wfdstation42
Member
Admit it, we all like showing off our “equipment”, we’re guys, it’s what we do. We never pass up the opportunity to take it out and flash it around. Especially when some hottie expresses an interest, right? We take her back to our place, put on some soft music, dim the lights and get into some intimate conversation over some adult beverages. You’re starting to pick up on her vibe, you sense the moment’s right so you reach down and pull it out. She looks at it and that’s when it happens. She starts pointing and laughing. The humiliation is unbearable. You had hoped she wouldn’t notice, maybe the alcohol would have dulled her sense of observation but noooooooooooo. She easily saw your antique Federal Signal electro-mechanical siren was missing a couple of the opening dividers on the stator. Wait….what the hell did you think I was talking about? This IS a forum for antique warning equipment not Penthouse forum you sicko.
Back to the subject of the post but let me say I’m very bad about taking pics. I usually just dig in and start doing what needs to be done and completely forget about taking in process pics, which is what happened here so I only have after pics.
I have a Fed Sig mechanical siren that was missing one of the dividers. I thought about this for awhile, what could be done? They’re made of pot metal so welding is out. Muggy weld is designed for this type of material but the cheapest kit I could find was around $50, to much for an experiment. JB Weld is a 2 part epoxy that has been around for years and is supposed to be able to be drilled, machined, etc. Plus it’s inexpensive and I already had some on hand so that was my choice. I had a second siren that was beyond restoration and from this siren I would harvest the donor divider. The problem is you can’t just cut off a divider. The cross section is to small to allow for good adhesive surface area and the divider would snap off with very little pressure. So it was decided that I would cut a pie shaped piece of the stator at each end of the divider. I used a saber saw with a fine wood cutting bit to do this, accuracy wasn’t important here. Once removed I used an angle grinder to fine tune the pie shapes to their final size. I then held it to the receiving stator and traced the shape with a fine sharpie. Here accuracy is important so I used a Dremel with a small cut off disc to remove most of the waste material. The openings were then fine tuned with small metal files. Once I got the fit just right the piece was installed using the JB weld and allowed to dry overnight. I then did final sanding and blending, applied a couple coats of spray “hammered” paint and viola! No more embarrassing moments. You can now show off your equipment with pride.
Pic of inside of stator showing shape of donor piece.
Pic of outside
Back to the subject of the post but let me say I’m very bad about taking pics. I usually just dig in and start doing what needs to be done and completely forget about taking in process pics, which is what happened here so I only have after pics.
I have a Fed Sig mechanical siren that was missing one of the dividers. I thought about this for awhile, what could be done? They’re made of pot metal so welding is out. Muggy weld is designed for this type of material but the cheapest kit I could find was around $50, to much for an experiment. JB Weld is a 2 part epoxy that has been around for years and is supposed to be able to be drilled, machined, etc. Plus it’s inexpensive and I already had some on hand so that was my choice. I had a second siren that was beyond restoration and from this siren I would harvest the donor divider. The problem is you can’t just cut off a divider. The cross section is to small to allow for good adhesive surface area and the divider would snap off with very little pressure. So it was decided that I would cut a pie shaped piece of the stator at each end of the divider. I used a saber saw with a fine wood cutting bit to do this, accuracy wasn’t important here. Once removed I used an angle grinder to fine tune the pie shapes to their final size. I then held it to the receiving stator and traced the shape with a fine sharpie. Here accuracy is important so I used a Dremel with a small cut off disc to remove most of the waste material. The openings were then fine tuned with small metal files. Once I got the fit just right the piece was installed using the JB weld and allowed to dry overnight. I then did final sanding and blending, applied a couple coats of spray “hammered” paint and viola! No more embarrassing moments. You can now show off your equipment with pride.
Pic of inside of stator showing shape of donor piece.
Pic of outside
