Another Lost Cause

by MD0MDI
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Kenwood MC-50 Microphone First Photo's of Restoration - 001

Another Lost Cause

Kenwood MC-50 Microphone First Photo's of Restoration - 001
Now this is rough.

Certainly not mint, I wonder if this was ever looked after, but you suppose someone must have loved this at some point.

Kenwood MC-50 Microphone First Photo's of Restoration - 002
Somewhere under all that grime is a Kenwood MC-50.

It does not matter where I look at this sad microphone, it just gets worse and worse and I am not sure a year in the autoclave will clean and de-rust this poor old mic.

Kenwood MC-50 Microphone First Photo's of Restoration - 003
Rusted! That is all I need.

I hate rust, mainly because it can hide at lot of sin, there are two thoughts when it comes to rust, you either use a ‘Rust Killer’, a liquid that is normally white and when painted on it will try to recover the metal, works alright on old Land Rovers, but on small objects like this I am not sure. The other thought is to just throw an item such as this in the autoclave/ultrasonic cleaner and just see what comes out, in the past I have used the cleaner a lot and it have done miracles to items such as a complete Drake chassis or even much smaller parts such as old VFO from a KW Vanguard, and although this may take a few dips with gentle cleaning in-between, I am not sure that the metal mesh will survive either of the two ways that I would normal think of using.

Kenwood MC-50 Microphone First Photo's of Restoration - 004
And yet more rust!

Either way this is going to need possible replating, this means either adding it to a bigger lot to cover the costs or to just anodise in whatever colour I have here.

Kenwood MC-50 Microphone First Photo's of Restoration - 005
The Underside does not look much better!

So a bit of thinking about what I am going to do with this, especially as it will certainly cost more to do than it is worth, and at this point I have no idea if it will ever be a Microphone for use with a Kenwood Transceiver, but maybe I could just get rid of the rust, a quick clean and just get it working good enough to use with a CB, I do not mean that in a horrible way but at least if I think this, I just may get it done and that will mean I need to find a suitable export CB (I have been after one for years now, a re-coup my youth thingy).

I hate throwing stuff out like this, I should, but it’s a Kenwood Microphone and it was once used by a certain amateur on the island, I have already restored some of his items to way beyond mint and enjoyed the journey along the way and for me, I will always remember who once owned the equipment, at least I care.

So, I will add this to the shelf of things to do, but it will stay there until I am really bored or that I have a box going to be plated with room for a few more items.

Last Updated : 24th April 2023

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