Hello folks,
I have been enjoying my journey back into vintage audio, and with the assistance and guidance from many on this forum and others like it has been extremely helpful in this endeavor. My story is not unlike many I have read here in the intro forum, and if interested you can read mine here http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=556669
With that said, I have always enjoyed AR speakers, and have been accumulating various sets of vintage ARs to refurbish and enjoy. It all started with a set of AR 4ax' and the process of bringing them back to life can be found here http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=568900 which was a blast and I still enjoy these on an almost daily basis. It was also a great launching point to move forward and delve into more involved refurbs, and the input from forum members was invaluable. I now have two sets of AR 2x (one with cloth and one with foam surrounds), a set of AR 5s and recently Karma has another set of 4ax coming my way as well. This past Summer has been very busy here at the homestead and has not left much time for speaker work, but with Winter closing in, I can see a good deal of time available to move forward....finally.
Earlier this year I saw a posting on the auction site for a lot of 8 AR potentiometers and immediately moved on them. I believe I paid $50 for them and figured if I got 2 or 3 good ones I was doing OK seeing as they sell regularly for $20ish apiece. Here is a picture of what I received
And I was encouraged, but recalling my 4ax refurb, I knew this didn't really tell the tale so I opened them up and here is the real tale
and here is a closeup of a couple of the guts :tears:
During my initial time in the forums, I had come across this thread http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=306818 which helped tremendously in what to do next!
Soak those babies. Wipers not visible but they are in there.
and while they were soaking it gave me an opportunity to clean up the other various parts of the assembly.
and no I didn't use the dremel on the plastic red stems, :nono: they were just wiped with some soapy water and looked fine!
So after soaking for about an hour, a thorough rinsing in clear water and then some polishing with the dremel equipped with a soft steel brush attachment and voila..
which reveals at least five combinations of usable sets! :yes: I am very encouraged. The last pic of the wipers clearly shows the two on the right to be degraded to the point of useless, and the third from right suspect at least. It is noteworthy to point out the difference in the mounting holes on the wipers being slightly different, and this will be important when putting these back together.
Well, it is time to get ready for work so I will finish this later tonight.:thmbsp:
I have been enjoying my journey back into vintage audio, and with the assistance and guidance from many on this forum and others like it has been extremely helpful in this endeavor. My story is not unlike many I have read here in the intro forum, and if interested you can read mine here http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=556669
With that said, I have always enjoyed AR speakers, and have been accumulating various sets of vintage ARs to refurbish and enjoy. It all started with a set of AR 4ax' and the process of bringing them back to life can be found here http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=568900 which was a blast and I still enjoy these on an almost daily basis. It was also a great launching point to move forward and delve into more involved refurbs, and the input from forum members was invaluable. I now have two sets of AR 2x (one with cloth and one with foam surrounds), a set of AR 5s and recently Karma has another set of 4ax coming my way as well. This past Summer has been very busy here at the homestead and has not left much time for speaker work, but with Winter closing in, I can see a good deal of time available to move forward....finally.
Earlier this year I saw a posting on the auction site for a lot of 8 AR potentiometers and immediately moved on them. I believe I paid $50 for them and figured if I got 2 or 3 good ones I was doing OK seeing as they sell regularly for $20ish apiece. Here is a picture of what I received
And I was encouraged, but recalling my 4ax refurb, I knew this didn't really tell the tale so I opened them up and here is the real tale
and here is a closeup of a couple of the guts :tears:
During my initial time in the forums, I had come across this thread http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=306818 which helped tremendously in what to do next!
Soak those babies. Wipers not visible but they are in there.
and while they were soaking it gave me an opportunity to clean up the other various parts of the assembly.
and no I didn't use the dremel on the plastic red stems, :nono: they were just wiped with some soapy water and looked fine!
So after soaking for about an hour, a thorough rinsing in clear water and then some polishing with the dremel equipped with a soft steel brush attachment and voila..
which reveals at least five combinations of usable sets! :yes: I am very encouraged. The last pic of the wipers clearly shows the two on the right to be degraded to the point of useless, and the third from right suspect at least. It is noteworthy to point out the difference in the mounting holes on the wipers being slightly different, and this will be important when putting these back together.
Well, it is time to get ready for work so I will finish this later tonight.:thmbsp: