There are certain radios that I will not work on, and certain repairs
I will not undertake.
No heavy amateur grade receivers such as Hammarlund or Hallicrafters. Though
I have restored many of these, current recent experience leads me to say NO
in the future. The very large and heavy units are simply out of my
current capability to handle for return shipment. I will take on over 30lb+
units for a substantial surcharge which I use to pay an assistant.
No complete consoles accepted whether by delivery or shipping. These
are simply too awkward for me to handle. I am glad to repair the actual
radios which can be pulled out of the cabinets and, along with the speaker,
sent to me. The corollary to this - is I do not do grill cloth repairs on
consoles - but will repair grill cloth on table tops. If you show up at my
shop with a console radio, it will be refused and money returned if
necessary.
No physically damaged radios. Old radios that have been
physically damaged, sometimes makes repair extraordinarily difficult due to
irreplaceable parts, or the extremely high cost of fabrication or trying to
use current production parts in a much older radio. Often the damage is not
apparent until we are well into the repair process. It does not happen
often, but some radios come in where someone has whacked the radio with a
sledge hammer. These are accepted for repair with no guarantee of
completion.
No battery operated radios. It is difficult to repair a "farm"
battery radio in such a fashion that it is guaranteed to work with the 6-12
Volt source of the owner. We use a professional 6-12 volt supply when
working on these radios, which is not necessarily similar to the owners
supply.
No repair failures. We will not accept for repair any
radios that have been previously worked on by the owner or another repair
person where the radio is currently "dead". Trying to trace or circuit
verify errors by someone is hugely time consuming and generally not
appreciated by the owner. We may accept this type of radio for an additional
"hack" charge.