collecting other appliances

[n0oxy]

old radios

I've heard that with old radios, especially the ones with tubes, that if you touch them when they are plugged in that you will get zapped, does anyone know if there is anytruth to this? Also, got the first humidifier I ordered, the Crane model, very nice.
Mike

 

[human]

yes and no...

Touching the outside of the cabinet of an old tube radio or TV set won't hurt you but what's inside definitely can, if you don't know what you're doing. When I took an electronics class in high school, the teacher demonstrated by waving a neon tube around in the open space in the back of a TV set and it lit up without being connected to anything. That said, the really dangerous charges aren't stored in the tubes but in the capacitors, which can hold a charge for quite some time after the set is turned off and unplugged.

 

[s31463221]

Edgar nailed it!

The outside of a vintage tube radio or TV won’t hurt you, get inside to the chassis, that’s a different story! In addition to vacuums, I also collect electric fans, vintage Christmas Lights, and antique tube TV’s and radios. The old TV’s are the worst! They can store voltages inside certain areas that are in excess of 15Kv (15,000 volts), plenty enough to kill a person if they weren’t careful. I heard an old repair tech one time say “they call them flyback transformers for a reason.....you touch one, and you’ll most likely ‘flyback’ out of that case!”

 

[n0oxy]

capacitors and ultrasonic humidifiers

These are also found in microwaves and switching power supplies I think, I've never opened one of these and I don't think I want to. I find it really interesting how these ultrasonic humidifiers work, apparently what drives the ultrasonic transducer is a pieso electric driver, apparently these have quite a charge as well. At one point, curiosity got the better of me and I took off the tank while one of them was running and stuck my finger in the ripple of water. It was a very weird sensation, not a shock per say but it felt like my finger was getting slammed in a car door, definitely proves that there is a lot of water in your skin. It's interesting that a vibration like that can actually break up water in to a mist. All ultrasonic humidifiers I have seen also have an automatic shut off, I guess the transducer running without water would cause it to overheat.
Mike

 

[n0oxy]

more on getting shocked by old radios

Here is the text that I had read about getting shocked by old radios, it probably explains it better than I did in my previous message.
Mike
The following applies to a great deal of really old electronics, not just the radios described below. They were often called something like "AC/DC sets" with no power transformer, no isolation, and the metal chassis and other user accessible parts connected directly to one side of the AC line.
(From: Jim Locke ([email protected]).)
Tube radios made several decades ago are now collectors' items (literally 100s are offered for auction on eBay) and they had a metal chassis which was often connected to one side of the AC line. The user would get a shock if he or she simultaneously touched the electrically hot chassis and a separate ground. There was no safe way for the plug. Commonly, the chassis would be hot when the radio was off but at ground potential when the radio was on, or vice versa, depending on which way the plug was in the outlet. Earlier radios had set screws in their knobs, which provided electrical connection from a human turning the knob to the chassis. Also, screws through the bottom of the case connected to the chassis, and the back had ventilation holes large enough for fingers to reach the chassis. So, it was easy to connect the body to the chassis. Later models provided isolated chassis, plastic shafts for the knobs, etc., but still presented a shock hazard. I would recommend that collectors of working tube radios power them through GFCI devices. Furthermore, in a collection of radios, each radio should have a separate GFCI device, to detect when a human completes the circuit between two radios! If the two radios are on the same GFCI device, it will not trip. There is still a shock hazard with either or both radios switched off, but plugged in. More information may be found at Fun With Tubes .

 

[human]

ultrasonic devices

n0oxy wrote:
At one point, curiosity got the better of me and I took off the tank while one of them was running and stuck my finger in the ripple of water. It was a very weird sensation, not a shock per say but it felt like my finger was getting slammed in a car door, definitely proves that there is a lot of water in your skin.

I reply:
I remember a similar sensation when I stuck my hand in the water tank of an ultrasonic cleaning device for window blinds. It did indeed feel a bit like a mild electrical tingle but the guy running it said it was completely harmless, just the ultrasonic vibrations passing through the water and my hand.

 

[speedqueen]

I have a few old TVs and radios...

Regarding lethality of vintage electronics, HV in a TV set is painful but has almost no current and thus is not even close to lethal. I even proved that myself one day when I forgot to connect the ground clip on my high voltage probe to the chassis. People online can get quite hyperbolic on this subject. TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND VOLTS just has a scarey sound to it. Hot chassis radios are fine if you don't have it disasembled, running, and are grounded yourself. It is quite a big critera to match to get shocked. And to those who jump up and down over electrolytic filter caps being lethal, yes they are if somehow you bridge the connection with both hands. When people get shocked working on electronics usually ones hand touches two things simultainously shocking just that hand.

For those wanting some entertainment and to learn a bit about vintage electronics I suggest you look at these three youtube channels. Shango066 can repair almost anything and has a unique sense of humor. 'TVPhonoNut has an affinity for vintage classroom record players and goes on long winded rants about "how things used(and aut) to be". Doug Harland (DRH4683) is 1960s through and through(in everything but his age).

*Shango066: https://www.youtube.com/user/shango066
*RadioTVPhonoNut: https://www.youtube.com/user/radiotvphononut
*DRH4683: https://www.youtube.com/user/drh4683

 

[tolivac]

TV set CRT voltage-careful here in saying its lethal or not-it MAY be LETHAL to an elder person with a weak heart-so still be CAREFUL!!!!As we get older a voltage that was not dangerous while you were younger-MAY be dangerous as you get older.

AC-DC sets-Hot chassis sets should be wired with a polarized cord-the chassis is wired to the wide or neutral pin on the cord and plug.Or the sets can be run from an isolation transformer.These are available from electronic suppliers.You will absolutely need that iso-former if you are doing troubleshooting and tests on the AC-DC units.I made up one from some military surplus gear.The transformer was marked 1A @120V-I ran a 10A load off it just fine!!!Did not heat up at all!!!Most military and surplus stuff has overating on them.

 

[n0oxy]

got my humidifiers and considering a couple more

Got all three of the humidifiers I ordered, I now have 13 I think, will have to count them to know for sure. All of them are really nice, I definitely prefer the ultrasonics over the evaporative type, no filters to replace and much quieter, the only down side is they leave a white dust on everything, and that requires a wet rag to remove, a vacuum's dusting brush doesn't really remove it for some reason.
Mike

 

[fcs3]

Solved your problem, n0oxy

Click on the link for a primer concerning
that very issue, as well as its solutions.

http://www.hvac.com/faq/white-dust-concerned/

 

[phaeton]

Capehart anyone?

Hello All,
At one point I owned 5 of these monstrous beauties. They are heavy and big. I only have 2 now and the older one has what was called an extended control which I believe I can call rare.
The cracks in the lens were caused by a falling objects during one of our famous California Earthquakes, the October 1, 1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake.
Thank you for looking,
Pete

 

[tolivac]

NICE---Hear these are VERY rare.High End Hi-Fi from long ago!Can we see a shot of the electronics?

 

[phaeton]

Sorry, lots of dust and not a vacuum in sight LOL

Hello All and tolivac,
Well here it is. This one was owned by my great aunt. When it was in my dad's house and I was about 10 I would blast away when my parents were not home on AM and FM stations, It only plays 78s. The one with the Singer in front of it is older and was more expensive. While the older one is a bit more archaic but is more deluxe. It is the one with the extended control which will remotely flip the records, change station and volume all at a push of a button, it has dual amplifiers. I bought this in the early 70s and moved it out of an old mansion with the help of a friend and hauled it in my 1953 Buick wagon back to my small apartment, not where the Buick is pictured. I had many things in my past and a number of the are gone including the Buick. As a wise somebody said, life goes on, LOL.
Packing, crating or just moving them around is a whole lot of fun, sure.
I hope you all like the pictures.
Thank you for looking,
Pete

 

[tolivac]

Those Capehearts are impressive pieces of equipment!And so solid-those could last a good long time with care.My Grandmother had a cabinet full of 78's played a lot of them at her house-she had a Garrard TT connected to a Heathkit mono amp my granddad built.Played thru some big wood cabinet speaker he also made-He didn't have stereo.Was still fun being a "DJ" at his place-My grandmother enjoyed me playing the records.She also had a GE "Kiddie" record player decorated with cartoon charactors and would play the records on that,too-had a funky,tinny sound.I ave seen the automatic Capeheart TT's on Youtube and quite impressed with them-a real beautiful piece of equipment.Like how they can play the "flip" sides of records!And they appear to be more gentile than other automatic TT's.I did see on one YouTube video----Instead of "record player","TT","Phonograph"-the titel says "RECORD READER!"It was a classroom record player.

 

[phaeton]

Heathkit my Dad built up so many of them

Hello All and tolivav,
My dad had so many Heathkits when he passed away. I sold almost all of the about 15 years ago.
He was a sound technician during the first talking pictures, repaired TVs after the War for a short time and then went back to the studios.
Some of his other Heathkit items would have made great props on a SiFi flick or a Halloween party. I still have the TV/Radio Tube checker as I thought it would come in handy.
Heathkit items were both educational and a lesser expensive way of getting test equipment or building an amplifier as you grandfather did.
Grandparent were great, you could do things and play with thing your parents wouldn't let you.
Enjoy and thank you for looking,
Pete

 

[tolivac]

My Dad also built and so did I-Dynakits-these were Hi-fi components.Have assembled St70 amps for radio stations,too.Was getting to the point I could build them in my sleep!Nice kits-wish kits were still around-tubed kits were so easy to build.And they worked the first time!!!!The kit building was good during those transmitter "babysitting" days-when radio stations used to have manned transmitter sites.The VOA one I am at now is the only one I know of.

 

[n0oxy]

got 4 humidifiers going

This is probably the coldest it's been here in years, so the air is quite dry. I currently have 4 of my humidifiers going. My Guardian technologies one is going in the living room, the Crane digital is running in the dining room, the air-innovations one is going in one of my bedrooms and the heaven fresh unit is going in my other bedroom. I do tend to switch them out now and then. Normally I use the Vornado in the living room but I decided to switch for a while. Even with 4 going, it does not feel muggy at all, the relative humidity is still below 50 percent I think. It's always nice when you can put the appliances that you collect to some good use.
Mike

 

[countryford]

In addition to vacuums I collect washers and dryers, tv sets, radios and percolators. I have a few more small kitchen appliances. The TV sets collection is the largest collection I have with over 100 sets from the 40s to the 80s, tabletops to consoles. I have over 20 washers and dryers, just under 100 radios and probably 20 percolators.


 


I know someone else had mentioned about his son not wanting his stuff and what his son would do if something were to happen. My feelings on this, I understand what I collect doesn't interest many people. So if something happens to me, this is what I would prefer to happen. First take whatever they may want. Then offer stuff up to the club members of the various collection site. Vacuums here, washers and dryers on aw.org, so on and so forth. After that, hire an estate sale company to see what they can sell. Whatever is left, donate to a local charity. At that, whatever is left that the charity doesn't want to take, just take it to the dump then.

 

[real1shep]

It's always the amps that can kill you....we can take thousands of volts easily, but not if there is significant amperage...POW!


 


A good electrician will never take a probe in each hand and doodle around inside a disconnect box.....bad juju. I've hear old time radio/ham people say the same; don't go to the chassis with both hands.


 


Kevin

[this post was last edited: 12/31/2017-15:39]

 

[real1shep]

It's always the amps that can kill you....we can take thousands of volts easily, but not if there is significant amperage...POW!


 


A good electrician will never take a probe in each hand and doodle around inside a disconnect box.....bad juju. I've hear old time radio/ham people say the same; don't go to the chassis with both hands.


 


Kevin