Monday morning and I started anew on the lamp holder for the SMC2. Saturday afternoon I visited an old friend, Russell. He is a machinist who builds race motors and races a winged modified at Devil’s Bowl Speedway. Been doing it a long time and is good at both. He has a brake used to bend sheet metal. The piece of sheet metal I have needs a right angle bend with about an inch of metal sticking up for mounting.I had already cut it to proper length with a jigsaw. It took literally 10 seconds to bend the piece of sheet metal.

Once bent I got the width measured and cut. The reason I wanted the lamp holder from the DS160 to use is that I knew I could cut a piece off and have a right angle tab for mounting purposes. I did just that and drilled a couple holes in each tab and also for the lamp starter holder. These will be screwed down rather than welded.

Using a lamp for proper spacing and a couple of clamps I rigged the tabs in place, jiggled them here and there, with a few measurements and then drew where to drill my tab mounting holes.

Now that I had the lamp mounting tabs located I removed the brown bakelite holders, sandblasted the metal, cleaned it real well and laid a couple coats of white on it top and bottom.

I gave this a day to dry so I actually finished this up Tuesday. It’s quick work to put the bakelite holders in place and do the wiring. Once the lamp holder is mounted, and it has been checked several times for fit, I’ll get the wire length correct, crimp on the molex connectors and have light like Seeburg intended. It turned out well. I’m pleased.

I got my comeuppance as I usually do. At the start of replacing chips on this PCC board I mentioned I might learn something. I did. I re-learned an old lesson. Nothing takes the place of troubleshooting properly. I replaced all the chips on the PCC board with no results. So, I broke out the meter and started checking the transistors. I found an atypical reading on one of two that work together. Standard operating procedure is to desolder the transistors and check out of circuit. Lo….the collector legs fell off both transistors when removed from the board. I’m guessing they got bent and when straightened out the legs broke. Had I gotten out the meter like I should have in the first place this would have been a pretty quick fix. The only consolation I can take is that these two transistors work together turning on and off at the end of the first chips chosen for replacement-having to do with Side B. I replaced the two NPN transistors and now the mech will pick up a record when moving from right to left.

I started work on a fun project. A previous owner had replaced the bottom glass on the SMC2 with a mirror. Fine and good. Those glasses were prone to having all the pretty stuff flake off. Here’s where it gets a little strange. There is a lamp holder underneath that glass. It holds a starter and a 14″ lamp. It was removed and the wires pulled out of the harness loom as well as out of the molex plug. Why they didn’t just take the lamp out and leave everything in place is a mystery. So I get to make a lamp holder. I already have a replacement glass courtesy of Victory Glass and $165. This should be a pretty straightforward process.

First things first is to gather all the needed materials. I got a thin piece of steel from Lowe’s. A fellow was parting out a Seeburg DS and I got the front lamp holders and wiring from him. Thank you Berry B. I have lamps and plenty of white paint.