Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Zucca]

fighting with UEFI and stupid BIOS no boot device messages

I had to upgrade BIOS, activate secure boot, do some MOK and enroll key...
Seems to work now. 

after many years in Windoze... Ubuntu is like taking a shower after hard work... so nice.

[Brumby]

Vince, most of would have told you the same thing as Robert did, so I'm guessing, the others made the same mistake I did, assumed that A/ you were aware that the 2 halves are joined at the base, B/ assumed that you had tried to clean the socket and C/ squeezed the 2 split ends closer together, gently with a pair of long nose pliers.

Yep.  This is fairly standard procedure for those who've had more experience with these things than they would prefer.

The key part is the spreading of the central split pin.  The risk comes from plugs where the outer cylindrical contact of the plug is a loose fit into the outer cylinder of the socket and where you have cable drag pulling laterally.  This causes the plug to sit skewed in the socket and results in the centre pin of the plug spreading the split contacts of the socket.

Many of us have experienced this frustrating phenomenon, especially dealing with TV antenna connections.  The only saving grace is, that for most installations, once the TV is set up and the cabling plugged in, things are often pretty reliable for quite some time.  Just don't mess around with the cables behind your TV.

In the past, I have replaced similar sockets with panel mounted BNC sockets with no noticeable drop in performance, but a significant increase in the durability of the socket.

I like the idea of BNC, since the body has a more secure mechanism and the central pin has less risk of damaging the central contact.

As a piece of test gear that is likely to have significantly more insertions than your regular consumer Belling-Lee fitted devices with cables exerting varying amounts and direction of pressure, I would be concerned about the central pin of the Belling-Lee socket getting repeatedly opened.  Replacing with a BNC would be very appealing to me.

[Cerebus]

"C" you're 100% spot on here, call me cynical if you like, but the insurance / pay based system that exists in the USA and maybe over here soon unless we can stop it. Makes me really wonder if all of these so-called emergencies and admittances aren't a ploy to extract every last penny, or cent that they can from people because they are, like it or not, a profit oriented business.

Oh, overbilling, and loading everything but the kitchen sink onto hospital bills is a regular source of horror stories from the US. The idea of being as rapaciously capitalistic as possible in a health care setting is just a foreign idea to us Brits; we're usually more likely to be worried about the opposite, something going untreated/undertreated to save a little scarce NHS money (fortunately this is truly rare).

I don't think we'll ever see US style, put your hand in your pocket,  privatisation here - it's politically untenable. What we are seeing is NHS work being contracted out to "for profit" healthcare service providers. We don't notice it because we don't directly pay, the NHS does the paying on our behalf.

[Vince]

Thanks Robert and Mansaxel for the links. Sadly even with all that good info, I can't find a suitable socket. Everything I see for sale is clearly targetted at TV / Video appliances, not vintage test gear.. ah well 

Thanks for all the links and info,; hopefully armed with that I can find something suitable !   

Want to replace it because.. as I explained earlier, bad connection. The split inner core gives zero signal on one of the pieces, and the other piece I need to press on it very firmly with the tip of the scope probe to get a proper signal.

If only the inner part is broken, maybe you can extract it and replace it with one from a more standard connector?

I don't see how one could extract the inner part without damaging destroying the socket, as I guess it's molded intot hte plastic dielectric piece, but well, what's to lose... I guess I could order a bag of cheap sockets and destroy a few of them.Maybe after trying various techniques I will figure out a way to extract the inner part without destroying everything... then put it back in, without deforming it. Maybe the inner part is just pushed into the dielectric, so can be pulled somehow, rather molded into it in which case it's a lost cause. Guess I can only figure it out by trying....

Still it sucks ! Can believe I can't just but a brand new of these sockets, I guess this tiny little thing demand of mine was still deemed to be unrealistic by the big fat bearded guy in red !!! 

Need to find something else to do where I CAN be successful, just so I can feel a bit better...

Fear ye not, perhaps this one will resolve the problem for you, as yours is flush, this one may well sit in the same location and finish up flush as well, who knows?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304237716949

That won't do it as the tip of the socket is not threaded so I can't screw the outside retaining nut back to it.
Can't thread it myself either as there is a big chamfer * so the nut would not bite. could remove the chamfer * but... then I would not have enough metal left to thread. Plus the body is split so not even sure the nut would actually work, it may compress the body inwards, deform it and the nut would lose grip and not be firmly secured to the thread.

* : "Chamfer " seems to be too technical a term these days ?! Firefox dictionary doesn't know about it... reports it as invalid 

[Vince]

The adaptors I linked to will plug into the existing socket on the Metrix and provide a BNC or F type without altering the unit.
The center contact of the Metrix probably just needs a clean and maybe a gentle squeeze together of the split.

Thanks for actually be willing to help, rather than judge, that's refreshing. If only they could all be like you, how friendly and productive TEA would be, not to mention the SNR would skyrocket.

I grabbed my LED torch light and threw some serious Lumens into that socket, I noticed that the two halves of the split inner core  were actually joining at their very bottom, it's in fact one single piece of metal. Therefore it did not make sense that one half was giving me a signal and not the other. Had to be bad connection. And when I saw the staggering amount of crust covering 100% of all surfaces in that socket, all black in there, thick layer.... it further reinforced the hypothesis.  So I did what I could to clean it. Attacked it first with a tiny flat screw driver to break up most of the black crust, blew some human air in there to force the debris out.  Then flooded the socket with contact cleaner / Deoxit, agitated it with the stiff hair of a nylon brush. That loosened the remaining crap. Then using the screw driver again,  I managed to shove a kitchen paper towel deep into the socket to dry it and take all the debris out.

Now looks soooooooooo much better ! Shiny and clean, almost like new. What I thought was "patina" from a distance, was in fact just crust and nothing else.

Fired up the scope and generator, now works much better.....

Will order a BNC adapter and see how it goes, but should do it I think...

Vince, most of would have told you the same thing as Robert did, so I'm guessing, the others made the same mistake I did, assumed that A/ you were aware that the 2 halves are joined at the base,

Well I understand... but no, I am not old enough to be familiar with these sockets on test gear (as for TV I never had the opportunity / reason as a kid, to autopsy them, and then as an adult as I said I never had a TV so didn't care).
The only old sockets I am familiar with are the BNC and UHF found on my old Tek scopes... but none of my Tek scopes have General-Lee sockets.
I have only two pieces of TE with these connectors, other one being the Wobuloscope which I did not restore. So this RF generator is the very first piece of TE where I have the opportunity to look closely at this style of socket... you gotta start somewhere.... some day. This is the day ! 

B/ assumed that you had tried to clean the socket and

I guess that was a fair assumption here .... a bit ashamed that I did not try that first  .  If I did not it's because as I said initially it seemed to me that symptoms showed the inner core was defective and therefore needed replacement, so it was logical from there, not to bother cleaning it... cleaning a defective/broken socket was not going to magically repair it 
But then once I saw the core was a single piece of metal, defective it could not bre anymore. Then when I realized it would be impossible to find a suitable replacement socket, the situation changed and going through the trouble of trying to clean the thing, now made a lot more sense.

That was went through my mind any way....
But that's how you learn ! Next time I have problems with such a connector, I won't make the same mistakes of course...

C/ squeezed the 2 split ends closer together, gently with a pair of long nose pliers.

That would have not fixed anything  since I was had no adapter to shove between the two parts of the core, so nothing to tighten the core onto.
I was using my scope probe, not having other choices, and pressed its tip one one half of the core at a time, contacting the inside of the core and pressing outwards, as it would give me the most stable / comfortable position one-handed, and let me use the other hand to operate the scope and the generator.

In the past, I have replaced similar sockets with panel mounted BNC sockets with no noticeable drop in performance, but a significant increase in the durability of the socket.

Not worried about performance in this case.. as I said the only reason I am trying to avoid replacing the old socket with a  BNC is for looks (it protrudes a lot instead of being flush, looks out of place) and originality. It just does not look period, would look weird on this instrument.

[Neomys Sapiens]

That Bernstein tool box 

I like them, but the old company is in something very old fashioned,
so the tool box must be enhanced with something from china, what else  (small accu loaded drillmashine what pass in the bag for a screwdriver, pen multimeter what pass also in... , LED light.. )
with something from the states (special allen keys for Collins knobs, bristol spline sized),
with something from UK (again allen keys, combinated set of black colored metric + imperial set)

and my weller solding is now jobless bec. the JBC there.

I'm firmly on the best-of-breed track. My toolcase (yes, posted before) is living proof:



You can't get everything just right from one house, even if it is one of the big German houses -- Wiha might manage most ordinary screwdrivers and the small torque tools, but I prefer Wera for ¹/₄" bit management and fixed jewellers' screwdrivers. None of them can hold their own against Bahco, Lindström or Knipex for pliers. (And I've got one multi-purpose Gedore that I really cherish; it's such a charming compromise.) Of course adjustable wrenches come from Bahco. The TS100 is now even better, as I've gotten the chisel tip for it. And none of them can compete with Fluke for dependable measurement. Uni-T, OTOH, makes the best little DC clamp. (And I own The Original Mother DC Clamp, the -hp- 428b, so I oughta know what a DC clamp should be.) Jonard makes the best wire-wrap and lacing tools. Hultafors makes the best electricians' hammer, and the best folding meter sticks.  And so on. Ad Infinitum.

Toolcase = British Telecom?

[Neomys Sapiens]

The adaptors I linked to will plug into the existing socket on the Metrix and provide a BNC or F type without altering the unit.
The center contact of the Metrix probably just needs a clean and maybe a gentle squeeze together of the split.

Thanks for actually be willing to help, rather than judge, that's refreshing. If only they could all be like you, how friendly and productive TEA would be, not to mention the SNR would skyrocket.

I grabbed my LED torch light and threw some serious Lumens into that socket, I noticed that the two halves of the split inner core  were actually joining at their very bottom, it's in fact one single piece of metal. Therefore it did not make sense that one half was giving me a signal and not the other. Had to be bad connection. And when I saw the staggering amount of crust covering 100% of all surfaces in that socket, all black in there, thick layer.... it further reinforced the hypothesis.  So I did what I could to clean it. Attacked it first with a tiny flat screw driver to break up most of the black crust, blew some human air in there to force the debris out.  Then flooded the socket with contact cleaner / Deoxit, agitated it with the stiff hair of a nylon brush. That loosened the remaining crap. Then using the screw driver again,  I managed to shove a kitchen paper towel deep into the socket to dry it and take all the debris out.

Now looks soooooooooo much better ! Shiny and clean, almost like new. What I thought was "patina" from a distance, was in fact just crust and nothing else.

Fired up the scope and generator, now works much better.....

Will order a BNC adapter and see how it goes, but should do it I think...

Good that it worked.
Just for the next time - get a contact burnisher!
https://www.jensentools.com/jonard-tools-pb-3-pb3-pocket-burnisher-jonard-pb3/p/125-204

Also useful:
- well worn thin dental diamond burr
- small interdental brushes

[Neomys Sapiens]

Interesting source for tools in the US:

http://www.pkneuses.com/www.pkneuses.com/tools.htm

I have not seen the relay/switch adjusting tools elsewhere!

[Vince]

The adaptors I linked to will plug into the existing socket on the Metrix and provide a BNC or F type without altering the unit.
The center contact of the Metrix probably just needs a clean and maybe a gentle squeeze together of the split.

Thanks for actually be willing to help, rather than judge, that's refreshing. If only they could all be like you, how friendly and productive TEA would be, not to mention the SNR would skyrocket.

I grabbed my LED torch light and threw some serious Lumens into that socket, I noticed that the two halves of the split inner core  were actually joining at their very bottom, it's in fact one single piece of metal. Therefore it did not make sense that one half was giving me a signal and not the other. Had to be bad connection. And when I saw the staggering amount of crust covering 100% of all surfaces in that socket, all black in there, thick layer.... it further reinforced the hypothesis.  So I did what I could to clean it. Attacked it first with a tiny flat screw driver to break up most of the black crust, blew some human air in there to force the debris out.  Then flooded the socket with contact cleaner / Deoxit, agitated it with the stiff hair of a nylon brush. That loosened the remaining crap. Then using the screw driver again,  I managed to shove a kitchen paper towel deep into the socket to dry it and take all the debris out.

Now looks soooooooooo much better ! Shiny and clean, almost like new. What I thought was "patina" from a distance, was in fact just crust and nothing else.

Fired up the scope and generator, now works much better.....

Will order a BNC adapter and see how it goes, but should do it I think...

Good that it worked.
Just for the next time - get a contact burnisher!
https://www.jensentools.com/jonard-tools-pb-3-pb3-pocket-burnisher-jonard-pb3/p/125-204

Also useful:
- well worn thin dental diamond burr
- small interdental brushes

Didn't know about these burnishers thingies, looks like a nifty little tool, thanks for the link...

[nixiefreqq]

Thanks Robert and Mansaxel for the links. Sadly even with all that good info, I can't find a suitable socket. Everything I see for sale is clearly targetted at TV / Video appliances, not vintage test gear.. ah well 

Thanks for all the links and info,; hopefully armed with that I can find something suitable !   

Want to replace it because.. as I explained earlier, bad connection. The split inner core gives zero signal on one of the pieces, and the other piece I need to press on it very firmly with the tip of the scope probe to get a proper signal.

If only the inner part is broken, maybe you can extract it and replace it with one from a more standard connector?

I don't see how one could extract the inner part without damaging destroying the socket, as I guess it's molded intot hte plastic dielectric piece, but well, what's to lose... I guess I could order a bag of cheap sockets and destroy a few of them.Maybe after trying various techniques I will figure out a way to extract the inner part without destroying everything... then put it back in, without deforming it. Maybe the inner part is just pushed into the dielectric, so can be pulled somehow, rather molded into it in which case it's a lost cause. Guess I can only figure it out by trying....

Still it sucks ! Can believe I can't just but a brand new of these sockets, I guess this tiny little thing demand of mine was still deemed to be unrealistic by the big fat bearded guy in red !!! 

Need to find something else to do where I CAN be successful, just so I can feel a bit better...

Fear ye not, perhaps this one will resolve the problem for you, as yours is flush, this one may well sit in the same location and finish up flush as well, who knows?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304237716949

That won't do it as the tip of the socket is not threaded so I can't screw the outside retaining nut back to it.
Can't thread it myself either as there is a big chamfer * so the nut would not bite. could remove the chamfer * but... then I would not have enough metal left to thread. Plus the body is split so not even sure the nut would actually work, it may compress the body inwards, deform it and the nut would lose grip and not be firmly secured to the thread.

* : "Chamfer " seems to be too technical a term these days ?! Firefox dictionary doesn't know about it... reports it as invalid 

well that takes me back.  was in my first real job in 1978 (at a naval shipyard).  we did our own drafting and one of my first drawings had just gone out to the shops for some overhaul work on a destroyer.

a week later two shop masters wearing white hardhats with eagles on them came storming into the chief electrical engineers office.  (when you first started you received a warning to never mess with a shop master).   seems no one in the shops knew what a chamfer was. 

the chief electrical engineer (a good guy) came out to the floor and told me that i had not screwed the pooch.......but from now on use the term "bevel".

[Vince]

Good story! 

Yes bevel will do as well...

Maybe bevel is a more specific term and chamfer is more general purpose and can be applied to describe anything.
I.e : a bevel is a subset of chamber ?! I don't know...

As for myself chamfer comes to mind more naturally than bevel, because the French word for chamfer is very similar ( " Chanfrein " ).

Bevel sounds like a 100% English word, so maybe older, whereas chamfer being close to the French word, maybe it came from the French vocabulary, like so many other words ?

In this case the two words are 100% interchangeable and it's just a matter of preference or local culture...

[TERRA Operative]

Had some time to poke at the 1345A Vector Display from my 4145A Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer today. Thing has been annoying me with a random focus issue.
Looks like I nailed it down to a faulty 7.5Mohm resistor, so that's nice. Too bad no-one in Akihabara keeps high voltage 7.5Mohm resistors in stock...

I guess I'll just have to make up a shopping list on Mouser/Digikey, what a drag to have to buy more spare parts...

[mnementh]

Urrrrrggghh... Woke up to a freezing cold house... at first, thought another failed thermostat, so serviced the one in the dining room for crusty battery terminals... Still no joy.

Go down to the basement, see all 3 zones showing a call for heat and pilot out.

Yup, you guessed it... Failed thermocouple.

FML...

mnem

[Specmaster]

"C" you're 100% spot on here, call me cynical if you like, but the insurance / pay based system that exists in the USA and maybe over here soon unless we can stop it. Makes me really wonder if all of these so-called emergencies and admittances aren't a ploy to extract every last penny, or cent that they can from people because they are, like it or not, a profit oriented business.

Oh, overbilling, and loading everything but the kitchen sink onto hospital bills is a regular source of horror stories from the US. The idea of being as rapaciously capitalistic as possible in a health care setting is just a foreign idea to us Brits; we're usually more likely to be worried about the opposite, something going untreated/undertreated to save a little scarce NHS money (fortunately this is truly rare).

I don't think we'll ever see US style, put your hand in your pocket,  privatisation here - it's politically untenable. What we are seeing is NHS work being contracted out to "for profit" healthcare service providers. We don't notice it because we don't directly pay, the NHS does the paying on our behalf.

Yes, that process has been going in the background hoping that the public don't notice it and to be fair, very few people are aware of it, because when you go to one of these out sourced venues, they do a good job of disguising it by plastering the NHS logo everywhere and even wear NHS uniforms. SWMBO and MIL have both had operations in a BUPA hospital but were in wards with NHS stuck everywhere, SWMBO also attends special ear clinic, run by "Provide" but again under the guise of NHS.

I don't share your optimism, there are already high level talks with US health providers going on, but I do agree that there won't be any personal dipping into pockets for treatment at least for some time to come, but I can corners being cut as time goes on, and also the stagnation of Govt money for health care providers which will slowly fuel the rise of health insurance via the back door.

[AVGresponding]

Good story! 

Yes bevel will do as well...

Maybe bevel is a more specific term and chamfer is more general purpose and can be applied to describe anything.
I.e : a bevel is a subset of chamber ?! I don't know...

As for myself chamfer comes to mind more naturally than bevel, because the French word for chamfer is very similar ( " Chanfrein " ).

Bevel sounds like a 100% English word, so maybe older, whereas chamfer being close to the French word, maybe it came from the French vocabulary, like so many other words ?

In this case the two words are 100% interchangeable and it's just a matter of preference or local culture...

Your instincts are good:  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chamfer

The etymology of bevel is closer to home than you thought:  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bevel

The danger seems to lie in attempting to communicate with people that are less well-read than oneself. If you use a word they don't know, they assume you are either making it up or trying to sound superior.   

[Specmaster]

<snip>
That won't do it as the tip of the socket is not threaded so I can't screw the outside retaining nut back to it.
Can't thread it myself either as there is a big chamfer * so the nut would not bite. could remove the chamfer * but... then I would not have enough metal left to thread. Plus the body is split so not even sure the nut would actually work, it may compress the body inwards, deform it and the nut would lose grip and not be firmly secured to the thread.

* : "Chamfer " seems to be too technical a term these days ?! Firefox dictionary doesn't know about it... reports it as invalid 

Personally, I wouldn't bother trying to retain its originality, if it were mine, I'd do like I said earlier, rip it and fit a panel mount BNC socket. There wouldn't be any noticeable effect of performance but would be a massive uplift in the longevity of the interface.

[Cerebus]

Interesting source for tools in the US:

http://www.pkneuses.com/www.pkneuses.com/tools.htm

I have not seen the relay/switch adjusting tools elsewhere!

Is it bad that my internal spelling checker is trying to turn that domain name into "pink anuses"? 

[Specmaster]

<snip>

C/ squeezed the 2 split ends closer together, gently with a pair of long nose pliers.

That would have not fixed anything  since I was had no adapter to shove between the two parts of the core, so nothing to tighten the core onto.
I was using my scope probe, not having other choices, and pressed its tip one one half of the core at a time, contacting the inside of the core and pressing outwards, as it would give me the most stable / comfortable position one-handed, and let me use the other hand to operate the scope and the generator.

In the past, I have replaced similar sockets with panel mounted BNC sockets with no noticeable drop in performance, but a significant increase in the durability of the socket.

Not worried about performance in this case.. as I said the only reason I am trying to avoid replacing the old socket with a  BNC is for looks (it protrudes a lot instead of being flush, looks out of place) and originality. It just does not look period, would look weird on this instrument.

You don't squeeze the two halves together onto a centre pin etc as this would not provide the grip and contact pressure that you're after, you do this gently with nothing in the middle. You need the two sections to make contact with the centre pin of the inserted plug, so be bending them so that the gap is smaller than the pin , means that inserting the plug, the pin scrapes along the "tube" contact and slightly forces it apart to grip the pin. As has already been said, these sockets were only ever intended to be fit for about 25 insertions.

And as for the BNC not being period correct, my answer to that is, what are you restoring it for? A/ to look at or B/ to make a functional piece of equipment again?

[Cerebus]

The danger seems to lie in attempting to communicate with people that are less well-read than oneself. If you use a word they don't know, they assume you are either making it up or trying to sound superior.   [/color][/size][/b]

I'm reminded of the Bill Hicks skit that includes the phrase "Well lookie here, looks like we got ourselves a reader!". It seems that there has always been a class of people that takes it as personal insult if you've ever made the effort that they eschewed to make yourself a better and more capable individual. Pride (except at a job well done) might be a sin in certain philosophies, but acceptance of pride in wilful ignorance is a force that can drag whole societies into the mud.

[AVGresponding]

<snip>

C/ squeezed the 2 split ends closer together, gently with a pair of long nose pliers.

That would have not fixed anything  since I was had no adapter to shove between the two parts of the core, so nothing to tighten the core onto.
I was using my scope probe, not having other choices, and pressed its tip one one half of the core at a time, contacting the inside of the core and pressing outwards, as it would give me the most stable / comfortable position one-handed, and let me use the other hand to operate the scope and the generator.

In the past, I have replaced similar sockets with panel mounted BNC sockets with no noticeable drop in performance, but a significant increase in the durability of the socket.

Not worried about performance in this case.. as I said the only reason I am trying to avoid replacing the old socket with a  BNC is for looks (it protrudes a lot instead of being flush, looks out of place) and originality. It just does not look period, would look weird on this instrument.

You don't squeeze the two halves together onto a centre pin etc as this would not provide the grip and contact pressure that you're after, you do this gently with nothing in the middle. You need the two sections to make contact with the centre pin of the inserted plug, so be bending them so that the gap is smaller than the pin , means that inserting the plug, the pin scrapes along the "tube" contact and slightly forces it apart to grip the pin. As has already been said, these sockets were only ever intended to be fit for about 25 insertions.

And as for the BNC not being period correct, my answer to that is, what are you restoring it for? A/ to look at or B/ to make a functional piece of equipment again?

Now now Spec, let's not pick at people for their approach to the repair/restore question. It's personal preference, there's no more to be said.

I rarely clean old labels off, or even dirt unless it's loose or icky. I prefer to see the history of the instrument; as long as it's fully functional the rest is just "character" and "history" to me. I never criticise or poke at people that like to make their instruments "as new", it's their preference, their instrument, and their business, not mine.

There's room for every approach, imo

[Vince]

<snip>

C/ squeezed the 2 split ends closer together, gently with a pair of long nose pliers.

That would have not fixed anything  since I was had no adapter to shove between the two parts of the core, so nothing to tighten the core onto.
I was using my scope probe, not having other choices, and pressed its tip one one half of the core at a time, contacting the inside of the core and pressing outwards, as it would give me the most stable / comfortable position one-handed, and let me use the other hand to operate the scope and the generator.

In the past, I have replaced similar sockets with panel mounted BNC sockets with no noticeable drop in performance, but a significant increase in the durability of the socket.

Not worried about performance in this case.. as I said the only reason I am trying to avoid replacing the old socket with a  BNC is for looks (it protrudes a lot instead of being flush, looks out of place) and originality. It just does not look period, would look weird on this instrument.

You don't squeeze the two halves together onto a centre pin etc as this would not provide the grip and contact pressure that you're after, you do this gently with nothing in the middle. You need the two sections to make contact with the centre pin of the inserted plug, so be bending them so that the gap is smaller than the pin , means that inserting the plug, the pin scrapes along the "tube" contact and slightly forces it apart to grip the pin. As has already been said, these sockets were only ever intended to be fit for about 25 insertions.

And as for the BNC not being period correct, my answer to that is, what are you restoring it for? A/ to look at or B/ to make a functional piece of equipment again?

Hmm... you seem very upset ?! 

I understand you don't have the same point of view than I do, I take note, but it's my TE so I do as I please ! 

To answer your question, I am after both originality and functionality, when possible.

It seems possible here, why would it not. It's not like I was going to insert / pull a cable into that socket 20 times a day every day of every year for the next 30 years, is it ? No it's not... 

25 cycles is ridiculous, how cold Metrix possibly sell their product if that were the case.. after one week all their customers would ask for their money back and the company would have gone south immediately. I think you are dramatizing here... 

This 25 cycles probably refers to the crappy plugs used today for TV purposes, not the ones they used back then for expensive TE people had to rely on for their work.

Tell you what. I will get that BNC adapter, report if it works or not. If it does, this alone proves you wrong, unless you want to pretend that this instrument / socket has seen less than 25 cycles since new. 

Then I will perform 25 mating cycles and report. If the socket is completely destroyed, physically broken and no signal passes any more, you get a cookie. but if it still works after 25 cycles, you send me a whole packet of cookies. Hell I am even willing to try my chance and push it way beyond its rating, and do 50 or 200 cycles, even 500.

At any rate I don't see the urge of mutilating this poor generator with a BNC socket, without having even tried to see how it does with a proper BNC adapter and a some pliers action on the split tube. If it does not work well then we can always retrofit a BNC socket if need be. Don't see the urge, unless you have a personal problem with the original socket.. but I don't.
You are free to mutilate your old TE as much as you like, but please allow me the right to proceed as I please with my own TE ? 

Let's see who will get the cookies...

[med6753]

RE: chamfer vs bevel.

Always understood what it meant and never had an issue with either word. I'm surprised that "chamfer" is almost unknown and apparently in some circles (the military) a dirty word. 

[McBryce]

<snip>

C/ squeezed the 2 split ends closer together, gently with a pair of long nose pliers.

That would have not fixed anything  since I was had no adapter to shove between the two parts of the core, so nothing to tighten the core onto.
I was using my scope probe, not having other choices, and pressed its tip one one half of the core at a time, contacting the inside of the core and pressing outwards, as it would give me the most stable / comfortable position one-handed, and let me use the other hand to operate the scope and the generator.

In the past, I have replaced similar sockets with panel mounted BNC sockets with no noticeable drop in performance, but a significant increase in the durability of the socket.

Not worried about performance in this case.. as I said the only reason I am trying to avoid replacing the old socket with a  BNC is for looks (it protrudes a lot instead of being flush, looks out of place) and originality. It just does not look period, would look weird on this instrument.

You don't squeeze the two halves together onto a centre pin etc as this would not provide the grip and contact pressure that you're after, you do this gently with nothing in the middle. You need the two sections to make contact with the centre pin of the inserted plug, so be bending them so that the gap is smaller than the pin , means that inserting the plug, the pin scrapes along the "tube" contact and slightly forces it apart to grip the pin. As has already been said, these sockets were only ever intended to be fit for about 25 insertions.

And as for the BNC not being period correct, my answer to that is, what are you restoring it for? A/ to look at or B/ to make a functional piece of equipment again?

Now now Spec, let's not pick at people for their approach to the repair/restore question. It's personal preference, there's no more to be said.

I rarely clean old labels off, or even dirt unless it's loose or icky. I prefer to see the history of the instrument; as long as it's fully functional the rest is just "character" and "history" to me. I never criticise or poke at people that like to make their instruments "as new", it's their preference, their instrument, and their business, not mine.

There's room for every approach, except for the approach that involves stealing tubes from perfectly good Tek scopes to make Audiophool amps of questionable performance, imo.

FTFY.

McBryce.

[AVGresponding]

There's room for every approach, except for the approach that involves stealing tubes from perfectly good Tek scopes to make Audiophool amps of questionable performance, imo.

FTFY.

McBryce.

I did consider adding something similar.

[mansaxel]

Toolcase = British Telecom?

Yup, that's at least, according to the story from Canford Audio, where they became popular.  When something's being sold with the phrase "distinctive standard issue cases" I immediately thought of "Q" out of a Bond movie, and the deal was done. I've got a No. 2 that's been retired, but retained, because my dear wife gave me a No. 6 she'd dug out of UK Ebay, at a bargain, as Christmas gift some 6 years ago.