Teac ME-120

[Richard King]

It's amazing what you find when you clean out your storage unit. This guy was in there hiding among all my other junk. The problem is that it has been untouched for 15 years or so. The battery has leaked and now I can't get the microphone to open up to clean it up and replace the battery. I haven't tried a vice yet, but I have tried a vice grip (with 1/8" thick heavy mass loaded vinyl wrapping the mic to protect it). Other suggestions to open it up? Any idea on what might happen if I hook it up to my Presonus Firestudio and hit it with the 45V phantom power? It was a very nice mic in its day, with two capsules. I had three of these guys at one time, but have no idea where the other two went off to. They should have all been together. Maybe I need to go through some more boxes.

 

[RRuskin]

It's amazing what you find when you clean out your storage unit. This guy was in there hiding among all my other junk. The problem is that it has been untouched for 15 years or so. The battery has leaked and now I can't get the microphone to open up to clean it up and replace the battery. I haven't tried a vice yet, but I have tried a vice grip (with 1/8" thick heavy mass loaded vinyl wrapping the mic to protect it). Other suggestions to open it up? Any idea on what might happen if I hook it up to my Presonus Firestudio and hit it with the 45V phantom power? It was a very nice mic in its day, with two capsules. I had three of these guys at one time, but have no idea where the other two went off to. They should have all been together. Maybe I need to go through some more boxes.

Phantom power won't do anything to or for this mic. It needs the battery to run it. The original was a penlight sized 8.4 volt unit that is no longer made. That's the bad news. The good news is that it will work with a standard 1.5v battery of the same size. Headroom and s/n won't be as good, however.

 

[Richard King]

The good news is that it will work with a standard 1.5v battery of the same size.

Thanks for the response, Rick. I certainly recall that it uses a very odd battery, one that was even hard to find back when I was using it on a regular basis (mid/late '70's). The 1.5volt battery will only work though if I can get the microphone open. I guess I will have to eventually try the vice on one side and vice grips on the other. I'm worried about deforming the mic though and just making things worse.

 

[zorf]

i have some vice grips and other pliers with round jaws.

That helps with not deforming the mic housing.
You could also make a gripper out of wood and then put it in a bench vise
or vice grip.
First, cut a hole in a piece of wood the same size as the mic body with a hole saw or use a
zig or bandsaw.

Then cut that in half so you you have two c shaped pieces.
Wrap the mic with a rubber dishwashing glove to reduce slippage.
or a yoga matt.

You might even just start with the rubber gloves and try opening by hand.

In either case, focus on the area closer to the threads where it is binding.

Sometimes, just lightly tapping will loosen the rust a bit.

You probably cant work any solvent into the threads, but i have unlocked
rusty threads before by putting it in the fridge for a half hour, then carefully useing a heat gun/ hair drier on one half of the housing.

 

[witzendoz]

Spray around the thread with contact cleaner a few times and see if it shifts the gunk inside.

WD40 would free it up but you do not want to get it anywhere near the mic head. If you got WD40 inside the mic body you could wash it out with contact cleaner when you finally get it apart.

Be careful

Alan.

 

[RRuskin]

Spray around the thread with contact cleaner a few times and see if it shifts the gunk inside.

WD40 would free it up but you do not want to get it anywhere near the mic head. If you got WD40 inside the mic body you could wash it out with contact cleaner when you finally get it apart.

Be careful

Alan.

The capsule can be unscrewed from the body. Assuming the corrosion didn't go up that far.

 

[Richard King]

The capsule comes off just fine. It's just the battery compartment portion that doesn't come off.

 

[witzendoz]

I would give it a soak in WD40 with the capsule removed, and clean it later with contact cleaner. You have nothing to loose as the problem is probably that the old battery has swollen larger than normal over time.

Another note on batteries, If you want higher voltage but only have space of a single AA battery, check out the specialist battery supply shops (we have battery world here) for 1.5 volt batteries that are 1/2 the length of a AA, then you can use 2 of them to get 3 volts

Cheers

Alan.

 

[Muckelroy]

Would it be possible to wire the mic up to a customized power supply? Say, an AC to DC converter that supplies your 8.4 volts DC to the battery leads of the mic?

 

[RRuskin]

Would it be possible to wire the mic up to a customized power supply? Say, an AC to DC converter that supplies your 8.4 volts DC to the battery leads of the mic?

I did a few conversions with a 9v battery clip strapped to the outside. Drill holes in the barrel where you won't hit any electronics and solder the holder's leads to the appropriate battery contacts inside. It worked fine but made it difficult to fit the mic in a stand clip.

 

[sweetbeats]

My vote goes to using heat and cold. You can do an amazing amount of stuff by heating stuff up and expanding it.

I would bet money that you will get it apart of you:

purchase some "penetrating oil" from an auto parts store and conservatively apply some to the thread joint and let it sit for a day
do what zorf said...excellent advice. Make the jig for the bench vise (i.e. drill the hole in a piece of wood, cut in half, line with rubber, put mic in fridge and then head up the part of the body with the female threads, clamp in jig in vise and grip the free part of the body with a rubber gloved hand).

My dad used to be able to get the most stubborn automotive exhaust system fasteners apart by heating the male threaded part up until red hot (he theorized that it compacted or "crushed" the foreign material in between the threads...the rust) and then he'd cool it down with ice and then heat up the nut and it'd break free. Obviously you can't heat anything up that hot but it works. I got the bearings out of my Ampex reel idler housing, which is aluminum, just by putting it in the oven on "warm" for a few minutes. I'd have had to pound those things out and I'm sure it would have damaged the housing in the process...heated it up and they literally dropped out. Sweet.

Good luck.