I had this Pioneer receiver from the 70s that kept cutting out on the right channel, especially when I touched the volume knob. I was about to take it to a shop and pay $80 for diagnostics but a guy on YouTube mentioned just spraying the pots with Deoxit D5. After I did a couple of the knobs and switched the thing back on, it's been working perfect for about two weeks now. Anybody else had luck with just cleaning instead of replacing parts?
I finally got around to swapping the belt on my dad's 1978 Technics SL-1200 from his basement. I didn't realize how much speed wobble was there until I put on a sealed copy of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours from my local shop in Portland. The bass and vocals just locked in after the change, the difference over 2 weeks of letting it settle in was massive. Has anyone else noticed how much a fresh belt changes the whole listening experience compared to just cleaning the stylus?
I was digging through a bin of old receivers last Saturday and this older guy walked up and said 'you know, fixing these things teaches you patience the hard way'. I always just wanted to get them working fast and move on. But he pointed out a cracked solder joint on a 1970s Kenwood and showed me how to trace it step by step. Now I actually take my time testing each cap and resistor instead of rushing. Has anyone else had a random stranger slow you down like that?
I was messing around with a strobe disc I bought at a thrift store for $5 and finally checked the speed on my Akai GX 4000D. Turns out the motor had drifted over time and I had been listening to everything just a tiny bit flat. I used some Deoxit on the speed pot and a tiny adjustment brought it back to 7.5 ips perfect. Has anyone else discovered their gear was running off speed for way longer than they realized?
I was talking to a friend in Austin who runs a record shop, and he said "you can't zen out on a screen." He was talking about how people come in asking for quick fixes on their vintage turntables but won't spend an hour cleaning a belt drive. That hit me because I spent 2 weeks replacing a capacitor on a 1978 Technics, and I never felt more present. Has anyone else felt like the process matters more than the end result?
I stopped by this little camera repair place off Hawthorne last weekend and they had this rule. No phones, no laptops, nothing with a screen allowed inside. Honestly I almost walked out because I wanted to check my messages. But after 20 minutes of just watching the guy show me how he cleans a shutter mechanism I felt way more relaxed. Tbh I didn't even think about my phone after the first few minutes. Ngl it made me wonder why more shops don't try something like that. Has anyone else been to a place that forces you to unplug like that?
I found a dusty Toshiba RT-SX85 at a garage sale in Cleveland last weekend for 5 bucks. Thought I'd replace the rubber belts inside, but one slipped and wrapped around the motor spindle, then the whole thing started smelling like burnt plastic. Learned that some repairs are just NOT worth the headache - has anyone else turned a fix into a total disaster?
Was at a random estate sale in Portland last Sunday and snagged a beat-up Canon AE-1, but the shutter is stuck and the foam is crumbling. Half of me wants to grab a screwdriver and watch YouTube repairs, the other half says I'll just ruin it and should drop $150 at a shop. Anyone else wrestle with the DIY vs hand-it-off decision on old finds?
Tbh I started just wanting to fix my granddad's old Minolta but somehow ended up digging through thrift bins and now I've got a whole shelf of working cameras. Has anyone else accidentally turned a small project into a whole collection?
He was fixing a turntable from the 70s and said the problem was someone used the wrong lubricant. Said WD-40 is a killer for old tech and most people just don't let the oil settle for 24 hours. Made me realize I've been rushing all my repairs just to get them done fast. Has anyone else been told to slow way down on the lube process?
I was at the camera swap meet in Denver last Saturday, just looking for a cheap project to fix up. There was this older dude running a table full of old SLRs, and I spotted a beat up Pentax K1000 with a dented filter ring for $20. I thought, hey perfect, I can fix that up easy. But he straight up told me no, said it was a waste of my time and money. He pointed at a tiny crack in the prism housing I hadn't seen and said the mirror box was probably misaligned too. Then he spent 10 minutes showing me a different Minolta that needed just a simple light seal replacement for the same price. It really stuck with me because he could have just taken my cash and been done with it. Has anyone else had a seller talk them out of a bad buy like that?