The forgotten 500-B

RS Steve

Tube Junkie
Subscriber
I guess when you have as many Fisher tube units as I do, there is bound to be a few that get misplaced. :whip:

This is an early 500-B I picked up some time ago and gave it a quick internal recap. I had also ordered a H.H. can capacitor kit for it, but this receiver was put to the side unfinished as other projects took over. I came across it the other day and decided I would replace all the cans, :eek: all 5 of them! By far the hardest re-can job I have ever done, and I have an 800-B waiting for the same treatment. All that's left is to power it up to see how it turned out, always a bit nerve racking after doing so much work, should be fine though if I use my DBT first.

I thought since this is the early version with the tubes in front of the OPT's, it deserved some show off time, these are beautiful looking receivers and you don't see many early units. It's interesting how they created a heat shield that clamps to the phase inverter tubes, I wonder if that was added after production started.

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Such a problem -- forgetting about the Fishers you have........

Nice addition, Steve!

Dave
Thanks Dave!
This one has been here probably over a year, but during the restoration I was stopped cold after seeing how it had 5 can caps, I wasn't too experienced at that yet. It still was quite a challenge even now though. Looking at the serial number, it's a very early 500-B, I'm just happy to have it finished finally.
 
Very nice unit and great work, Steve. Mine had the tubes behind the OPT's, but pretty close together. The HH cans are nice units. Used them in my 400 rehab.
Dave
 
Damn Steve! More FISHER's than Carter's got Liver Pills! This is the 1st time I've seen that secondary heatshield. Most often they are not shown on the unit. You'd think the tubes would get excessively hot, but maybe the "Chimney" effect offsets it. Be interesting to use an Infrared or laser thermometer on the tubes and surrounding parts with and without the heatshield to see if it actually works or if it's for show. You got an inside contact or something??? Where ARE you getting all these low serial # units.
 
Damn Steve! More FISHER's than Carter's got Liver Pills! This is the 1st time I've seen that secondary heatshield. Most often they are not shown on the unit. You'd think the tubes would get excessively hot, but maybe the "Chimney" effect offsets it. Be interesting to use an Infrared or laser thermometer on the tubes and surrounding parts with and without the heatshield to see if it actually works or if it's for show. You got an inside contact or something??? Where ARE you getting all these low serial # units.
I can't even remember where I picked this one up at Larry, it might of been from a thrift store. I had installed a new rectifier, screen stability resistors, sampling resistors, inrush limiter, and all underside capacitors before putting it aside. If I remember correctly, it showed a bias in the .50V and .60V range after testing. I still need to master the art of getting the bias down on these units, and tuner repair, I pretty much have the rest of the restoration process down. This unit was stashed with my KX-100 and KX-200, they all needed new cans but I hadn't mastered that part yet. I figure since I have put an end to any more acquisitions, I might as well finish any that need to be completed here. I have figured a pretty efficient way of removing the old cans that are soldered in at the ground lugs, it sure creates less mess and frustration.
 
Personally, I think that the 500B is the prettiest of the Fisher receivers.
I like the 500-B and 800-B because of the more gold face plate and the knob in the center, but I still like the 1800 best for looks. The 500-B has a very uncluttered chassis also, which is always a good thing.
 
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See? Even after you said you were done buying Fishers, you manage to find beauties like this "forgotten" just lying around to restore! :rockon: Good luck with this one Steve, you are doing the Fisher community a service keeping so many fine examples going.
 
Looks like all turned out well for this 500-B, bias and voltages all check out very good. Great sounding receiver, tubes are running between .32V to .34V with some fairly well matching used tubes. All that is left to do is replace the felt weather stripping behind the face plate.

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Wow, replacing the weather stripping behind the face plate and using LED's really made a difference, I am very impressed.

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Just to show before and after, originally it had stock lights and deteriorated gasket around the glass, after is with glass cleaned, new gaskets and LED's. Do you think it improved? ;)
Makes me want to go back and do all my receivers this way.

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Looks great! What gasket material did you use and where did you apply it? Front of glass?
I went to Home Depot and got a pack of felt blankets, the foam weather stripping was too thick for my liking, and the felt should hold up better. I used a razor blade to cut the strips to the width I needed. The bottom strip attached to the face plate, and the two sides attach to the glass just like originally, none was on the top.
 
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