[time-nuts] Wenzel Oscillator Repair

[John Miles]

I used a fiberglass-reinforced cutoff wheel.  This can open practically
anything, but it puts a lot of vibration and dust into the innards of
whatever you're taking apart.  My guess was that this was safer than using a
torch.

Since I wasn't going to be able to maintain the original hermeticity, I
remounted the oscillator in a Hammond box, like so:

http://www.thegleam.com/ke5fx/w1.jpg

I brought the trimmer (which was also damaged in this particular oscillator)
and oven-status LED out to the box lid, along with the four original
terminals.  Makes a nice package that can be easily opened for maintenance:

http://www.thegleam.com/ke5fx/w2.jpg

The repackaged OCXO seems to work fine.  I haven't made any hardcore
measurements with it but I can tell just by watching the counter that its
short-term stability is similar to my other unmolested 5 MHz ULN.

-- john, KE5FX


> -----Original Message-----
> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com]On
> Behalf Of Ed Palmer
> Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 4:07 PM
> To: time-nuts at febo.com
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Wenzel Oscillator Repair
>
>
> I hadn't thought of using a Dremel.  Did you use an abrasive wheel or a
> steel cutter?  The case on mine looks to be about 20 ga. tin-plated
> steel (~0.04" thick).  The gap is so small it might have been a friction
> fit to start with.
>
> Ed
> > From: "John Miles" <jmiles at pop.net>
> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Wenzel Oscillator Repair
> > To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
> > 	<time-nuts at febo.com>
> > Message-ID: <PKEGJHPHLLBACEOICCBJMEPMBBAC.jmiles at pop.net>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> >
> > I had a similar problem with a 5 MHz OCXO from their ULN
> series.  There was
> > a bad solder joint on the output connection, easy enough to fix
> once I got
> > the unit open.
> >
> > In my case I used a Dremel tool to cut the seam.  Suggest wearing a dust
> > mask, obviously, and keep your cuts close to the perimeter of
> the can, in
> > case the PC board comes right up to the edge like mine did.
> >
> > -- john, KE5FX
>
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