blairm
New Member
I am proud to share my latest project with you. Presently breaking- in within my modest system is a recently restored EICO HF-81 integrated amplifier. It came to me as a crippled and severely oxidized non-functioning box of uncertainty that spent five years beneath my stairs until I had the gumption and time to dedicate to its proper resurrection. Please take a moment to share with me my pride and hours of sweat, scrapes and impending case of solder-lung.
I began by stripping the chassis, bagging and categorizing everything I carefully removed, and sent the metal to a local shop to be zinc plated. In the meantime, I placed an order with AES for every remotely faithful part they offered, and begun refinishing the exterior panels. As my girlfriend’s fierce objections to the Rust-Oleum fumes subsided, the parts arrived right on schedule. Bless those folks at www.tubesandmore.com.
With a copy of the original EICO assembly manual on my bench, I got down to business with the CBC as my only company. The pleasure of following in the footsteps of many before me as I constructed, step-by-step, a product some 50 years old never faded. I giggled and smiled throughout the entire process as I have often longed to share the kit builders’ experience. I am now officially hooked.
Editorializing aside, I’ll attempt to describe what went into this effort. I attempted to stay as true to the philosophy of part selection where I felt made sense. All resistors (save for some select areas) are carbon composition. All electrolytics were selected from brands I was happy with, coupling caps are Orange Drop 716Ps and all ceramics caps replaced with silver mica equivalents. The power transformer is Heyboer’s excellent reproduction and the stock outputs were stripped down and refinished to match the Heyboer. I disassembled all mechanical parts, switches and potentiometers, and rebuilt them as new. Many, many hours were spent polishing screws, tube shields and various brass parts as dreams of musical Nirvana drifted through my dreams.
Did I mention that this broke-down box of junk came to me with original Mullard tubes in every socket? All tubes tested very strong and will surely provide years of pleasure. I doubt that this poor thing ever saw much time reproducing tunes as it will surely see now. I hope you can share my joy vicariously through the pictures attached.
Blair
I began by stripping the chassis, bagging and categorizing everything I carefully removed, and sent the metal to a local shop to be zinc plated. In the meantime, I placed an order with AES for every remotely faithful part they offered, and begun refinishing the exterior panels. As my girlfriend’s fierce objections to the Rust-Oleum fumes subsided, the parts arrived right on schedule. Bless those folks at www.tubesandmore.com.
With a copy of the original EICO assembly manual on my bench, I got down to business with the CBC as my only company. The pleasure of following in the footsteps of many before me as I constructed, step-by-step, a product some 50 years old never faded. I giggled and smiled throughout the entire process as I have often longed to share the kit builders’ experience. I am now officially hooked.
Editorializing aside, I’ll attempt to describe what went into this effort. I attempted to stay as true to the philosophy of part selection where I felt made sense. All resistors (save for some select areas) are carbon composition. All electrolytics were selected from brands I was happy with, coupling caps are Orange Drop 716Ps and all ceramics caps replaced with silver mica equivalents. The power transformer is Heyboer’s excellent reproduction and the stock outputs were stripped down and refinished to match the Heyboer. I disassembled all mechanical parts, switches and potentiometers, and rebuilt them as new. Many, many hours were spent polishing screws, tube shields and various brass parts as dreams of musical Nirvana drifted through my dreams.
Did I mention that this broke-down box of junk came to me with original Mullard tubes in every socket? All tubes tested very strong and will surely provide years of pleasure. I doubt that this poor thing ever saw much time reproducing tunes as it will surely see now. I hope you can share my joy vicariously through the pictures attached.
Blair
