Looking for some help:

I seem to recall someone mentioning that they have successfully cleaned a radio chassis in the dishwasher.

Aside from the obvious, like removing the speaker, can anyone comment? Risks, lessons learned? What about waxed coils?

Also, what is the best way to clean a bakelite cabinet?

Gary

I used to be a bench technician in the early 70's for HP at their Eastern Regional repair center here in North Jersey. We worked on all the test equip. HP made...
Out in the user community at that time, there was still a good deal of "tube-type" old oscilloscopes & signal generators in active use. Whenever any of these units showed up for repair and/or overhaul, they were usually as cruddy as we see these old radios are today.
So the first thing we always did with all this gear was to bring it into the power wash booth. We would hose it down with warm water first, then using a powerwash wand we'd spray a de-greaser detergent type soap over the whole thing inside and out. Then rinse it again with a hose spray of hot water.
Then it was placed in a drying rack oven with a circulating fan, for at least 24-48 hrs at about 140-150 degrees or so I think.
We always made sure that anything with high-voltage transformers like scopes were throughly dry to avoid any possible arcing.
This was a very effective process.

Now...I have attempted this a here at home with relatively good success... my caveats are NOT to be impatient like me, (lol) and just WAIT till it dries!!
What I do now is I give it a bath in the sink with household cleaners or dish soap and hot water, scrubbing with a short bristle brush or paint brush. Then I shake off the excess water and blow dry it with a hair dryer being careful not to get too close to any components with heat and keep the temp on low. Then I preheat my gas-oven to about 150 for a few minutes... then I turn it OFF before I place the radio inside... and leave the chassis there overnight where only the gas pilot light is still on.
The first failure I had was with a Zenith 6d525 which uses rubber insulation on the old wires. I din't turn the oven heat off ... I left it there set to "warm-140 degrees"... but that was apparently too hot for the old rubber wires and they caught fire.. totally destroying the entire radio and ..smoke-damaging my home( but thanks to my home insurance... it was all cleaned up nicely)

(By The WAY... as we speak...That radio is now down in Brazil being completely rebuilt from scratch by a guy who offered to do the entire thing for very few bucks.($130)... including re-winding IF coils and oscillator coils and even chrome-plating the chassis and on top of that he's also refinishing the wooden cabinet too!!)

Back to the topic here...
The only other things that happen if you don't let it dry completely is that water tends to collect in the tube sockets and under the trimmer cap mica-wafers... causing it not to play again till it is all dry.
... So, if it was working fine before you washed it, DO NOT attempt to tweak ANYTHING again to get it to play again if there's any chance that it's still wet. You'll only be "peeing up a rope"! Let it dry... then it'll be fine!

I do this now very often... but carefully and patiently, because when I was hasty.. I just wasted tons of energy trying to get it to work again... then giving up.. I'd just turn it on under a desk-lamp to help dry it off and in an hour or so I'd suddenly hear it "coming alive" again all by itself.

I have heard of people doing this before but with all componets removed, are you saying that you do not have to remove certain componets IE transformers , coils etc? I have never attempted this for fear of ruining something , Now I have washed printed circuit boards with no problems , but never have tried a tube radio, can you give a list of what should be done before trying this ?
Thanks
:I used to be a bench technician in the early 70's for HP at their Eastern Regional repair center here in North Jersey. We worked on all the test equip. HP made...
:Out in the user community at that time, there was still a good deal of "tube-type" old oscilloscopes & signal generators in active use. Whenever any of these units showed up for repair and/or overhaul, they were usually as cruddy as we see these old radios are today.
:So the first thing we always did with all this gear was to bring it into the power wash booth. We would hose it down with warm water first, then using a powerwash wand we'd spray a de-greaser detergent type soap over the whole thing inside and out. Then rinse it again with a hose spray of hot water.
:Then it was placed in a drying rack oven with a circulating fan, for at least 24-48 hrs at about 140-150 degrees or so I think.
:We always made sure that anything with high-voltage transformers like scopes were throughly dry to avoid any possible arcing.
:This was a very effective process.
:
:Now...I have attempted this a here at home with relatively good success... my caveats are NOT to be impatient like me, (lol) and just WAIT till it dries!!
:What I do now is I give it a bath in the sink with household cleaners or dish soap and hot water, scrubbing with a short bristle brush or paint brush. Then I shake off the excess water and blow dry it with a hair dryer being careful not to get too close to any components with heat and keep the temp on low. Then I preheat my gas-oven to about 150 for a few minutes... then I turn it OFF before I place the radio inside... and leave the chassis there overnight where only the gas pilot light is still on.
:The first failure I had was with a Zenith 6d525 which uses rubber insulation on the old wires. I din't turn the oven heat off ... I left it there set to "warm-140 degrees"... but that was apparently too hot for the old rubber wires and they caught fire.. totally destroying the entire radio and ..smoke-damaging my home( but thanks to my home insurance... it was all cleaned up nicely)
:
:(By The WAY... as we speak...That radio is now down in Brazil being completely rebuilt from scratch by a guy who offered to do the entire thing for very few bucks.($130)... including re-winding IF coils and oscillator coils and even chrome-plating the chassis and on top of that he's also refinishing the wooden cabinet too!!)
:
:Back to the topic here...
:The only other things that happen if you don't let it dry completely is that water tends to collect in the tube sockets and under the trimmer cap mica-wafers... causing it not to play again till it is all dry.
:... So, if it was working fine before you washed it, DO NOT attempt to tweak ANYTHING again to get it to play again if there's any chance that it's still wet. You'll only be "peeing up a rope"! Let it dry... then it'll be fine!
:
:I do this now very often... but carefully and patiently, because when I was hasty.. I just wasted tons of energy trying to get it to work again... then giving up.. I'd just turn it on under a desk-lamp to help dry it off and in an hour or so I'd suddenly hear it "coming alive" again all by itself.
:

Well we never removed anything at HP including transformers... but we made sure they were well dried out.
For all my AA5 ac/dc radios I remove only the speaker of course and the dial face.

But I think it is wise to protect a power transformer from getting water way up inside only because of how hard it is to make sure hat it dries up before using it.
However if you are sure that everything is throughy dry before powering up... what could be the problem?
Inside a transformer is only wire that is coated with varnish or enamel or whatever... so it can't get damaged per se... but if it's wet in there ...I'm sure high voltage arcing could ruin it.
So just keep that part out of the deep water and be sure it has dried at a warm oven temp like 140 or so for 24 hours at least.

Though I have washed transformers and motors, I strongly recommend against this. If any moisture remains in the transformer, which it can even after several days (or weeks) of drying, this can cause arcing, which will leave a carbon trail and cause permanent damage. I've washed many old electric motors. On occasion, though, some develop shorts aferward, and start smoking. Not sure why. Perhaps the old enamel insulation washes off (it is brittle). I got my Philco 60 out of someone's trash after a big rainstorm that flooded everyone's basement on the street parallel to mine. I was just starting my junior year in highschool at the time (first day of class, and the skylights in the library of our school blew off!). I let the transformer dry for weeks. Still, when I turned it on eventually, it was shorted out. Perhaps oven drying will produce better results. I can't say. I just avoid this now. When I want to clean oily deposits around motor and transformer coils, I use mineral spirits, and I avoid soaking the coils. Also, the oscillator coil in the Philco 60, so famous for corroding, corroded through. I don't know if it corroded prior to or after the flood. Of course sewage water will be harsh to metals. Washing in clean water probably won't do any damage if dryed fairly rapidly (few days).

I just feel that coils and such shouldn't be wet if at all possible. If the wires are brittle, www.tubesandmore.com and www.radiodaze.com sell very attractive cloth covered wire, which will make a nice replacement for either cloth or rubber wire that is cracking. For transformers, remove the bell covers and splice on the new wires. Use the dull type heat shrink over each wire, and make sure that it goes into the paper insulation of the transformer so that no wires are exposed. Use the shrink liberally so that it goes through the holes where the wire comes out. I find that the dull heat shrink is far more durable than the shiny heat shrink, which is why I prefer it. Check your hardware store if Radio Shack doesn't carry it. I forgot which one carried the shiny stuff, but I try to avoid it because it melts through easily.

If you are having good luck with washing tranformers, no use changing something that's working for you. I just don't recommend getting them wet at all. Also, I don't know what is usually used on wires. Enamel seems to be the standard. If varnish is used at all, though (don't know if they ever did this), it softens in water.

Thomas