Jim's Antique Radio Museum
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PROJECT PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
Here I will show you some of my recent projects.
TUBE TESTER I-177
This is a military tube tester, model I-177. I believe it is made by Hickok and it is a Transconductance type of tube tester.
These things sit flat on the table and are often difficult to see the controls to make sure you have all set in the proper position. So, last Monday a radio collector friend called and said "hey it is a rainy day, so why don't we build some stands for our tube tester?" He has the same model tube tester that I have so we could do two pretty quickly. As you can see, my tester is in need of a new paint job!
Tube Tester Stand
This is the stand we came up with. You can see that the design is pretty simple, but very sturdy with those corner blocks mounted towards the rear. We used scrap pine shelving board material to build these. There are just a couple of 1/2 inch cleats along each side for the tester to rest on and then a stop bar going across the lower front of the stand. The tester also rests on that board going across the back, but its function is primarily to make the stand stable, along with the corner blocks glued in place. The stand was put together with the use of glue on all joints and held in place by an air operated brad nailer. Now that we have done two of these, we could make more out of better wood pretty quickly.
TUBE TESTER MOUNTED IN STAND
Here is the tube tester sitting in its stand. This was at the "unfinished" stage, but you can see that the tube tester and its hinged cover with data book now are in a much more useful position. You can now see the controls very easy and get a more direct reading of the meter.
TESTER ON STAINED STAND
Now we are getting closer to the finished product. The stand has been stained, but still no finish coat has been applied. Unfortunately, this scrap wood we used doesn't give the best look after applying the stain. My friend now tells me that he wants to make another one out of solid oak for a better look. Anyhow, the project is a success and will result in lots of more enjoyable hours testing tubes.