[HAM] A noob with questions

[J Wacek]

 Ray,

You did good.  Give the oil a chance to work. I've used a 50/50 mix of
Hammond Oil/lighter fluid to ungunk things. Oil it (Tone wheel only) and let
it sit a week. Don't over oil the scanner.  You could also try and identify
the suspect bearing and oil it directly with a hypo.  I have been using the
clear turbine oil. Seems to work good.

If a key fails to sound, the service manual says to rapidly hit the key.
Good info at:

http://www.dairiki.org/HammondWiki/

http://www.captain-foldback.com/

http://www.bentonelectronics.com/    - the service link


Jim


Subject: [HAM] A noob with questions

Howdy.  I'm a noob at this Hammond thing.  Not new to tube-type electronics,
nor electro-mechanical gear (I started out on a military vacuum tube
radar/computer (analog) system in 1966) but this is my first foray into the
tonewheel organ area.

It was one of those, "It ran when I parked it" things.  Ok...I can deal with
that.  First problem I had was that the tone generator would spin up on the
start motor but wouldn't keep running on the Run motor.  Everything I found
seemed to indicate that it was a lubrication issue, so I started lubing the
bushings and threads and filling the oil cups.  Now it spins up and stays
running.  Great.  (I've been using Singer sewing machine oil until my web
order of Hammond oil arrives.)

But there are a couple more issues.  First there are one or two bushings
(bearings) that are squealing like stuck pigs and have been since I started
working on it a few days ago.  I'm wondering if this is something that
should go away as the oil wicks through the threads to the bushings?  Are
they what we used to call "Oilite" bronze bushings?

Is it safe to run it for periods of, say, 10-15 minutes at a time while it's
howling like that or will that result in severe bearing or shaft wear?  I
can't see how running it would help the oil to saturate the bearings any
quicker, but....???

Finally there's one key (lower rank, 2nd B from the right) that didn't sound
right.  I just fired it up for a minute to make sure I had the correct key
in mind...and...and now it seems to be working.  Spooky.  Just like a kid
who feels better as soon as he gets to the doctor's office.  Anyway, I
turned the vibrato off to verify and to this old man's ears, it seems to be
creating the correct sound.  It didn't am 2 am.  Hmmm...  On another forum I
read a post where a guy used the phrase "cyphering tonewheel" and thought
that might have some relevance to my problem.  I have no idea what it means,
although my guess would be one that has zero output.  If anyone can shed
some light on that, I'd appreciate it.

Well, that seems to have exhausted my questions.  The B key fix sure was an
easy one.  Hope it stays fixed.

Thanks in advance,

Ray Buck,
Taylorsville, Ut