Went to a local car boot sale this morning. Parked in the only available space right near the entrance, wandered in and less than a minute later, spotted a rather tatty AC34 next to a stall with other boxes of stuff on top of it. Decided to have a wander round first then come back. Half an hour later it was still there although the boxes of stuff on top were not. The asking price was £20 but I knocked him down to £15 which I thought was more reasonable. Not the most inspiring of sets perhaps but they have a decent sized speaker and sound quite good. Somewhat unusual set as it is AC only but uses series-fed 'U' range heaters from an isolating transformer. Appears to have a broken drivecord (only one tuning pointer works). I was assured by the seller that it works and 'goes quite loud'. Anyway it's full of dust, cobwebs and fossilised spiders.....just how I like them.
I've just printed off the Trader sheet and will transfer it to the workshop later. By the way, has anyone noticed the glaring error on the Trader sheet? Hint: it uses a mains transformer.
Rich
Hi Rich
Which trader sheet did you print?
The correct one is 1147 Trader sheet 1149 is for the DAC34 which doesn't have a mains transformer.
Or is it something else I am not seeing 
Cheers
Mike T
I don't care if it was a bargain whats it doing on my kitchen table. www.cossor.co.uk
No there is an error on 1147. That's the one I've printed. It correctly shows the mains transformer and the series chain but......Further hint: It's not the actual circuit that is wrong, think mains supply!
Rich
1147 looks OK to me for parts and wiring but the text does suggest a Magic Transformer 
As an aside there are several Bush models this style with VHF, I
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/bush_vhf41_vhf_41.html
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/bush_vhf55vhf_5.html
They always remind me of this Murphy Baffle (which my Dad had and crazily gave away!).
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/murphy_a272ca_272.html
These are more similar
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/murphy_a262a_26.html
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/murphy_a252a_25.html
Both more common on ebay than the similar Style Bush. The Later Bush VHF81 seems a regular eBay visitor
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw= ... Complete=1
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw= ... Complete=1
I guess it's the dual scales and the four knobs (though the Murphy has a space)
When did Rank take over Bush & Murphy?
I see it's one of those special mains transformers that work on DC as well 
Cheers
Mike T
I don't care if it was a bargain whats it doing on my kitchen table. www.cossor.co.uk
The transformers DO work on DC if you disconnect them frequently 
Example
http://dos4ever.com/uTracerlog2/tubetes ... ansformer1
Had a quick look inside this evening. First a good vacuum out to reveal a reasonably clean chassis with minimal corrosion. Underneath shows no work and completely original, full of TCC waxies. A couple of points noticed: large blobs of wax hanging from the transformer but probably ok. Transformer was set to 210-230V so checked the valves and most check significantly low. However they may be satisfactory in practice. The only valve that seems reasonable is the UF41. Generally should be a straightforward restore. The output transformer is good (same as DAC90A) and the smoothing caps seem reasonable. A dozen or so caps should see it all working. The cabinet will be the biggest challenge but I may well enlist the help of my brother on that!
Rich
PS. What a joy to work on! The internal aerial unplugs and so does the speaker and output transformer (must remember that when first testing). Two screws and the whole chassis comes out leaving the pointers and scale in the cabinet. Previously I thought it had two drivecords as one pointer on the SW scale wasn't moving. It had just become disconnected from the carrier so no restringing required. This must be one of the easiest sets to work on.
I scrapped one of these (the cabinet went to another collector) but I still have the output transformer, Mains transformer and all 4 knobs and back if you require them.
Pretty sure I stil have the IF cores and half the chassis!
but I still have the output transformer,
I'd check that transformer. It's the same one as used in the DAC90A so could have an O/C primary. Should measure 600-700 ohms or so.
Rich
Managed to grab some workshop time tonight plus my new capacitors had arrived so set about replacing all the dripping gooey TCC waxies. Most of these are mounted on a tagstrip and fairly easy to replace. Obviously the new polyesters were much smaller than the originals so there was more room to place them neatly. That done, it was time to try the set out.
I decided to run the set via my wattmeter and a variac although the latter was probably unnecessary. Anyway with the mains transformer adjuster on 240V, I set the variac to give 185 initially and then monitored the HT. This slowly came up to about 225 and a low level hiss could be heard from the speaker. After about a minute or so, I increased the mains to 210V and now it was possible to tune in some stations. The set was very lively, the smoothing can remained cold so I then set the variac to give full 240V. Reservoir HT measured 273V so everything seems to be in good order.
Too late to check everything tonight so next jobs are to tidy up the chassis, check alignment and then work on the cabinet.
Rich
probably not much wrong with it; these never seem to go wrong, very good sound quality as well, lovely lookers...nice sets.
probably not much wrong with it;
There's nothing wrong with it now! I ran it for about half an hour earlier and everything worked fine. The UL41 is a bit low emission but there is still plenty of output. I'm not going to bother checking alignment either. I slipped the chassis back into the cabinet and scale alignment is very good.....all stations appearing in the right place, sensitivity is good, MW and SW are very lively so there seems little point in getting the signal generator out.
Next job is to ask my brother if he will refinish the cabinet seeing as he has all the stuff to do it with and is much better at woodwork than me.....
Rich
Next job is to ask my brother if he will refinish the cabinet seeing as he has all the stuff to do it with and is much better at woodwork than me..... :=D
Rich
...and here is the result! I had a phonecall yesterday informing me that it was ready. It hasn't really taken over a year to do....I only gave him the cabinet a few weeks ago. Anyway it certainly looks much better now and he's managed to preserve the original Bush logo on top of the cabinet. The logo is a bit faded but at something like 63 years old it's only to be expected. I'm not one for having showroom condition on these old sets and prefer them to have some age and use marks.
I also have a replacement scale as the old one had some of the station names scratched due to the misplaced pointer. Next job is to refit everything back into the cabinet.
Strangely, I don't own an AC34; but I do own the Irish and export versions of it (BS35 and EBS35 respectively)!!
When did Rank take over Bush & Murphy?
Rank took over Bush via their acquisition of Gaumont-British in the autumn of 1941. Bush took over Murphy in 1962.
There are some nice veneers on that set it is going to be a nice radio to look at when back together.
Mike
They are lovely sets; they look older than they are, have a great sound and are very sensitive. That'll be a lovely set when finished
what finish has been used ?, it looks really good on it.
Not sure what finish he used. As far as I am aware, just a clear varnish. I'll ask when I next see him. Apparently the original finish was a real pig to remove. In the end a scraper was used as nitromors and the usual stuff just made it sticky.
They are lovely sets; they look older than they are, have a great sound and are very sensitive. That'll be a lovely set when finished
Yes indeed...probably one of the best sounding AM sets of the period. Decent sized speaker and a substantial baffle helps of course. The chassis has been in a box for the last six months or so and last night I retrieved it and gave it some power. Everything worked well although sensitivity is down because it appears that the internal frame aerial (which is in the cabinet) is also the aerial coupling coil. Only strong locals available at the moment......
Friends of mine that have a vague interest in my 'strange' hobby are always amazed that a radio of this type (with shortwaves ....and valves!) can receive most of the continent and a number of Far Eastern stations (like China) on a few feet of wire but their DAB radio has trouble with Radio Two from Crystal Palace......
Spent a pleasant couple of hours last night putting everything back. I am impressed with the end result!. I have to clean the knobs properly, restore the engraved lettering and finally make up some felt ring protectors behind the knobs. The radio is working well but there was a lot of hash across MW and LW. I suspect it is my son's TV but I haven't investigated yet.
I fitted a replacement tuning scale as the original had become rather scratched due to a misplaced pointer. The back reflector has been cleaned and also the pointer guide runner...this also had an application of light grease after cleaning all the old sticky wodge off.
Anyway here are some photo's and the various stages of assembly and cleaning.
