Variable caps/ curing warble

[Kenneth Laine Ketner]

I have been able to make my own conductive grease by mixing a good
quality grease (I have used Dow Corning 33 or Archer/RadioShack lube gel
which come in toothpaste size tubes) with powdered graphite lubricant
available at hardware stores. In a pinch, or if you are a cheapskate
like me, just grind up some pencil lead on some fine sandpaper and use
that. I use a toothpick and mix up a small amount, more or less 50/50 or
whatever. I then use my toothpick spreader tool to put a LITTLE bead
around the wiper slip-ring/rotator joint on the variable cap that is
causing wobble or drift. Appears to have settled down a couple of my
Hallicrafters and Heath rigs that were burbling. Keep it off everything
else, including the cap plates. The idea is to make that little
stationary wiper slip-ring and the rotating plates electrically one.
Throwing a microdollop of Caig GXL into the mix would probably help
conductivity even more, but I haven’t tried that yet, and the mix might
be too runny.

--

Ken Ketner
ARS KA5ELD (Extra Class)
  Personal Webpage: http://www.wyttynys.net
  Office Webpage: http://www.pragmaticism.net
Email:
 home: ketner at arisbeassociates.com
 office: b9oky at ttacs.ttu.edu

US MAIL
PO Box 65135
Lubbock, TX 79464

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