1960 Ballast Resistor

[Joe Maulsby]

Has anyone tried or had success restoring the white color to the ceramic portion of the ballast resistor? If so, what did you use to whiten it up?
If there is any chance of cleaning my original one up, I would prefer that over buying a reproduction.

[John M.]

Re: 1960 Ballast Resistor

Joe,
I have had good sucess with comet scouring powder and a tooth brush. You can also use sandpaper wherever there is bad staining. You will not change the surface texture with sandpaper as long as you stay finer than 100 grit or so.

Regards, John McGraw

[Duke W.]

Re: 1960 Ballast Resistor

I've never tried this on a ballast, but how about bleach.

Duke

[John M.]

Re: 1960 Ballast Resistor

Duke,
I have tried just about everything I could think of, and while bleach will work on getting stains out, it will attack the plating on the mounting strap! Denture cleaner works well also, but will attack the plating as well.
I have just gotten to the point where I split the spot weld on the straps, remove the strap and replate it while I bead blast the ceramic. It is a lot of work, but It sure makes them look good. The repro resistors are pretty accurate on the ceramic portion, but are lacking the "tab" on the strap, so I have put several old straps on new repro resistors.

Regards, John McGraw