Dial Indicator Repair With a Sonic Cleaner

[C-Bag]

I concur with PJ's, WOW Ken.....we had to re skin one wing of a 150 in aircraft school and i quickly realized I was not cut out for that kind of soul crushing work.

Cool story about your dad PJ's.

My neighbor IS an amazing guy. But he's getting up there in years and he's a little like talking to my dad. Kinda like an old tube radio. A little slow and not great reception at first but once he warms up, watch out. He started pulling stuff out of his toolbox that he couldn't remember the last time he got in there. We started talking about oils and he dug out a long plastic box that had this assortment of little needle oilers, and one so fine I couldn't see it without my glasses which I leave at home when I ride. He also pulled out some small bottles of oil. I think he mentioned at least 3 or 4 weights for different size watches. He had some really old little bottles of oil that of course I didnt recognize the makers and in talking to him and from the OP's vid I could see how those tiny bottles would last somebody a lifetime. This is truly a whole 'nuther world to me.

I've gone down a time or two and asked him for some help/advice. Cool thing is he's lived here for a long time and some of the guys he worked with at Diablo that are retired also he's still in touch with. So if he doesn't know(which is not that often) he calls one of his buddies. Then it's a full on man cave party, talking shop and war (work)stories. Good times My saving grace is they think I'm special because I'm a musician and for some reason that has some cache with these guys. That and I learned to keep my mouth shut .

I'm going to go back down there and drop off a cd for him and if I know him our excursion into his old passion will trigger finding some more goodies and my brain will be unloaded enough to maybe absorb some oil info. He can quickly swamp me as he's spent a lifetime messing with little mechanisms. To him it's no big deal and probably boring to other people.

[kbalch]

Think that is starting to approach Avogadro's number by the time all the op's are done...That's a fair bit I would say. WoW! I'd have been snow blind and arthritic after that. Skinned the side of a 30' Airstream trailer once...nuff rivets at one sitting for a lifetime for me.

One of my friends recently complained about having to do a project with about 1K rivets. Pop rivets, mind you, done with a pneumatic puller. I had to laugh and refer him to my RV project photos. On the plus side, I've got an excellent collection of clecos!

I concur with PJ's, WOW Ken.....we had to re skin one wing of a 150 in aircraft school and i quickly realized I was not cut out for that kind of soul crushing work.

Yeah, it can get that way sometimes. The key (for me, anyway) was to get into a rhythm with each operation. Measure, layout, drill, deburr (both sides), dimple/countersink, drill to structure, deburr (both sides), dimple/countersink, and rivet. Repeat daily for 2.5 years.

Ken

[PJs]

I'm going to go back down there and drop off a cd for him and if I know him our excursion into his old passion will trigger finding some more goodies and my brain will be unloaded enough to maybe absorb some oil info. He can quickly swamp me as he's spent a lifetime messing with little mechanisms. To him it's no big deal and probably boring to other people.

C-Bag: Look forward to hearing about his thoughts on lube for instruments. People like that are a real treasure in my book and make me feel alive with wonder, yacking about all kinds of "stuff". I recently had the pleasure of talking at length with someone who worked at Aerojet during the early years (Mid 50's to mid 60's)...still get a buzz a week later.

One of my friends recently complained about having to do a project with about 1K rivets. Pop rivets, mind you, done with a pneumatic puller. I had to laugh and refer him to my RV project photos. On the plus side, I've got an excellent collection of clecos!

Ken: Don't think I could ever complain again after your intrepid adventure building a plane...let alone your GTR. We did have a pneumatic pop rivet tool but cutting, layout/drilling, support big sheets and forming the curves and seams (Oh My Seams), was really the harder parts of the job. Funny about the clecos...I got to tour part of the McDonald Douglas plant in Long Beach with my Dad and Uncle (who worked there 30 years). They had scads of roll-a-round bins 5' high with every cleco imaginable, then there were the flush rivets...Oh my. I learned that day why Airplanes are so expensive and that was in the late 60's!!

Feels like we have hi-jacked Brians DI repair but do hope to learn about the types of lube. Fun Thread! ~PJ

[C-Bag]

PJ's I get buzz from talking from talking to guys like this too. Problem is they don't really want to go on because like with this guy all he had was daughters and they and his wife had no interest or comprehension of what he does/did. And being retired he spends a lot of time in his garage building wooden models of old ships(from scratch!) and RC planes and electronics repair projects. I don't want annoy but I enjoy gently prodding these different things out of his past. I wouldn't be surprised if most of his family don't know this stuff.

He was young when WWll started and his family fled Prussia then came back after the war. He went to work building commercial aircraft and then instruments. When he came to the US to work for some big instrument maker and thought his limited English would be a problem but was astonished to find the whole shop full of ex-pat Poles all speaking German all day! He worked for other big co's and then landed with PG&E.

So yeah, because of this thread(thanks Brian) I may get some first hand info how an old world tech would do this. And a good excuse to learn some more first hand history. As the Greatest Generation passes they take a huge chunk with them.

[bstanga]

[/QUOTE]So yeah, because of this thread(thanks Brian) I may get some first hand info how an old world tech would do this. And a good excuse to learn some more first hand history. As the Greatest Generation passes they take a huge chunk with them.

Looks like this thread has a life of it's own. lol

[C-Bag]

I got back from a long jog down memory lane with my buddy down the street. As usual shooting the breeze is pretty far ranging. We got onto the oils talk and he started pulling out more little bottles than the other day. The other day was applicators. Some of these bottles are really old and he couldn't remember exact age or where he got them. As you can see a couple look really old.

He had some duplicates so he gave me two bottles. One was the little bottle that says "Black Shield Clock Oil" Swartchild and Co. It's on the left in the pic.

When I asked him what he would use on DI's he said the white bottle "WilWerk Key oil" in the middle of pic. That surprised me because he said it's for lubing wind instruments and he had two bottles from when his daughter played clarinet. He said it was "bone oil" and bone oil was what they used on sextants because it resisted corrosion from the salt air and was not gummy. Who knew? And he was under the impression you could buy it in any music store that does rentals for school band or sells band instruments.

I asked him how he knew which oil to use and he said "the smaller the bottle, the smaller the watch to use it on". Ok, makes sense I guess. The one little square bottle says "Fulcrum Bracelet and Watch oil" was what he said he used on those tiny women's watches.

Horolube 9-C was for wall clocks.

I have to revise my story on him. He said he worked for a big co that made all kinds of instruments and movements and was an apprentice for 3 1/2yrs. That blows my mind because they went through the whole process of metallurgy, welding, machining, math, etc and when they finally graduated they went to the shop floor and worked under a journeyman until they were deemed competent. Nobody in biz now fully trains anybody. And you certainly don't get that kind of training in any school I know of.

[PJs]

Looks like this thread has a life of it's own. lol

Yup. Hope you aren't offended and hopefully it helps others with this kind of repairs to save 2/3's the cost of a new indicator to send it out for repair. Did help me for sure. Thanks again for sharing your work.

C-Bag, Thanks for taking the time to chat with him and the great story with info on the lubes. Had no idea that instrument lube includes musical ones too. Have to keep and eye out for some of it.

Till Then, ~PJ

[bstanga]

Yup. Hope you aren't offended and hopefully it helps others with this kind of repairs to save 2/3's the cost of a new indicator to send it out for repair. Did help me for sure. Thanks again for sharing your work.

C-Bag, Thanks for taking the time to chat with him and the great story with info on the lubes. Had no idea that instrument lube includes musical ones too. Have to keep and eye out for some of it.

Till Then, ~PJ

heck no I love long threads, and thanks for watching.
BS

[Paul Jones]

Brian, C-Bag, PJs, and Ken,

I learned a lot from this string of written comments and found it very useful. I also have a wonderful saying to quote from C-Bag:

"My neighbor IS an amazing guy. But he's getting up there in years and he's a little like talking to my dad. Kinda like an old tube radio. A little slow and not great reception at first but once he warms up, watch out."

That is a classic and a keeper!

Thank you

Paul

[C-Bag]

Thanks Paul, and thanks Brian, PJs and Ken.

I did feel guilty about hyjacking this thread but it was crazy how it jumped me down a rabbit hole and I felt compelled to share it with everybody. I appreciate the support of this community.