I found this beat up GE transistor radio from like 1965 in a box my dad gave me. Thought it would be a fun afternoon project to clean it up and get it working again. Followed a YouTube video but the guy talked so fast and skipped steps. Now there's a pile of screws and little metal clips on my desk that I have zero clue where they go. The radio still doesn't make a sound and I'm pretty sure I bent the tuning capacitor out of shape. Learned that old electronics have way more fragile wires than I expected. Anyone got a guide that actually shows you where every single part goes?
My buddy Rick told me to just recap old portable cassette players instead of tossing them when the audio gets weak. I figured he was full of it but I tried it on my WM-F55 that's been sitting dead since 2018. Replaced four small electrolytics for like 8 bucks total and the thing fired right up with perfect sound. Has anyone else had luck with recapping old portables or is Rick just lucky?
I was at the Rose Bowl flea market last Saturday and this guy selling a Sony Trinitron was going back and forth with a buyer who insisted CRTs are useless for anything except retro gaming. The seller was saying they're still great for old security camera setups and even some medical equipment folks still use. It got me thinking about the debate between preserving these heavy old beasts versus just moving on to flat panels for everything. On one hand, the picture quality for certain vintage computers is unmatched, but on the other, they take up half a room and weigh a ton. What side do you all fall on for CRTs specifically... are they worth keeping around for practical use or just nostalgia?
I used to just pop a cassette into my Walkman and press play, but last month I bought a cheap USB converter on Amazon for $18 to save them as MP3s. Has anyone else found that the sound quality drops way off when you try to speed through the conversion?
So I was watching this old concert recording I found at a Goodwill in Phoenix last month, and right around the 45 minute mark the tape just stopped and the VCR made this horrible grinding noise. I opened it up and saw the pinch roller is all gummy and not spinning right, plus one of the belts looks stretched. I've seen YouTube videos where people replace these parts with belts from other old electronics, but I'm worried I'll mess up the alignment even more. On the flip side, I called this one repair shop in town and they quoted me $85 just to look at it, which is more than I paid for the VCR itself. Has anyone here successfully swapped out belts on a Panasonic AG series deck without special tools, or is that a recipe for disaster?