Paul, > I'm assuming silver plating at the very > bottom is not too critical anyway. Did you use silver solder, or > regular solder?
I don't think that heat alone would hurt the silver plating. It may turn it colored, but should not hurt its conductive properties. (Similar to connectors that have tarnished) Even if it does get hurt a bit, it should not effect performance. It was my experience that you can heat the rod and bottom plate fairly quickly and not cause any adverse effects to the silver. What I did was clamp the rod in a bench vise and apply heat to the bottom of the plunger while gently twisting the plunger. (on the non-hot end of course HIHI) It came loose fairly quickly. Once removed, I used a rag to wipe away the extra molten solder form the rod and then used a properly sized drill to remove the extra solder from the inside of the hole. I just used regular 60/40 solder when I soldered them back together. I think I may have used a bit of extra flux on mine since I cut my rods off and was soldering to virgin invar. The grommets used in the ones I did were the plastic type, not the rubber ones. I think that the plastic would last longer. I think the rubber would deteriorate over a period of time. They were (I'm guessing) 1/4" I.D. and 5/16" O.D. Scott Scott Zimmerman Amateur Radio Call N3XCC 612 Barnett Rd Boswell, PA 15531 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul N1BUG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 5:41 PM Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] DB4062 woes... > Scott, > > There is about .010" clearance. It's not enough to slip heat shrink > tubing into. > >> I can't help but wonder if it was originally soldered at the factory or >> not. > > It most definitely was NOT. There is absolutely no evidence of > solder on the rod or plate. The manufacturer seems to have felt that > neither solder nor insulation was necessary. Interestingly, a pass > cavity from the same manufacturer and approximate time period is > insulated (in that case the entire top plate of the plunger is > insulating material, not metal). > >> You can look at it this way: If you take another one apart and >> find it to not be soldered, it's just a problem waiting to happen. Then >> they >> ALL need 'fixed' > > That is the nagging feeling I've been having since I pulled this one > apart and saw how it was built... these may have been a time bomb > ticking for years... > >> If you can't slide a piece of heatshrink between the rod and the plunger, >> Unsolder the other end, slide it out and enlarge the hole a bit. > > I'm leaning toward that. Then I could cleanly enlarge the hole and > slip a bushing in there like you suggested earlier. It will mess up > the silver plating at the bottom somewhat, but I'm not sure I could > enlarge the hole by the small drill/file method with the tuning rod > stuck right in the way. I'm assuming silver plating at the very > bottom is not too critical anyway. Did you use silver solder, or > regular solder? > > Paul N1BUG > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.10/1092 - Release Date: > 10/25/2007 1:14 PM >
