Having introduced myself in the collections area, I thought I would show you all the results of today's cleanup of my latest acquisition, the Pioneer SK-650 I snagged for $5.
First, the before picture:
I didn't have too much cleanup to do, it was already in decent shape, but there was enough of it. Most of the work I did today was going over it carefully, cleaning all controls, and fixing tape deck issues.
Like most boomboxes, this one was fun taking apart. Once I got in there, a spring fell out into my lap. This turned out to be from the tape control buttons. First thing I did was tighten up the tuner flywheel, which was flopping around loose as could be.
The tape deck on this unit was running really slow. Weird Al sounded less hyper than usual, to the point I thought he was falling asleep. So, I went over it slowly and carefully. First, the pinch roller and capstan needed cleaning badly, so I did that. Cleaned a lot of residue off the heads, too. Then, I removed the PCB on the back and cleaned all the switches on it. Next step was a careful belt inspection... I pulled the belts off and had a close look. The main belt was hard, stretched, and deformed in spots. I dropped it into some rubbing alcohol to clean it up, and dropped the smaller secondary belt in there with it. Once I cleaned them up, I reinstalled them inside out - that way I can get some more mileage out of them before I end up replacing them.
All this done, I tested the unit still disassembled and touched up the azimuth - all was now working with the tape deck. But I still had some cosmetic problems to deal with, as well as this:
Why Pioneer thought these plastic end caps were a good idea is beyond me. Two of them had broken off, and fell into my lap with that spring I mentioned earlier. This has apparently not been the first time this has happened to this unit, for someone has already replaced the plastic parts with metal screws on two of the button plungers.
Not having any similar screws, I went ahead and used two part epoxy to glue the plastic pieces back on and left it to cure all afternoon. While I was at it, I spent several hours cleaning up the outside of the unit, and epoxying the chrome around the rim back down. I even popped the speaker grilles off and sprayed them out - they were full of... well, I don't want to guess. Probably cigarette smoke.
That brings me to the "after" picture. It looks a whole lot better now, methinks. It'll never be new looking, but at least it looks less used. I can't test the tape deck again until tomorrow - the epoxy still needs time to cure before I start hitting buttons - but the tuner is at 100% and the tape deck should still be fine.
First, the before picture:
I didn't have too much cleanup to do, it was already in decent shape, but there was enough of it. Most of the work I did today was going over it carefully, cleaning all controls, and fixing tape deck issues.
Like most boomboxes, this one was fun taking apart. Once I got in there, a spring fell out into my lap. This turned out to be from the tape control buttons. First thing I did was tighten up the tuner flywheel, which was flopping around loose as could be.
The tape deck on this unit was running really slow. Weird Al sounded less hyper than usual, to the point I thought he was falling asleep. So, I went over it slowly and carefully. First, the pinch roller and capstan needed cleaning badly, so I did that. Cleaned a lot of residue off the heads, too. Then, I removed the PCB on the back and cleaned all the switches on it. Next step was a careful belt inspection... I pulled the belts off and had a close look. The main belt was hard, stretched, and deformed in spots. I dropped it into some rubbing alcohol to clean it up, and dropped the smaller secondary belt in there with it. Once I cleaned them up, I reinstalled them inside out - that way I can get some more mileage out of them before I end up replacing them.
All this done, I tested the unit still disassembled and touched up the azimuth - all was now working with the tape deck. But I still had some cosmetic problems to deal with, as well as this:
Why Pioneer thought these plastic end caps were a good idea is beyond me. Two of them had broken off, and fell into my lap with that spring I mentioned earlier. This has apparently not been the first time this has happened to this unit, for someone has already replaced the plastic parts with metal screws on two of the button plungers.
Not having any similar screws, I went ahead and used two part epoxy to glue the plastic pieces back on and left it to cure all afternoon. While I was at it, I spent several hours cleaning up the outside of the unit, and epoxying the chrome around the rim back down. I even popped the speaker grilles off and sprayed them out - they were full of... well, I don't want to guess. Probably cigarette smoke.
That brings me to the "after" picture. It looks a whole lot better now, methinks. It'll never be new looking, but at least it looks less used. I can't test the tape deck again until tomorrow - the epoxy still needs time to cure before I start hitting buttons - but the tuner is at 100% and the tape deck should still be fine.
