Gulbransen Theatrum disposal

[Guest]

:'( My beautiful Gulbransen Theatrum seems to have sung its last song! There are so many notes that don't work anymore that I can't play it. I carefully checked it out inside and found numerous breaks in the wires on the circuit boards. Is there anything to be done? It has given me a lot of pleasure and I hate to just give up on it, because the sound is incomparable! My husband is ready to take it to recycling, but I thought I'd give this forum a try before I give up. I know there are Gulbransen enthusiasts out there and wonder if anyone has advice, either for repair or best method of disposal?

Moved to correct section - Home Organs. andyg, moderator

[johnbeetem]

Some circuit board breaks are fairly easy to repair. If the traces are reasonably wide, you can bridge breaks by soldering on a short bit of wire (I like AWG 30 wire-wrap wire) or sometimes just using solder alone. Scrape off solder mask (if it's there) with an X-acto knife or scalpel and/or scrape the copper traces so they're shiny. Pre-tin the bare copper with solder so it will be easier to solder to. If you're adding a wire bridge, take a long piece of wire and bend it at the end. The bent part will be your bridge. Solder it on both sides of the break and when it's finished cooling cut off the long piece with small wire cutters.

If humidity is low, static discharge can damage circuits especially CMOS. I like to use an anti-static wrist strap that has a high-resistance connection to ground. You can also touch the ground part of your circuit to discharge yourself before you touch anything else. It's unsafe to connect yourself to ground with a low resistance such as a wire with no added resistance.

There are also circuit repair pens with conductive ink. I haven't tried these myself, but I've read good things about them. As above, you'll need to scrap off the solder mask and/or scrap the copper traces so they're shiny. Then draw your bridge with the circuit repair pen. A proper wire+solder bridge gives a better connection, but for low-current electronics the circuit repair pen is probably good enough.