintain stability
of the oscillator? Any other reasons for it? Is it necessary for me to
remelt the old wax and spread it around as before, or can I get away with
just reshielding the VCO?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Larry VE7EA

--
Beeswax goes back the the 1930s USA designed radios too.
In common radio design use since then.
It is excellent as it has a high melting point (for waxes).
Just put some it back on, it keeps the coils/wires stationary.
You should only need a line on both sides of the coil.

In article , "Chuckie"
writes:

"Larry Gagnon" wrote in message
news:pan.2004.12.15.21.21.27.858623@fakeuniserve. com...
I posted a few days ago about repairing a VHF marine radio. Thankfully I
solved my problem, locating three cold solder joints in the VCO, which
entailed removing metal shields and all the beeswax that coated all the
components. That was character building work!

I gather the beeswax is to ensure rigid components to maintain stability
of the oscillator? Any other reasons for it? Is it necessary for me to
remelt the old wax and spread it around as before, or can I get away with
just reshielding the VCO?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Larry VE7EA

--
Beeswax goes back the the 1930s USA designed radios too.
In common radio design use since then.
It is excellent as it has a high melting point (for waxes).
Just put some it back on, it keeps the coils/wires stationary.
You should only need a line on both sides of the coil.

Quite true on old-time radio production, but primarily for the
lower-cost "consumer" type models.

The wax isn't from bees, but rather from other sources and is
usually called "ceresin wax." Pours easily when hot, stays hot
enough for a quick brushing-on. Unfortunately, hot spots in old
tube/valve equipment lets the wax soften and it sometimes dribbles
off and quits holding what it was supposed to hold.

O-T story: Back in 1956 when I was new to WREX-TV and on
midnight maintenance shift, I was supposed to align the air
monitor scope that sampled the transmitter output signal. The
video response was way off judging by the sync signal appearance.
Cause was the peaking coils of the internal tube video amplifier. An
hour spent with a video sweep generator and a hot iron brought the
peaking coils (pie-wound inductors sliding on 1 Watt resistor bodies)
into a good, flat video response. Early day shift complained long and
loud about "the air monitor doesn't work!" It showed the correct
waveform, not the one they were used to! :-) [nobody had been able
to fix it before and all it took was to move the coils slightly to adjust
their inductance]

There's nothing special about the wax. It was a convenience to use
in production, quick, easy-to-use and cheap. To do a good hold on
things like inductors, I would recommend the "spar varnish" kind of
varnish (made from pretroleum distilates, not the urethane type). One
example of that is McCloskey "Gym Seal" intended for hard-use
floor finishing and found in lumber yards and do-it-yourself stores.
Varnish needs to cure overnight to be effective, doesn't drop Q any
more than the polystyrene "Q Dope" (which will lose its holding power
because of moisture breaking the bond to the work), and holds on
infinitum (also known as at least 30 years based on my experience).

"Avery Fineman" wrote in message
...
In article , "Chuckie"
writes:

"Larry Gagnon" wrote in message
news:pan.2004.12.15.21.21.27.858623@fakeuniserve. com...
I posted a few days ago about repairing a VHF marine radio. Thankfully
I
solved my problem, locating three cold solder joints in the VCO, which
entailed removing metal shields and all the beeswax that coated all the
components. That was character building work!

I gather the beeswax is to ensure rigid components to maintain
stability
of the oscillator? Any other reasons for it? Is it necessary for me to
remelt the old wax and spread it around as before, or can I get away
with
just reshielding the VCO?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Larry VE7EA

--
Beeswax goes back the the 1930s USA designed radios too.
In common radio design use since then.
It is excellent as it has a high melting point (for waxes).
Just put some it back on, it keeps the coils/wires stationary.
You should only need a line on both sides of the coil.

Quite true on old-time radio production, but primarily for the
lower-cost "consumer" type models.

The wax isn't from bees, but rather from other sources and is
usually called "ceresin wax." Pours easily when hot, stays hot
enough for a quick brushing-on. Unfortunately, hot spots in old
tube/valve equipment lets the wax soften and it sometimes dribbles
off and quits holding what it was supposed to hold.

O-T story: Back in 1956 when I was new to WREX-TV and on
midnight maintenance shift, I was supposed to align the air
monitor scope that sampled the transmitter output signal. The
video response was way off judging by the sync signal appearance.
Cause was the peaking coils of the internal tube video amplifier. An
hour spent with a video sweep generator and a hot iron brought the
peaking coils (pie-wound inductors sliding on 1 Watt resistor bodies)
into a good, flat video response. Early day shift complained long and
loud about "the air monitor doesn't work!" It showed the correct
waveform, not the one they were used to! :-) [nobody had been able
to fix it before and all it took was to move the coils slightly to
adjust
their inductance]

There's nothing special about the wax. It was a convenience to use
in production, quick, easy-to-use and cheap. To do a good hold on
things like inductors, I would recommend the "spar varnish" kind of
varnish (made from pretroleum distilates, not the urethane type). One
example of that is McCloskey "Gym Seal" intended for hard-use
floor finishing and found in lumber yards and do-it-yourself stores.
Varnish needs to cure overnight to be effective, doesn't drop Q any
more than the polystyrene "Q Dope" (which will lose its holding power
because of moisture breaking the bond to the work), and holds on
infinitum (also known as at least 30 years based on my experience).



Remember "fish-paper"? used that in a early 1980 moto radio design.
I know the type of wax you are talking about, harder and a little darker
than beeswax.

Actually, the beeswax is a natural byproduct of 30 hertz oscillators.
Always wear gloves before opening!

:)

The Eternal Squire

Chuckie wrote:
"Larry Gagnon" wrote in message
om...

I posted a few days ago about repairing a VHF marine radio. Thankfully I
solved my problem, locating three cold solder joints in the VCO, which
entailed removing metal shields and all the beeswax that coated all the
components. That was character building work!

I gather the beeswax is to ensure rigid components to maintain stability
of the oscillator? Any other reasons for it? Is it necessary for me to
remelt the old wax and spread it around as before, or can I get away with
just reshielding the VCO?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Larry VE7EA

--

Beeswax goes back the the 1930s USA designed radios too.
In common radio design use since then.
It is excellent as it has a high melting point (for waxes).
Just put some it back on, it keeps the coils/wires stationary.
You should only need a line on both sides of the coil.