Roy's on Stevens Avenue next to Pat's meat market in Portland, Maine can fix ya right up.
RANT: Why can't things be repaired anymore!?
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Roy's on Stevens Avenue next to Pat's meat market in Portland, Maine can fix ya right up.
heat seeker
Minister of Fire
heat seeker
Minister of Fire
Those 12AT7 's were always in need of friendly persuasion and the 6AT7's always seem to be short lived when used in place of the 12AT7's could never figure that one out.
Replace the 6GH8, and your color burst will work again. Monochrome coffee is soooo boring.
They are not like the old cone type bearings anymore. Many manufacturers make them like that. You COULD replace just the bearing, but you need a press & proper press plates to change it. Then you need to find a bearing supplier. Cheaper & faster to replace the whole hub.
Plus most FWD/AWD cars and 4x4 trucks have the ABS sensors built into the hub. The sensors are often very delicate so replacing them without special tools is a no go. You think not being able to replace the bearings is irritating? How 'bout replacing an otherwise serviceable hub assembly because a $20 sensor chit the bed.
I just did both hubs, left and right on my Canyon at 110K. Have to pull them to change out brake rotors anyways and I've been having intermittent ABS issues so I but the bullet and replaced the hubs as well. They weren't horrible bearing wise but I didn't trust them for another 50K (which is what I've been getting out of my front brakes, 3rd set since the truck was new in 2005. I'm not complainin'
, rear drum brakes went over 100K. )Also similar to brake calipers. For $50 I can exchange my calipers with rebuilt originals. A little caliper paint and on they go. Not worth my time to rebuild them with a traditional caliper rebuild kit IMO.
One point worth mentioning is even though it may not feel like your repairing vs replacing, most of the time rebuilt hub assemblies are what you're buying so just the bearings and seals have been replaced and a new ABS sensor fitted. They just deny you the fun of doing the rebuild yourself.
Plus most FWD/AWD cars and 4x4 trucks have the ABS sensors built into the hub. The sensors are often very delicate so replacing them without special tools is a no go. You think not being able to replace the bearings is irritating? How 'bout replacing an otherwise serviceable hub assembly because a $20 sensor chit the bed.
I just did both hubs, left and right on my Canyon at 110K. Have to pull them to change out brake rotors anyways and I've been having intermittent ABS issues so I but the bullet and repalced the hubs as well. They weren't horrible bearing wise but I didn't trust them for another 50K (which is what I've been getting out of my front brakes, 3rd set since the truck was new in 2005. I'm not complainin'
Also similar to brake calipers. For $50 I can exchange my calipers with rebuilt originals. A little caliper paint and on they go. Not worth my time to rebuild them with a traditional caliper rebuild kit IMO.
One point worth mentioning is even though it may not feel like your repairing vs replacing, most of the time rebuilt hub assemblys are what you're buying so just the bearings and seals have been replaced and a new ABS sensor fitted. They just deny you the fun of doing the rebuild yourself.
With Ford Explorer/Ranger when you loose the ABS sensor it is usually a result of the bearing being on it's way out so even if you were to replace just the sensor you would soon be doing the bearings. I did the left side of my ranger last spring (bought both sides) and just changed the tires last week, now I can hear the right side starting to go. So I guess I'll be doing that side fairly soon.
Those 12AT7 's were always in need of friendly persuasion and the 6AT7's always seem to be short lived when used in place of the 12AT7's could never figure that one out
Hahahaa I wonder how few people still know how to read tube designations and understand the joke there
Hahahaa I wonder how few people still know how to read tube designations and understand the joke there
I still have a full blown tester.
I don't remember the model. My father used it to test the tubes for the radios in his old cars. I haven't played with it for years.
Gasifier
Minister of Fire
Vacuum tubes. They used to be very common in old radios, tv's, Amplifiers (as a matter of fact, they STILL make the best quality amplifiers), etc. They were replaced for the most part by solid state electronics (transistors).
The advantage for amplifiers is that tubes distort in harmonics (a variation of the same note only higher or lower on the scale). This is a plus when amplifying music.
The first number was usually filament voltage and the last number was usually the number of parts inside the tube.
You have to be a geezer to understand good things such as generating your own soft xrays or warming your hands over the finals.
I'm 44 and Jeremy is younger yet.
I'm getting there but still not to geezer status.
Man - it does sound old when I actually type it out.
I'm 44 and Jeremy is younger yet.
Man - it does sound old when I actually type it out.
Well if you believe the old rule you have been a geezer for the last 14+ years.
What's the old rule he asks, never trust anyone over 30, is the reply.
tubes are pretty much gone except for the amplifier world. I'm 37 (I'm not old, and I'm not a woman, I understand...from behind.....I do object to you automatically treating me as an inferior) and have learned a bit about the tubies because I play the guitar. They appear to be making a resurgence. There's an aweful lot of boutique amp companies about and replacement tube market appears to be fairly stabile (thank you Russia). Current solid state tech does a pretty good job of emulating tubes, and you don't have the signal drop like you did in a lot of older solid state stuff, but you just can't fake the sound of tubes being overdriven. It's like magic.
$200 coffee maker:Anyway, I dug up the number for customer service to ask where I could send it for service. It's a $200 coffee maker so, not exactly what I would consider to be a "throwaway item." The customer service rep flatly told me that they do not repair products. Even if you bring something in under warranty they just trash it and give you a new one.
Cost to manufacture will be under $100 once you take out profit, marketing, distribution, retailer profit, etc. - quite possibly under $50.
Repair techs will cost ~$40-50/hour to employ and won't be working 100% of the time. Call it $50/hour.
If they're repairing old appliances they need to keep a lot of parts on the shelf which will over time go obsolete - but must be paid for up front and the space paid for. So assume at least $20 cost for parts, probably double that.
Net result: if it takes more than 10 minutes to fix, it's almost certainly cheaper to give the customer a new one. You will probably also get higher levels of customer satisfaction - if you fix something but it isn't perfect or gets scratched, you get all sorts of back and forth and an unhappy customer. Even putting a value of a few dollars on that makes it almost impossible to justify repairing things.
Oh, and if you're looking for screws bear in mind that it will be rare to have them nowadays where any other fixing method will work - back when I was involved in design for manufacture we used the rule of thumb that each screw adds $2 to the cost of manufacturing something in time, inconvenience, tooling, parts, etc. For something they need to be able to manufacture for $50-100, that's a huge expense if it's held together with 4 screws. Moulding snap-together fittings into plastic has a one-off cost of a few thousand dollars and then the actual fitting together will cost a few cents in human time and breakages. Where the snap together fittings are won't be obvious as they aren't designed to be undone - prying any join lines apart with a screwdriver will normally get them apart without breaking anything though if you're careful about it.
Gasifier
Minister of Fire
I wanted to assume you were talking about vacuum tubes, but I always remember the rule that Benny Hill taught on the chalk board. Never assume, you could make ass-u-me. Never will forget that guy. Some funny stuff. I guess I was wondering about all the testing stuff and the numbers. But I am now catching on. Takes me a little while sometimes.
Some funny stuff. I guess I was wondering about all the testing stuff and the numbers. But I am now catching on. Takes me a little while sometimes.
Thats right. The 12AT7 is a twin triode radio tube - I have some in my McIntosh power amp. it has a 12v filament heater (the first number) and 7 elements - 1 heater filament, 2 cathodes, 2 control grids and 2 plates (anodes). The letters in the middle are a sequence ID to differentiate different tubes in that configuration.
The joke here is that plugging a 6AT7 into a 12AT7 socket would burn it out instantly (driving a 6v heater with 12v).
As an aside, thats the US commercial numbering scheme, there is also a military scheme (just a 4 digit number) and a European scheme that was a bunch of letters followed by a number. A 12AT7 is also called a 6021 (military) or ECC81 (Europe).
The other set of funcky numbers EV-7608-0 10 85 P4, those are settings to test the 12AT7 on a Hickok vacuum tube tester. The tester has a set of sockets, a test meter and a munch of setting dials, some with letters others with numbers. You had a datasheet with all the tubes listed, you find the tube and it tells you what to turn each dial to to set it up for the tube you want. The "P4" is the test button that you push and then you would get a reading on the meter. The datasheet gave the range of good and worn out readings.
like this:
![[Hearth.com] RANT: Why can't things be repaired anymore!?](/talk/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vacuumtubes.com%2Fimages%2F533a.JPG&hash=a1b837dd4eca9cd7efbb77cdcd348474 "[Hearth.com] RANT: Why can't things be repaired anymore!?")
Gasifier
Minister of Fire
I'm 44 and Jeremy is younger yet.
Man - it does sound old when I actually type it out.
Fourty four! Holy chit Jags, you are older than dirt!
I'm 44 and Jeremy is younger yet.
Man - it does sound old when I actually type it out.
Fourty four! Holy chit Jags, you are older than dirt!
Im just a baby. 36.
When I went to engineering school I had some EE fiends that were into this stuff. I got interested, started picking up old amps off tag sales (the MIT flea market is a mecca), ebay etc. Got an old tester and a VTVM (another guess what that is Q), etc.
I taught myself how to work on electronics rebuilding a MC-240. Managed to not electrocute myself on 400VDC
Gasifier
Minister of Fire
What Ive read is that tube circuits distort primarily in even order harmonics... which is what give them the characteristic "warm sound" and is pleasant to the ear even at relatively high levels like 0.5 - 2%.
Solid state circuitry distorts in odd-order harmonics that add a very harsh, cold feeling to the music that supposedly a trained ear can detect at very low levels like .01 or .001 %
Gasifier
Minister of Fire
I recall the tube tester that say just inside the front door of many stores like Eckerd Drugs. I remember that some tubes had a top connection and the wire on the tube tester that you connected to it. I'm betting it was high voltage, at least 400 VAC. Bet that whole setup wouldn't pass the lawyer test today for employees let alone customers.
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