Cleaning out the Clutter

A few months ago, I took Hunky Husband into our workshop to see what he wanted done with piles of stuff that were sitting about, not having been moved since we moved into this house 20 years ago. He didn't see anything without which he couldn't live, so I started getting rid of the stuff - partly through placing it in recycle/hazardous waste/ecycle, partly by taking it to Goodwill or the Disabled American Veteran resale shops, and partly through trashing. I made great progress in the first couple of weeks, then my time got diverted to other projects - and I forgot all about it.

Thursday, I decided to replace a towel ring in my bathroom with an 18"-long towel bar. To do this, I retrieved level, steel tape, screw drivers, hex drivers etcetera from the workshop (plus my drill and bits from my sewing room - don't ask!) In the process, I realized that there was still much "stuff" to get out of the workshop. Today, I've focused on getting rid of a large box of stuff that was sitting on the floor and, somehow, stumbled across some vacuum tubes. Well...I've long (perhaps 65 years) had a soft heart for vacuum tubes. But...they gotta go! We have only one piece of equipment that uses vacuum tubes and it, too, is on the "get rid of" list.

Above is a photo of the tubes - and a handful of crystals (at the bottom of the photo) that would be used in fixed-frequency radio frequency oscillators. Woo-hoo. Some of the vacuum tubes are possibly from among a large box of tubes that I bought (at the price of a month's rent) as a freshman in college. That would have been 1955-56. I'm smart enough, now, to realize that the guy who sold them to me had probably stolen them from the US Army (Ft Leonard Wood - near our school); but, I was naïve in those days. And, no, I had no real use for the vacuum tubes at the time, but they were cute! HH has told me that, having imbibed too much one evening during the months in which we dated, I regaled him with my design for a transmitter that I would build to use some of those tubes.

How did the towel bar installation go? Well, the towel bar came with plastic inserts for use in hollow-wall construction. As it happened, one end of the towel bar was to be situated into an area that had something inside the hollow wall. Since I was unsure what was inside that part of the wall and didn't wish to injure the sewer pipe that might possibly run through that area, I came up with a work-around. I used heftier plastic sleeves than had been supplied, cut them off at the pointy end, installed them to act as bearings on the drywall, and used shorter (and larger diameter) screws than had been supplied.

Since I am rarely forethoughtful enough to take "before" photos, I'll give a photo of another towel ring that is in that bathroom. The ring in the photo normally holds a clean wash cloth. The "after" photo shows the installed towel bar. A hand towel gets bunched up in the towel ring, slowing down drying of the towel. (Since the wash cloth that is kept in the towel ring is always dry, being replaced, daily, drying time is not an issue.) The towel bar is long enough that the towel can be spread out, if required, or another wash cloth would fit in the available space.

 

 
 

Comments

[Ole Phat Stu]

Some of those tubes may be valuable nowadays.
I still have a pair of KT66 that I bought probably in the late 1950s.
In 2004 original M-OV KT66 tubes (bearing the official "Genalex" marketing brand that M-OV used outside the UK), unused in original carton, sold for US$250 EACH!

[bogie]

That sounds so much like installing my towel bar when you guys were up this way - sewer pipe in the way of one screw - so found shorter screw and plastic anchor to use in that side (the other side was at a stud). I remember you worrying about it not being strong enough and my saying that no kids were going to be hanging from it :)

I assume that outlet is connected to a GFCI? Should be since it looks like it is above the counter and building code requires it - just checking.

The towel bar looks great!

[bogie]

Actually I just realized that it is a different outlet below the towel bar. Since it is square, maybe that one is GFCI?

[Cop Car]

Aww, Stu, I don't have the patience to make money off of old stuff. I'd rather give stuff away. I don't recall your KT66 tubes; but, wow, that is pricey! I was partial to 6L6 and 806 tubes. As I recall, our 1Kw, 40 & 80 meter transmitter at our school shack ran 806s in its parallel push-pull final output circuit.

Bogie--I remember worrying about the length of the screws attaching your cabinet above the commode; but, not the towel bar installation. (I remember your hanging the bar, but not my concern which you evidently allayed.)

Yes, all of our electrical outlets in bathrooms, kitchen, downstairs bar, mudroom, and exterior are on GFI circuits. In fact, a couple of weeks ago we were in the midst of a huge wind storm when we started hearing the occasional "popping" noise. I eventually figured out that GFIs were tripping. (I attributed the whole thing to swaying lines, somewhere between the power station and us - our lines being buried - causing power surges.) When I checked out all of the GFI circuits that I could identify, nine of the 10 GFI circuits had tripped in the previous couple of hours!

The square electrical outlet in the photo was added when I had the door to my (now) bedroom added and is NOT on the same circuit as the other outlets in that bathroom. (I had the guy who installed it tap into the circuit from my bedroom since the wall was common to the two rooms and that wiring was more readily accessible than was the bathroom wiring.) I thought it would be handy to be able to plug a hand-held hair dryer in without the cord laying across the sink. I think I've actually used that outlet (yes, GFI with reset button) two or three times in the two or three years that I've had it.

Being a hands-on person, you probably understand (I've had a hard time convincing your dad) that an outlet does not need to have a reset button on it to be on a circuit protected by a GFI.

Thanks! I think the bar looks good. It'll take me a bit to become accustomed to my towel being a couple of inches higher than it was on the ring. The photos make the metal look gold-ish; but, the ring and bar are brushed nickel finish. I'm thinking that I should replace the rest of the towel bars in my bathroom to match the new one. I like it a lot more than I like the original. I'll need to do it soon, if so, before they become unavailable.

[Ingineer66]

You are so handy. Good job. I would bet there is a museum like the Tech Museum in San Jose that would appreciate the vacuum tubes.

[Cop Car]

Ingineer--Thank you, we farm girls are supposed to be able to care for ourselves. (Know that my family left the farm when I was age 3; but, my overwhelming attitude, ever since I can remember, has been to be self-sufficient - obnoxiously so!) Thanks, too, for the thought about museums. Since I see lots of old tubes being offered on eBay, I'm not sure they would have a problem obtaining what they want/need - and I don't believe that any of these tubes qualify as rare. I thought I'd check with the owner of the local Radio Shack, and with the hams who gather at the local ice cream parlor every Thursday evening, to see if the tubes could be useful to someone, locally. If not, I'll take them to the eCycle place with other electronic stuff (like an old computer, etc).

[Stu]

As far as I recollect, the European designation KT66 is the same as the US's 6L6.

[Cop Car]

I'm not knowledgeable in the correspondence of the tubes, Stu, so I did some looking. From The Gear Page forum, I found the following exchange (which also mentions the European equivalent of the 12AX7s that I have in the above photo).

Question from 1st commenter:
"I'm pretty familiar with the "big four" American and British style power tubes: 6L6, 6V6, EL34 and EL84.

"On and off over the years, I've seen mention of the KT66 tube. Is this just a Euro equivalent to the 6L6, or is it a different tube entirely?

"As I understand it, there are Euro and American designations for what amounts to the same tube (e.g. 12AX7 and ECC83). Is this the case with the KT66 and 6L6, or are they actually different?

"If they are different, can anybody explain how they're different, particularly in terms of guitar amp tone?

"Also, how the heck does teh [sic] 6550 fit into this mess?"

Reply from 2nd commenter:
"Hey RMosack!!! Fancy meeting you here. The KT (Kinkless Tetrode) series of tubes are similar to 6L6's..... in that they're octal pinout tubes....but they have way beefier internal construction and higher heater requirements. This higher current requirements makes them incompatible with some amps because the power transformers would be overtaxed. The KT66 type of octal power tubes were developed in Britain in response to the 6L6 type tube.

"6550 tubes were a beefy US power tube developed "in response" to the huge British KT88 tube

"As you saw in my other posts, I've recently replaced my RCA blackplate 6L6GC's with a pair of JJ KT66's [sic]. I think I really notice a significant change in the bass response of my Allen Old Flame (just like yours). I feel a lot of the glassy clean high end that you enjoy in 6L6GC's [sic] is still there, but I have to say that the fuller and tighter bass is the real advantage in these tubes. I think it's especially cool since I like my amp running VERY clean.

"Another upgraded 6L6 type is the 7581..... the US upgraded version of the standard 6L6GC. Hard to find nowadays.... I don't believe they're in current production. In general, I feel it's pretty hard to beat RCA 6L6GC's [sic]......so I think the KT66 is a great option to try, IF your power transformer can take it.

"You're gonna need over-the-top spring tube retainers to hold those big bottles in the sockets if they're hanging upside down (like in our Allen Old Flames). Bias around 40 mV."

CC back: So...I guess my answer is, "Sorta!"

[Cop Car]

Except for the subwoofer speaker, for which I found a use, all CD playing equipment and CDs have been disposed of - mostly to Goodwill. The vacuum tubes went to the local Radio Shack store. The owner said that they could use the vacuum tubes in projects that they sometimes carry out with kids and/or prospective hams. I have made a couple of stops at the e-cycling place with odds and ends that weren’t in my posting (an old electric screwdriver and hand-held vacuum cleaner that Chuck had in the workshop that had been sucking coulombs through their wall-mounted recharging stations for at least 15 years, for instance) and 10-15 printed circuit boards that my late, younger brother had given me many years ago to use in assembling colorful lamps. I found a roll of 300-ohm twin lead, and coils of various sizes of coaxial shielded cable, that I will take to Radio Shack (and on to e-cycling if Radio Shack won’t use). The lifetime-supply of red shop towels, I’ll offer to family (and then Radio Shack).

I can’t believe how much absolute junk we have; but, the stuff in the workshop doesn’t really surprise me. When Hunky Husband can’t find something that he needs within 5 seconds, he goes and buys. (HH's impatience is legendary. Today, he wouldn't stand by while I sealed an envelope, for instance!) Since HH no longer has an interest in doing anything with tools, he had given me (nearly) free reign to clear out the clutter there, too. Of course, I've contributed my own bit to the clutter by being congenitally unable to throw away anything that might come in handy within the next 100 years.

There’s nearly always someone who will use stuff that we need to toss.