Torn. E. b 1945 RESTORATION WORK
 

I purchased a Torn. E. b manufactured in the last months of the war. I've wanted a late-war example of this radio to observe how the German industrial complex implemented material saving techniques in its most desperate time.

The first big disappointment came when I opened the badly damaged shipping box. The postal services smashed the radio on one side very badly. Several things were damaged immediately.

  1. The feedback adjustment tuning capacitor was completely smashed and its housing was bent.
  2. The rear framed mount for the coil turret drum was bent, and the screws were twisted.
  3. The coil turret drum was loose inside the radio and was not moving properly when the coarse frequency adjustment knob was being turned.

Since I have spare parts from a 1944 Torn E. b, I proceeded to repair this example of late-war radio technology.

 
Here is the radio as I unpacked it. Condition overall is very good, except for the damage.

 

 
Here you can see the bent frame. It must be very carefully bent back into its original shape. The material is very bad - it is a steel-zinc alloy which is very brittle, weak, and heavy.

 

 
Here is a top view of the smashed feedback control capacitor. This will have to be replaced.

 

 
Original paint of this Torn. E.b. It is definitely worth restoring.

 

 
After taking apart the radio, I pulled this central axle from the coil turret drum. The axle is broken from its front part as can be seen in the bottom right of the photo. Observe the material saving construction of this item. The central portion of this axle is made from weak and brittle alloy. Only the front and rear parts are machined from a better metal.

 

 
Another picture showing the fractured axle. Observe the porous nature of this brittle metal.

 

 
Here you can see the remaining broken piece of the axle, firmly jammed and stuck in the face-plate's socket. It took one week of penetrating oil, a screw driver and a rubber mallet to get it out.

 

 
Here I've replaced the axle, and have mounted the coil turret drum back onto the face-plate. The central axle was replaced with a much better 1944 version which is more like a solid machined steel tube.

 

 
These are feedback tuning capacitors. The one on the left is the replacement. Even between 1944 and 1945, there were design differences.

 

 
Because of the metal distortion of the frequency adjustment disks, assembling the radio would have caused the large display disk to scratch the smaller fine frequency adjustment disk. I've straightened the disks as much as possible, but as a precaution I've added 4 washers to give more space to the disks for rotation.

 

 
The RV2P800 tubes from the Torn. E.b. These tubes were manufactured late in the war with a steel housing, not the usual aluminum that we normally encounter. One of the tubes was bad because of destroyed contacts. I will fix this tube by replacing the socket head on it.

 

 
This means, I've got to bite the bullet and open one of my brand new RV2P800 tubes.

 

 
Ah! It is so nicely packaged!!!!

 

 
More pain!!!

 

 
Here is what an absolutely new RV2P800 should register on an RPG 3/4 after 3 minutes of warm-up.

 

 
The new RV2P800 in place. Take a look at the soldering of the capacitors and resistors - it is the electric spot-solder or solder-less connection. This late in the war, the Germans didn't even have even enough solder to build their radios.

 

 
The repaired and completely working Torn. E.b!!!!!

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