- 2024
- Jul
- 4
Yet another test box - The Waage Model 066.
This is a benchtop test box I picked up at the Breezeshooter’s Hamfest this past June. It’s simply a switched, fused outlet with some indicator lamps and a current meter. It proclaims itself to be a Waage Electric Model 066, “All Purpose Tester.” It’s in eh shape, and probably sat on someone’s bench for decades.
The cord is in good shape, which is surprising for the age, but both the neon pilot lamp and the little 7W peanut bulb for the circuit test are dead. It was probably “on” for most of it’s life. The neon bulb in the pilot doesn’t even do the flickering thing at this point.
Everything seems to be mechanically working, the switch snaps with a nice thunk, the meter pointer moves but needs to be adjusted, and all of the sockets are intact. Of note here is the Edison Fuse - no 3AG glass fuses here!
The inside is pretty clean, overall. I can immediately see the cord appears to have been replaced because of the way it’s put on the screw terminals - it’s unlikely the factory would have shipped it all birdcaged out like that. So that’s probably a new(er) cord.
Of real not here is the small gauge wire used for the device. The orange wire appears to be about 22GA solid - that’s not going to handle the 15A this thing is supposedly rated for. It makes me wonder if this thing was completely redone at some point in time, as there’s a mix of thermoplastic and cloth-coated wire in this. It’s of an age where everything would have been cloth coated.
In all, it’s kind of a neat piece, and was probably meant for testing products of the kind that Waage made - heating devices such as irons and coffee pots. For the $1 I paid for it, it’s literally a nothing lost proposition.
If I wanted to use it, the non-polarized outlet would need to be replaced, as would the cord and small gauge wire. I’d probably try and save the original pilot lamp, and find an incandescent bulb for the test socket.
But who knows. It’s of limited use other than a “That’s cool” thing to have on your bench. I’ll probably clean it up and see what I can do with it, stay tuned!