I can relate. As a house painter working on old houses where the previous painting,repairs , bad taping, poor finishing of trim etc..leaves Everything to be desired is very aggravating. I always keep in mind the next painter( as well as the client of course) and try not to leave a mess for them. Btw, I respect your work!
WD-40 and patience have gotten five of the setscrews out. The last is pretty chewed up - I might need to use a screw extractor. That's for tomorrow though.
Glad to hear that! Lyle, your disdain for the previous tech is not unfounded. There's enough shoddy work to merit that. But in the case of the setscrews, he might be blameless. Many years ago I built an amp using similar knobs. Not exactly the same, the shiny part in the front went all the way up and around and the black fluted area didn't go all the way to the front. But other than that, they were much the same. Those knobs were aluminum. Brass setscrews and aluminum are a bad combination, eventually resulting in corrosion.
Lyle also try using a little heat maybe from a heat gun or a blow dryer to get the knobs up around 200- 250 degrees F maybe they used lock tight. The hair dryer shouldn't damage the plastic face plate, heat slowly. Good luck. Try using reverse drills to drill the holes for the extractor I've had luck with them sometimes the drill removes the screw. Happy Sunday
What about touching those stubborn little set screws with the tip of a very pencil-like soldering iron for a couple of seconds? I don't think any adhesive can stand a few hundred degrees and stay bonded. Whattaya think?
I have used a product to loosen rust called Kroil. Try a small bottle of it. I used it in industrial applications, and the stuff works when others do not. I have many stories of telling others about it and they had great results. Being a machinist/toolmaker, if you have to remove the knobs, I would get a small center drill and as close to center as possible spot drill a small hole. Then you have two options which both would yeild the same results. 1 then drill the set screw out with the appropriate size tap drill, 2 or you could use a left handed drill bit of the same as tap size. If the screws are not glued in, a left drill will most often spin the screw out when it takes a bite in the metal. You would probably have to run a tap back thru the knob to clean any left over shreds of metal. Just trying to help.
It would be difficult to drill into the center of the setscrews with a tiny-diameter drill bit chucked into even the smallest of cordless drills; a Dremel equipped with 1/16" collet or an actual variable chuck might be better. The left-handed drill bit is a good idea, *if* the power tool has reversible rotation (Dremel-type tools typically do not, unless they're battery powered and you are able to reverse the battery polarity). Harbor Freight sells a battery powered engraver with a tiny round-ball diamond bit, for only about eight bucks; it could be used to grind a concave divot in the screwhead to make it easier to start a drill bit in the center of the screw, and perhaps the vibration of the tool will loosen the screw. It looks like it will take a 1/16" drill bit or thereabouts; and you can reverse the AA batteries in the HF engraver and reverse the motor direction, if you have a left-hand drill bit to work with....
Try using a screwdriver that makes really good contact with the set screw and then liberally spray the screwdriver with freeze spray. If some boob did glue the setscrews down that cold can shatter the glue. Step two is try heating up the screwdriver shaft with a butane pencil torch (crack lighter). Step 3 is using the Stewmac knob puller to rip the shafts out of the pots, by forcing the knobs off, and it will do it fine job of ripping those shafts out too. A lot of times I can re-crimp the pots back together, but you will need drill those old shafts out.
A can of compressed "air" held upside down will chill anything you spray it on (it's not air, its usually something similar to freon refrigerant). Application of cold, perhaps alternating with mild heat and/or vibration (plastic pot shafts, uggh!) might loosen the glue, or cause contraction and loosening of the screw threads. This technique has worked for me in the past on frozen chassis screws, but I haven't tried it on plastic knobs, so use caution.
"Solder spatulas" lol I'm going to use that from now on! I saw what looked like a small burn on that one blue wire that was on the underside of the board at 6:30 ,not sure what looks like happened to that little guy. A knucklehead with a soldering iron......?
Oh dear, that sure looks like a pain in the ass Lyle, I'm glad it's you at the helm sorting it out..Little consolation, but interesting repair ongoing..Ed..uk..😀
Hi Lyle, I bet you have a million comments about this already and I am not going to read them. But, if nuttin' else works, perhaps you could take a small flat screwdriver or ellen wrench (whatever the pot grub screws take) and put it into the screw. Then whilst holding it, apply your big soldering iron to the screwdriver or ellen wrench until enough heat has traveled down the driver and into the grub screw. After a bit, it seems to me that ought to loosen the grub screws, and hopefully not also melt the pot shafts or control knobs. In any case, good luck with this extra cool Laney head and I will continue to watch with much interest. Love your videos BTW, even the 1 hour + long ones. I watch them all and have learned hell of a lot from you.
Excellent point! Heat does help break the bonding of the corrosion. It has taken me 30 years of driving rust buckets in Pennsylvania before I figured out how to work smarter, not harder.
As someone else mentioned below, PB Blaster is worth trying. In my experience , it is safe on plastics and silkscreening. If the screws were superglued, heat might be your only option because superglue debonding agents are usually a mix of acetone and nitromethane, which are hell on plastics. Maybe the previous tech was more sensible and used Loctite? Surely they'll have a plastic-safe debonding liquid for use with their threadlocking compounds!? Loctite is a CA glue variant that only hardens in the absence of oxygen.......
It might be helpful to heat the knobs with a hairdryer or heat gun before applying Liquid Wrench or PB Blaster; the heat will drive out air around the screws and create a slight vacuum which will suck the penetrating oil in as the knob cools .
I’m impressed…pickin up an SVT head / cab is brutal… but why would you? Ah SVT repair . I moved away from twin 15 bass cabs with Altec’s as a kid as they were in the 100-105 lbs class. Now 28 lbs single 12 cab 300 watt Celestion, on my back Mono twin bass case, Class D 500 watt head in computer type case in the other hand, not miss them days for gear shlepping.
Lots of connections there that don't look reliable. Were those connections factory, or were they done by the "Tech"? Most of the turret terminal work that I worked on was in the late 80's for a military contractor. Any through terminal connections had to be all the way through the terminal, bent at right angle over the top, and cut flush with the top edge. The only time we could connect to the bottom of the turret was when we had multi conductors that would not physically fit through the turret. We had to wrap additional conductors around the ones that did fit through the terminal. Anything connecting to the top side of the turrets had to wrap 270 degrees around, be clenched with pliers and soldered with "smooth concave fillets"
Great video Lyle glad to see an old school Laney on your channel but what moron puts super glue on set screws they may need to be removed In the future. I can only imagine all the crazy butcher jobs you have seen over the years the owner of this amp is very fortunate to have the best tech I e seen work on this vintage piece
Super glue solvent acetone now that also does damage to plastic so that plexi plate is at risk. Any of the penetrating lubes like thread knocker not sure about them near plastic.
Yeah, I'm not in a rush to try anything heavy duty. One more knob came off after a few hours soaking in WD-40. The setscrew was covered in rusty mud. I applied more WD-40 to the others and am letting them soak. WD-40 is kind to plastics. And it smells good.
@@ScottyBrockway , I don't find the aroma of PB Blaster to be obnoxious, and in my experience it is plastic-safe and not harmful to silkscreening (I used it to free 10 frozen shafts on a Hickok tube tester, on the pots and rotary switches). However, if indeed the knobs and/or setscrews were secured with superglue, PB Blaster might not help. The superglue debonders I've used (typically an acetone/nitromethane blend) are hell on plastics ----- but what if its Loctite instead? That would seem more logical than using superglue; and Loctite is an anaerobic variant version of superglue. Loctite must have debonding agents available for use with their products.....
Man I wonder about Laney alot both old and new lately as I'm amp shopping I see terms !ke gold plated traces n stuff on their l5 and wonder if that is just gimmicks ilivein a very rural place so amp shopping will problem be online it really complicated things what you are showing now is part of the issue with older amps
I can relate. As a house painter working on old houses where the previous painting,repairs , bad taping, poor finishing of trim etc..leaves Everything to be desired is very aggravating. I always keep in mind the next painter( as well as the client of course) and try not to leave a mess for them. Btw, I respect your work!
WD-40 and patience have gotten five of the setscrews out. The last is pretty chewed up - I might need to use a screw extractor. That's for tomorrow though.
Glad to hear that!
Lyle, your disdain for the previous tech is not unfounded. There's enough shoddy work to merit that. But in the case of the setscrews, he might be blameless. Many years ago I built an amp using similar knobs. Not exactly the same, the shiny part in the front went all the way up and around and the black fluted area didn't go all the way to the front. But other than that, they were much the same. Those knobs were aluminum. Brass setscrews and aluminum are a bad combination, eventually resulting in corrosion.
I use 'Break-free' that works well for removing almost all ceased screws. Glad that you got them extracted/removed.
Lyle also try using a little heat maybe from a heat gun or a blow dryer to get the knobs up around 200- 250 degrees F maybe they used lock tight. The hair dryer shouldn't damage the plastic face plate, heat slowly. Good luck. Try using reverse drills to drill the holes for the extractor I've had luck with them sometimes the drill removes the screw. Happy Sunday
@@retread1083 , perhaps a dab of Never-Seize on the pot shafts and on the setscrews is a good idea to prevent future problems.
What about touching those stubborn little set screws with the tip of a very pencil-like soldering iron for a couple of seconds? I don't think any adhesive can stand a few hundred degrees and stay bonded. Whattaya think?
'Sometimes I just hate people'.... Love it
I have used a product to loosen rust called Kroil. Try a small bottle of it. I used it in industrial applications, and the stuff works when others do not. I have many stories of telling others about it and they had great results. Being a machinist/toolmaker, if you have to remove the knobs, I would get a small center drill and as close to center as possible spot drill a small hole. Then you have two options which both would yeild the same results. 1 then drill the set screw out with the appropriate size tap drill, 2 or you could use a left handed drill bit of the same as tap size. If the screws are not glued in, a left drill will most often spin the screw out when it takes a bite in the metal. You would probably have to run a tap back thru the knob to clean any left over shreds of metal. Just trying to help.
It would be difficult to drill into the center of the setscrews with a tiny-diameter drill bit chucked into even the smallest of cordless drills; a Dremel equipped with 1/16" collet or an actual variable chuck might be better. The left-handed drill bit is a good idea, *if* the power tool has reversible rotation (Dremel-type tools typically do not, unless they're battery powered and you are able to reverse the battery polarity). Harbor Freight sells a battery powered engraver with a tiny round-ball diamond bit, for only about eight bucks; it could be used to grind a concave divot in the screwhead to make it easier to start a drill bit in the center of the screw, and perhaps the vibration of the tool will loosen the screw. It looks like it will take a 1/16" drill bit or thereabouts; and you can reverse the AA batteries in the HF engraver and reverse the motor direction, if you have a left-hand drill bit to work with....
Try using a screwdriver that makes really good contact with the set screw and then liberally spray the screwdriver with freeze spray. If some boob did glue the setscrews down that cold can shatter the glue. Step two is try heating up the screwdriver shaft with a butane pencil torch (crack lighter). Step 3 is using the Stewmac knob puller to rip the shafts out of the pots, by forcing the knobs off, and it will do it fine job of ripping those shafts out too. A lot of times I can re-crimp the pots back together, but you will need drill those old shafts out.
A can of compressed "air" held upside down will chill anything you spray it on (it's not air, its usually something similar to freon refrigerant). Application of cold, perhaps alternating with mild heat and/or vibration (plastic pot shafts, uggh!) might loosen the glue, or cause contraction and loosening of the screw threads. This technique has worked for me in the past on frozen chassis screws, but I haven't tried it on plastic knobs, so use caution.
"Solder spatulas" lol I'm going to use that from now on! I saw what looked like a small burn on that one blue wire that was on the underside of the board at 6:30 ,not sure what looks like happened to that little guy. A knucklehead with a soldering iron......?
Oh dear, that sure looks like a pain in the ass Lyle, I'm glad it's you at the helm sorting it out..Little consolation, but interesting repair ongoing..Ed..uk..😀
You just havin' WAY too much fun for one day!
"Somtimes I just hate people".......me too lyle....me too
Hi Lyle, I bet you have a million comments about this already and I am not going to read them. But, if nuttin' else works, perhaps you could take a small flat screwdriver or ellen wrench (whatever the pot grub screws take) and put it into the screw. Then whilst holding it, apply your big soldering iron to the screwdriver or ellen wrench until enough heat has traveled down the driver and into the grub screw. After a bit, it seems to me that ought to loosen the grub screws, and hopefully not also melt the pot shafts or control knobs.
In any case, good luck with this extra cool Laney head and I will continue to watch with much interest. Love your videos BTW, even the 1 hour + long ones. I watch them all and have learned hell of a lot from you.
Excellent point! Heat does help break the bonding of the corrosion. It has taken me 30 years of driving rust buckets in Pennsylvania before I figured out how to work smarter, not harder.
As someone else mentioned below, PB Blaster is worth trying. In my experience , it is safe on plastics and silkscreening. If the screws were superglued, heat might be your only option because superglue debonding agents are usually a mix of acetone and nitromethane, which are hell on plastics. Maybe the previous tech was more sensible and used Loctite? Surely they'll have a plastic-safe debonding liquid for use with their threadlocking compounds!? Loctite is a CA glue variant that only hardens in the absence of oxygen.......
Just got back from a trip to the West Coast...I can commiserate...
a specialized penetrating oil like liquid wrench soaking over night may be worth a try. It works well on old Harley bolts...
It might be helpful to heat the knobs with a hairdryer or heat gun before applying Liquid Wrench or PB Blaster; the heat will drive out air around the screws and create a slight vacuum which will suck the penetrating oil in as the knob cools .
I’m impressed…pickin up an SVT head / cab is brutal… but why would you? Ah SVT repair . I moved away from twin 15 bass cabs with Altec’s as a kid as they were in the 100-105 lbs class. Now 28 lbs single 12 cab 300 watt Celestion, on my back Mono twin bass case, Class D 500 watt head in computer type case in the other hand, not miss them days for gear shlepping.
At the risk of sounding foolish, might I suggest a 'dental mirror' to peer at the underside of the turret board? OK, I'll stop now! LoL
Thanks for a great vid!
Lots of connections there that don't look reliable. Were those connections factory, or were they done by the "Tech"?
Most of the turret terminal work that I worked on was in the late 80's for a military contractor. Any through terminal connections had to be all the way through the terminal, bent at right angle over the top, and cut flush with the top edge. The only time we could connect to the bottom of the turret was when we had multi conductors that would not physically fit through the turret. We had to wrap additional conductors around the ones that did fit through the terminal. Anything connecting to the top side of the turrets had to wrap 270 degrees around, be clenched with pliers and soldered with "smooth concave fillets"
They're factory. Decidedly not mil-spec.
Looks like they built up the turret board then tacked the wires on underneath afterwards. A maintenance nightmare.
Great video Lyle glad to see an old school Laney on your channel but what moron puts super glue on set screws they may need to be removed In the future. I can only imagine all the crazy butcher jobs you have seen over the years the owner of this amp is very fortunate to have the best tech I e seen work on this vintage piece
Super glue solvent acetone now that also does damage to plastic so that plexi plate is at risk. Any of the penetrating lubes like thread knocker not sure about them near plastic.
Yeah, I'm not in a rush to try anything heavy duty. One more knob came off after a few hours soaking in WD-40. The setscrew was covered in rusty mud. I applied more WD-40 to the others and am letting them soak. WD-40 is kind to plastics.
And it smells good.
@@PsionicAudio Thank you, I'm in no hurry...
PB blaster is a nice release/lube.
Except it smell like the devils arsehole and you'll never get it out of the plastic.
@@ScottyBrockway , I don't find the aroma of PB Blaster to be obnoxious, and in my experience it is plastic-safe and not harmful to silkscreening (I used it to free 10 frozen shafts on a Hickok tube tester, on the pots and rotary switches). However, if indeed the knobs and/or setscrews were secured with superglue, PB Blaster might not help. The superglue debonders I've used (typically an acetone/nitromethane blend) are hell on plastics ----- but what if its Loctite instead? That would seem more logical than using superglue; and Loctite is an anaerobic variant version of superglue. Loctite must have debonding agents available for use with their products.....
@@ScottyBrockway 😂😂😂
I wonder if the brass set screw in the knobs can be loosen with a bit of
heat from something like a heated screwdriver ? just a thought .
There's an awful lot of plastic.. I wouldn't risk it.
One dislike from the previous tech
Man I wonder about Laney alot both old and new lately as I'm amp shopping I see terms !ke gold plated traces n stuff on their l5 and wonder if that is just gimmicks ilivein a very rural place so amp shopping will problem be online it really complicated things what you are showing now is part of the issue with older amps
Gold plated traces would be marketing BS.