Tried to fix my neighbor's old radio and ended up with a smoke show in my garage

I was out on my route last Tuesday and this older guy flagged me down, said his vintage Grundig tabletop radio just hummed and nothing else. Told him I'd take a look, figured it was just a bad filter cap or something simple. Got it open on my bench, poked around the power supply, and next thing I know a little puff of smoke curls up from the rectifier tube. I yanked the plug so fast I knocked over my coffee cup, and now there's a brown stain on my workbench that matches the smell in here. Has anyone else had a tube radio fight back like that or am I just cursed with bad luck?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaeljones9d ago

Wait, are we really supposed to feel sorry for you about that? Because from where I'm sitting, that sounds like a pretty standard learning experience with old tube gear, not some curse. You poked around a power supply without discharging the caps first, and then got surprised when something let go. That's not bad luck, that's skipping the basics. The rectifier tube was probably already on its last legs and you just gave it the final push. Vintage radios are basically ticking time bombs until you restore the whole power section, not just one filter cap. If anything, that little smoke show probably saved you from a much bigger fire later when the real failure happened.

leep899d ago

Is it really that big a deal though, @michaeljones? A little smoke and a dead tube is a cheap lesson compared to blowing up your whole bench. People act like every mistake is some huge disaster, but we all learn by breaking stuff sometimes.