a) more accessible
b) cheaper to replace
c) less prone to breakage
‘most’ of the time - the ‘lady end’ is the part you can’t get to (wall socket) - so you would bend the plug (male) side a little to get more friction.
In this case, its the opposite - and if you have to replace something - odds are much better that you will be able to find a similar cord than the hardware side - which fixing would also require a bit of electronics/electrical comfort.
What you are trying to do on the plug side in this case is make the round parts a little smaller/less round - then the act of plugging them onto the male side will give them the contact area they need and be a tighter fit.
But if the issue is that we’re not Germanly-manhandling it enough as per dropzone that would make it worse, ya? So the two of you fight it out in the pit and then come fix my stereo - I believe the husband picked up a Dave Brubeck album for me to inaugurate the thing with.
If you plug it in and have pushed it into/onto the hardware side - and it is as far into/onto it as it will go - and it is still loose - then the internal female side (where the actual electrical connection is made) needs to be ‘tighter’ - From the looks of the plug itself - it is nothing but a compression fit and will only go ‘so far’ - and there is nothing for it to ‘lock into’.
so -
a) be sure that the female is firmly mounted on the male and fully inserted
b) if the connection is still loose, the female is worn out
c) tighten the female side or replace
(somehow, I think this checklist might apply to other things)
Tell 'em, sister. Do you have a blues song we could sing about that? (I assume you are not, in fact, a sister, but at least you haven’t told me to tighten up the female’s connectors to keep her from being thrown out on the trash heap.)
the backs of those types of sets had a backing with ventilation. a very close match in material and function to what was often used would be pegboard material (perforated hardboard).
[Muddy Waters/]:
Ol’ Bessy was tired,
And loose as a goose.
Ol’ Bessy was so TIIIIRRRREED
an she was loose as a goose,
Got my shotgun loaded, put her head in a noose.
Ol’ Bessy was loyal
as a mule can be
O’l Bessy was LOOOOYYALLLL,
a fine mule was she.
Didn’t wanna shoot her, but it had to be me.
Ol’ Bessy still helps us
‘Cause she really cares.
Ol’ Bessy still HEPPPPS us
She really does care.
She’s the glue in the bottle
She’s the hide on the chair
It looks like it was built in 1957. I’ve had stereos that old. They are fragile and have poor sound. That one looks like it’s been around the block a few times and is in need of restoration. I have no idea why you would want to hassle with this, but if you enjoy looking at it then I guess that’s all that’s needed.
If you can’t get a tight fit, have you considered removing the male socket, and directly wiring in a new power cord?* That’s the approach I would look into. At that age, I’d guess the original cord is unpolarized. You could test to see if either side is shorted to the chassis, and make that the wide blade. If neither side is shorted to the chassis, you could get a grounded cord, and attach the ground to the chassis, for added safety.
(*Can’t think of a good sexual innuendo to go with this. Sorry.)
What about just buying a replacement cord on eBay? Something like this looks like it might fit, but there’s different sizes and spacings available. Knowing myself, I’d probably jerry-rig some electrically unsafe power cord using whatever’s lying around in the workroom, but I’m not going to recommend that.
I don’t even know if the thing makes noise yet or not so I have no idea about the tube. I assume maybe those pictures up thread are from the other side (with the face removed) or a radically different unit because I can’t even see the tubes from the back. I don’t think. I’ve never owned a tube thing (the husband plays guitar but has never had a tube amp.)
