I've been considering an analog meter myself and your post made me decide to look again. A great deal came and I took the plunge. I found a Triplett 630-NA Type 3 on eBay and ended up paying a whopping $27 (+SH) for it, complete with original leather case, original probes, and original manual. It said "For Parts Not Working, Never Tested," though, and we all know how that goes with test equipment. (Item 172144741303)
Got it today and about fell off my chair! It's absolutely beautiful! It looks like it just came out of its original package! It's looks brand new. There's not a scratch on it. The bakelite is perfect and the meter crystal is flawless. It has an Inventory sticker on the top of it that says NC 2946 (8-61) W. E. CO. It says "Inventoried 1969" and then has "51697" hand-written on the sticker. I don't suppose anyone knows what company W.E. CO. was/is? Anyway, when I went to move the selector it wouldn't budge...uh oh. I was pretty sure I knew why it was listed as "Never Tested." I had a pretty good idea of the issue before even opening it up.
When I opened it up, as expected, I found the batteries removed but battery acid had leaked all the way down into the rotary switches. On this meter the batteries sit at the top. I've seen many electronic items that have had leaky batteries but I've never seen anything this bad. Someone obviously knew what was wrong with it when they pulled the batteries. I don't know if the eBay seller knew it or not but, oh well, the price was still right.
I started spraying it down with Deoxit and it cleaned up well but couldn't break the shaft loose despite dowsing it with Deoxit. I finally used some strategically placed Deep Creep penetrating oil on the shaft bushing inside the rotary switches and under the selector handle on the outside and then just let it sit and soak. I did that a few times over a couple hours and lo and behold, it started to break free! I continued to spray penetrating oil on the shaft and finally got it fully functional and finished cleaning it up with the Deoxit.
I dried it out and put a D cell in it (the auction included the 30v battery but, not surprisingly, it was no good.) The 30v battery is only for the x10k and x1000K ohms settings so I don't need one right away. I've checked almost all I can, with exception of high voltage, and it works perfectly! It matches my Fluke to within less than 1% on everything I've checked.
Thanks for pushing me over the edge to buying one of these. My Fluke 87V DMM is nice but I've been wanting a nice analog meter for quite a while. I'm thrilled! I absolutely love it! As long as I don't drop it I don't see why it won't outlast me.
John
---In TekScopes@..., <dieselchair@...> wrote :
...Found a beautiful triplett 630-na to test the high voltage. The tek manual recommended it and I thought it was a great excuse... I mean... a good idea to use the recommended equipment...
