Cleaning Up The Terco

So the Terco was not going to do any more work until it got some love and some spare parts. The spare parts are still on their way, but the love was availible here and now.

The insides of the Terco are jam packed with cables and electronics. Three power converters, a complete computer, three drivers, and an inverter to drive the spindle. Not every single cable connecting all these parts together had been done in cleanest of ways. I even found one original cable from the 70s. The rubber was fascinatingly different from what we use today, and was cracking completely.

Red original 1970s cable cracking simply from old age.

For one, the power converter for the display was stored inside the case, with its power cable sticking out through a gap in the case. Not particularly elegant. So I decided to cut that cord and connect it to the 240V power we allready had inside the case. And there I was reminded why you should never have multiple power sources connected to the same machine. Cutting off a live 240V cable doesn’t only blow a main fuse. It also converts your side-clipper into a wirepeeling clipper in a puff of smoke. But now the screen gets power from the main power cable that drives the entire machine.

So today, I opened it up completely and resoldered, shrinkwrapped, trimmed and gathered the worst of the cables. Now all cables have the proper length and there are no unnecessary sugar cubes or temporary extensions. Also, the motor driver fan only turns when the drivers are actually powerd, unlike before when it started as soon as the main power switch was turned on.

Looking at the image below, you may wonder if this is what “tidy” looks like, and all I can say is that this is very much better than it was before.

Finally, the Terco got a proper vaccum cleaning and a proper alcohol wiping of all internal compartments. Now it is ready to get brand new motors and hopefully become aven better than before. 😀