Dial Cords& Springs, Cabbages & Kings

SBC- 
Please re-post in the proper section:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]  ADD: WTB as a prefix

Please add more info about yourself and your location.

I am looking for both dial pointers for the S38e. Can anyone point me to a source?

Cliff!

WOW! What luck, a link to a MITE manual...

I had two MITES a really nice one was loaned to a friend who promised to return it along with a full original manual about an 1" thick, that MITE had the extra speed gears screwed to the inside...

That friend promised to set aside the MITE with its book and place a note on it. He passed from Cancer and I have been unable to contact his heirs. They never see to answer the phone or are at home.

I still have the one MITE somewhat more beat-up with on the 45.45 baud gears installed..

Both MITES were a gift from another friend who was a TTY technician amongst many other occupations. So the mites were fully operational, that was in '85.

There is still very much going on with machine RTTY. Also possible to copy news on a web reflector see Teletype help  

Chas

Aside from cartoons etc., I remember a number of years ago, some guys took the basket of chad and emptied it down the vents of a work mate's van as a joke. I guess when he turned on the blower to clear his windshield, he got a lot more than air.   He was telling us that for months after that, he would still get the odd piece flying out of the vent.

During the day we used to get pictures printouts of cartoons or pictures of presidents and of course nudes. For those who don't know about teletype, when a picture was made it consisted of
a lot of ( X's and > and .  ) on paper that sometimes they Scotch-taped together, Oh yes Calender's also.

Of course when running the paper tape printers, to make test tape's we had tons of chad. that were dropped into square metal boxes installed below the tape readers, we filled up many a trash cans with printer paper and Chad paper.

During the time I was in the Teletype section they were happy to get a very compact teletype machine AN/TGC-14(V) Teletypewriter (often referred to as the "MITE" or "MIGHTY MITE"), it could churn out messages for 60, 75, and 100 words per minute. it was supplied with speed-change gears for  45, 50, and 75 baud, compatible with 60, 75, and 100 words per minute respectively.
The signal code developed by a keyboard is the standard five-level, 7. 42 unit for
the AN/TGC-14(V) and 7. 0 unit for the AN/TGC-14A(V), Baudot teletypewriter codeat 100w.p.m. but they found out that since they were made up of a lot of plastic parts including the gears they wouldn't hold up. So the Navy got rid of them. And with that a ton of springs and other parts.

You could look for the PDF manuals on line. click Here.

I didn't know Walmart had a hobby section   I have to try and find it next time I'm there...

Ants, carpenter ants, getting onto the service drop because of an overgrown tree across the street. It was a nuisance for the fellows doing roofing on my home a few years ago...

They put Hot Sauce on the service drop at my home, ants ceased to be a problem...

Tree service was at the same pole two days ago, trimmed away some 10 years of overgrowth...

I have a model 19 Teletype still serviceable but has not been on the air for years. I bought all the tools scales and spring picks in a tool case to service it...

I had, maybe still do, a service tape in the form of a naughty joke, that included timely bell ringing and rapid fig/letters

Frank, if you would like to move on the Teletype manuals take a look at GREENKEYS

Chas

FrankB wrote:

great info. Thanks.
 I still have several of the original Teletype manuals in the garage. More of a curiosity now though.
Original TTY binders too!
Wish I had saved that old KSR88 I had. Clack, clack, clack,clack.

I remember 9 teletypes all going at the same time for hours on end after they were repaired and refurbished.
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs back 1234567890 times"  <-- Just like this.
Model 33s

OH forgot to Show the Link for Dial stringing manual. So Here it is.

Click Here


here's A VISUAL ON DIAL STRINGING

CLICK HERE


and here's A VIDEO


CLICK HERE

great info. Thanks.
 I still have several of the original Teletype manuals in the garage. More of a curiosity now though.
Original TTY binders too!
Wish I had saved that old KSR88 I had. Clack, clack, clack,clack.

Used to be able to get Spring hooks from Harbor Freight, Don't know but Ill betcha they still carry um.
When i worked in our Teletype shop they had a gazillion different springs and spring tool's. Of course today most Millennial's would ask whats a Teletype?  I did find Some very fine Stainless Steel braided wire that was very flexible at Walmart in the Hobby Section (Think bead-making) it wasn't much thicker than [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Gage and very flexible and could be used for Dial cord. I wasn't looking for spring hooks there, so I dont know if they carried them or not. they also have wonderful tiny wire cutters and tiny needle nose pliers and of course both aluminum and copper wire.

I bought some and used it for hanging my Hummingbird feeder. You ask why? because the wire is so small that ants had a hard time climbing up and down it. So some determined ones wouldn't give up trying. so I added a couple of daub's of Vaseline. Hah! it worked!

I wonder if Hobby stores would sell springs and cord?

Our local Hardware store (ACE) carries a lot of springs that have loop ends the same size as dial springs.
Another thing is (if you didn't know), Sam's has a dial cord stringing book (PDF) for free on the WEB.

Thanks for the info Chas.
 Even though we are here on Puget Sound, the stores just don't carry that Cuttyhunk line anymore.
 I get such blank looks, even from Cabellas & Bass Pros.

Dial cord is not a problem here. Have Julius Koch, that have braiders that make all kinds of braided cord for blinds, etc. New Bedford is a fishing port, there is all the line one can use.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Oh, Cuttyhunk Island is about 12 miles south from me... Part of the Elizabethan Islands.

Hardened wire or spring wire is also known as music wire. In larger gages it can be very dangerous to work with. Can be found in most local industrial supply distributors, McMaster-Carr. I get my P.C. board tools and picks from Techni-Tool. Agreed, the 1/2 mm tool is great for carefully enlarging P.C. board hole but care must be taken not damage an internal via in multi-layer boards.

I have not had the need for bronze braided tuning dial cable, yet.
YMMV

Chas

Dial cord is becoming a  hard to find item these days. There must have been at least 6-8 different diameters I had to deal with, and several colors. The Sony micro-diameter cord as I called it was only available from them.
 Most of the radios you will run into use a med thick cord. Some places do have it, but it can be really costly- up to $2.00/ft!.  :evil:

I was rummaging thru my fishing stuff I inherited from my day and ran into 2 mostly full reels of what we called "Cuttyhunk" line. It was likely a cotton /nylon mix. Doubt it was very strong though, as we only used it for halibut fishing.
 It came in a nice green color, but I have also seen it in red, blue & yellow.
 Turns out it was the identical diameter to one very common size of dial cord. A test was made and it worked just fine, even though its over 50 years old. That old radio pointer moved just great.
 I went on the prowl at the local stores for new Cuttyhunk, and the sales drones had never even heard of it.
(What do salespeople in the fishing department do for education? They never heard of ferrel cement, replacement eyes, silk thread, ferrels,  Banana oil, etc- or anyone ever making fishing poles from scratch. Truely sad.... And I live in a saltwater fishing area to boot!).

So after 10-12 stores I found what they call today"cod line". Basically it appears the same as Cuttyhunk line. Orange in color and appears to work the same as Cuttyhunk for dial cords.

Ok 1 possible problem solved.

 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]:
Replacing springs & belts in tape recorders, radios and such can be a true test of patience, and the strength of that concrete pillar that you keep pounding your head on. Well...

 I looked for a spring hook for a long time. Finally finding them at a typewriter repair parts store in either Seattle or Portland in about the early 70's- When they actually fixed manual typewriters. They cost about $20-30.00 each. Well, that was a really tidy sum back then for 1 tool, and they made several different configurations and sizes of them.
 Being churchmouse poor at the time I looked carefully at them.

 Basically spring steel rod with different bends and points on the end.

 Hmmm, I though... springy steel- Eureka! The old black metal clothes hangers were free all over & they were a poor grade of spring steel, but cheap! (The newer mustard colored ones are typically thinner and a much poorer grade of metal).

 So a pair of cutters, a grinder and a forge later (What? Doesn't everyone have a forge? Sheesh... OK so use your propane torch); I created an entire set of variously different configured spring hooks and picks & prods. I tempered them in some old motor oil, and sanded the burned paint off. A shot of spray paint & they looked nice.

 I put them in my tool box and a few sessions of bleeding later (Yeah, they were REALLY sharply pointed! ). Adhesive bandages & alcohol swabs are a good item to have in it too.

   I found storing them in a paper towel cardboard center tube with a rag in each end really prevented me perforating myself. Eventually I used PVC pipe scraps and end caps. MUCH safer.

 Not only did they work great for "re-springing" stuff, but they also worked fantastic for replacing belts, and were of great help in removing "C" & "E" spring clips. 

 They sure made restringing dial cord and belt replacement- especially in VCR's much easier & faster. (Again, I mention some of the pointe were REALLY sharp).

Total cost of my home brew set was $0.00 Yup. I had everything. 
  NOTE:
If you make a set of these  don't drop one of the really pointy ones on the top of your foot  They go through the tennis shoe canvas nicely and skewer the top of your foot quite well.  
 I am not responsible for any injuries you incur. I am not your keeper or Mother.
 Keep out of the reach of children and idiots that think its fun to play "darts" with the really pointy ended ones. 
  Do not forget and leave a bent sharp ended one on your shop stool seat either. At that "point"  it can become a real Pain In The ... .
 (Yeah- I had to get a double entendre in there someplace....)

Oh, and putting a wooden dowel on the end of one of the really pointy ended ones makes a great tool to clean out PC board holes too. A miniature awl so to speak.