Hi,
Well said Sean. I agree about the clock guy and lady who restores the paintings being well worth watching; I like the bit of blacksmithing too. Bron and I watch these on catch up mostly because of the other rubbish on TV being garbage.
I think taking on such a project as a Wurlitzer is much too ambitious for a program of this knd; as you rightly say a genuine restorer of anything involving valves (tubes in America) would immediately re-cap the lot; electrolytics of this age would be binned immediately because to reform them would be a waste of time; I've replaced many caps during my vintage radio restoration years; then comes the resistors; I used to have boxes of new old stock resistors which were still new and unused but been in stock for over 30 years and these were way out of spec when tested. The loudspeakers too would possibly need re-coning and their coils checking; old cables/wiring tend to have poor insulation which goes hard and brittle; such a restoration is actually a very big time consuming job so not really something to cram into a few minutes on a TV program; valves too loose emission. I used to own an AVO Valve Characteristic Meter (Valve tester) and possibly Sean you also own one of these; just testing heater continuity was an absolutely basic test but a proper & expensive valve tester was the way to go;
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...kAhVRtHEKHbkLCf0QsAR6BAgGEAE&biw=1920&bih=969
Many years ago a guy posted on the vintage radio forum I'm a member of asking if anyone could test a pair of expensive KT88 valves for him;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KT88
Me being a sucker for punishment jumped in and offered to test the valves; the guy didn't own a car so I drove to Wakefield to collect him and his valves; he actually brought along a selection of other valves too to be tested. Back home Bron fed and watered him as she always does with guests then we headed into the workshop; the first KT88 valve was dead as was the second; I then tested other valves and all were dead too; I thought my AVO valve tester must have died so I put in a new valve of mine and it gave perfect readings; this guy proved a real pain; he insisted I retest his valves which I did and of course they were all dead. I drove him back home.
A few days later he popped up again on the forum asking for his KT88's to be tested; a friend of mine living in Hebden Bridge some distance away was about to offer to test these valves until I informed him that I'd already tested them twice and that they were dead; I further explained if he jumped in he would end up wasting a day transporting this guy around; I did add though if you can give the kiss of life to these valves then go ahead?
I've not watched the Wurlitzer episode Sean so I'll have a look tonight to see if it's on catch up because I'm interested in such things. As you say though Sean lots of the items being restored on the show hold so little value other than nostalgia for the owner the items should be binned but at least these episodes on the whole are generally worth watching unlike the program where junk is removed from the tip and played around with on TV then sold for silly money; it's surprising these days how many people have more money than sense.
You and I Sean and others like us would welcome in depth restorations of old electrical/mechanical items but unfortunately we're in the minority; how many young people these days show interest in restoring; the skills are dying with the older generations not being passed down through families as they used to be.
I've been watching lots of YouTube videos showing how to TIG weld and metal spin recently and such videos are fascinating to me but would be boring to most people.
Years ago we used to watch a program called "Changing Rooms"
Would you let such a crew loose in your home?
Here's an example of what gets my attention;
Kind regards, Colin.
