"1D10T" wrote in message
...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

"PeterD" wrote in message
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On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:23:32 -0000, "Arfa Daily"
wrote:



That is about where I have arrived at now Jeff. This week, I will spend
a
little more time on it just for my own interest, but if it is not giving
up
its secrets in fairly short order, then the job will get knocked on the
head
once and for all.

Arfa


Try using a (strong) magnet around that 'leather' back and see if you
can detect screws under it. That may work.

OK. I'm in ! Based on the fact that if I couldn't get into it, it was
knackered anyway, I had another go today. Using your idea of a very
strong magnet around the leatherette back panel (which is aluminium
underneath) I could *just* detect a very slight 'pull' at each of the
four corners. Several minutes of quite intense heat on the leatherette,
just resulted in it getting too hot to touch. No signs of any glue
melting, so I took my blunt curve-bladed scalpel, and dug in at the edge,
slowly working the blade under. Turns out that under the leatherette is a
layer of some fibrous cardboardy-type material, which is a good thermal
insulator, so no heat gets through to melt the glue ... Total thickness
of material, probably about 1.5mm !

Anyway, once the corners were peeled back, a Philips head screw was
revealed at each corner. Even after these had been removed, the back
still resisted removal. After more work with the scalpel blade in the
crack, followed by a screwdriver tip, it finally came away, after
breaking the seal made by the Space Shuttle tile fixing-grade double
sided adhesive tape that had been put there.

Now call me picky if you like, but I consider this to be taking the ****
by the manufacturer. By using this sort of fixing method, they are
clearly defining this expensive radio, as fundamentally non-repairable.

But here's the real bummer. The original problem was that the unit was
dead. Not just a bit. Totally dead. The coaxial type DC socket felt a
little loose, and I was quite convinced that it would have nicely cracked
(lead-free) joints on it, once I got in there, but no. The joints look
fine. And guess what ? With the PCB out, it now works. Absolutely solid,
not the slightest sign of intermittency. Has run for hours without any
sign of a problem at all. I will go over all the joints in the power
supply section anyway, and maybe replace the little tactile switch that
controls the electronic power switching circuitry.

I think that the leatherette is going to be difficult to glue back down
as neatly as it was originally, because of the cardboard substrate. I
think that I might just poke a tiny hole through it above each screw
position, and tell the owner that if it has to come back, I will be
cutting a small cross in the leatherette above each screw, to allow them
to be removed without repeating the destuctive removal process.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. Got there in the end ... :-)

Great!
I've been watching this thread hoping you'd find fasteners under the
leatherette.

From my reply of 1/10:

"This is very common in cameras. Some of them have 'fillers' in the screw
holes over the screw heads to prevent 'dimples' from showing in the
leatherette."

I almost got it right, except the 'fillers' were a cardboardy-type
material. :-)



Yes - good call. They are not just fillers though. The entire back is
covered with the stuff, so there was not the slightest chance of being able
to feel even the tiniest disturbance in the overall smoothness of the back.
I can sort of understand it with cameras, as they are extremely specialist
items to repair in the first place, and not something that you would expect
to pay cheap to have repaired. The cosmetics are also important on such
items, but doing it on a transistor radio ? OK, I know it's an elegant
looking thing, and I know it's quite expensive, but the back is hardly going
to be predominantly on display, and even if it were, I'm sure that some nice
chromium plated screws could be found. By using Allen headed types, some
manufacturers even make a decorative feature of them. I'm sure that with
this item, it's mostly a case of them not wanting anyone to get in there.

When I turned on the bench this morning, it came straight on again. Ho hum
.... :-/

Arfa