As I’ve written about before I am interested in old technology, primarily computers from the 8-bit era but also other things more generally. Lately I’ve rekindled an interest in old audio gear as well, particularly cassette recorders but also other things too. Cassettes seem to have experienced something of a renaissance lately, not on the scale of vinyl of course but definitely more than previously. I grew up with cassettes, never owning a record player (well not really… I did have a 1960s ‘picnic basket’ one for a while which I bought for 10p at a jumble sale) and relied on them well into the CD era for music on the move. So I do have a real affection for them.
I’ve always enjoyed car boot sales and I’ve been going to these more lately as well, and I’ve managed to pick up a whole range of interesting stuff, most of it in various stages of disrepair. What has been interested is how little documentation there is on this stuff out there – you can often find service manuals, but rarely anything else.
So I’m going to use the blog to document what I’m finding, what I’ve needed to do to bring it back to life and any lessons learned, and also what I think about them. Given the level of interest in retro these days, there is still a huge amount preservation to be done and I’m hoping to play a small part in doing that. I’ve not been very active on the blog lately but I have a lot of stuff to talk about so let’s begin!
Universal Discovery Methodology 
hello and thank you for this really invaluable advice. I am trying to repair the drystone heated airer as you describe and have got to the bit where i am nort ready to take the old capacitor out. I’m new to all this (do i wish I’d taken more interest in my Dad’s workshop when he was alive) and so I’m wondering how to do this. I’m thinking that maybe I can just cut off the old capacitor on the back but sliding something under the solder and then putting the new one in place and putting a drop of solder on to to make it stick. Is that ok do you think? Thanks again Sian
Hi, no problem. Desoldering is one of the trickier bits of soldering as you have to heat the solder up and then find a way of either removing the solder or pulling the component out whilst it is still hot. It is best to remove the component entirely and the solder to leave you with a clean hole to put the new one in. I’m not quite sure I follow your description – basically it will work so long as you can get an electrical connection from the pad to the pin but the space inside the plastic case is quite tight so you do need to be precise. I would recommend getting a desoldering pump – these are spring loaded, and the idea is that you heat up the joint and then use the pump to suck the old solder away. You can also get a pump with a built-in soldering iron which makes it quite easy. So something like this:
or
Once you have removed the old one and cleared the old solder away it should be fairly easy to solder in the new one
Please let me know how you get on!