Restoration Notebook: Restoration of a Philco Model 655B

Philco introduced several new models in January 1936. One of these was the 655B Baby Grand (tombstone). The cabinet is identical to the 645B Baby Grand, but the 655 uses eight tubes where the 645 uses seven.

This story begins when Debbie, the lady I was dating at the time (now my wife), bought an empty Philco 645B cabinet at a local antique mall and gave it to me in the summer of 2009.

As you can see in the photo above, the cabinet is in very nice condition with only a few scuffs and scratches. The original grille cloth is flawless. There is a small bit of ivory paint missing from the inside of the escutcheon. Overall, however, this is a great cabinet.

Now all I needed was a chassis and speaker.

Instead of just a chassis and speaker, I ended up with a complete - and very rough - 655B tombstone.

The cabinet is in much worse shape than this photo indicates; it was literally falling apart. The glass is broken from the escutcheon.

At least it has all of the knobs, plus speaker screws which may come in handy on a future project.

Notice how someone has scratched the word "School" on both sides of the front panel? There is also something scratched along the top of the front panel...

...the name "Brentano." Brentano School.

This name was also scratched in the back of the cabinet, on the set's power transformer, filter choke, and on the bases of some of the tubes.

Brentano School, now known as Brentano Math & Science Academy, is located in Chicago. First known as the Maplewood School when it opened in 1890, it was renamed for former Chicago Board of Education president Lorenz Brentano in 1893. Visit their website for more information.

It would appear (although this has not been confirmed) that this radio may have once belonged to the school, owing to its name having been scratched all over it. In any event, it ended up in the hands of a northwestern Indiana antiques dealer and eBay seller, from whom I purchased the radio in early 2011.

I removed the knobs, chassis, speaker, speaker screws, and grille cloth with its backing board. I then, sadly, said "goodbye" to the cabinet as it partially fell apart in my hands. The chassis would see new "life" in a 645B cabinet.

I had agreed to sell the original speaker to another collector, so I would have to come up with another speaker for this project.

Here's a look at the front of the chassis. It is pretty rough, with rust evident in places.

The back of the chassis reveals more rust.

At least it has all of its tubes, and tube shields. The tubes were later tested, and all but one (the 6A7 first detector) were found to be good. The 80 rectifier and the three 42 audio tubes were the original Philco tubes. Most of the others had been replaced over the years.

The underside of the chassis reveals more rust, but also shows that the radio apparently had not been serviced in decades. One electrolytic (at upper left) had been replaced; the other two were original.

What is that sitting on top of the power transformer, under the wires?

Why, it's the original model number sticker that was originally attached to the back of the chassis!

This sticker will be set aside and reattached to the chassis later.

I placed the 655 chassis inside the 645B cabinet...and left it there for a few months.

In early June 2011, I went to work on this project. The chassis was removed from its "new" cabinet. I removed the shields from the RF coils and IF transformers, and removed the tuning condenser. The audio interstage transformer and filter choke were also removed.

After a good scrubbing, the coils, IF transformers, and power transformer are covered with paper towels and tape. Tape was also placed over as many holes as possible under the chassis. Cotton balls were placed in the tube shield bases; these will protect those four tube sockets from paint spray. The other four tube sockets and the speaker socket received tape over them.

Painting begins. What looks like a blur at the lower left of the photo is the Krylon Satin Nickel paint being sprayed on.

How it looks after its first coat of paint.

Following a second coat of paint, the chassis now looks like this.

After the Satin Nickel dried completely, the chassis was masked off so that the power transformer could be painted black.

The filter choke and audio interstage transformer were painted separately with black spray paint.

Now, back on the workbench in the house, reassembly begins.

The coil shields and IF transformer shields were polished with Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish, and reinstalled on the chassis.

A front view of the unfinished chassis. So far, so good.

The electrolytic capacitor cans are rebuilt and reinstalled, after which the tuning condenser is installed. Just for fun, I put the tubes and tube shields in place along with the original dial scale, just to see what it will look like when complete.

In this photo, you can see a reconed K series Philco speaker. This speaker originally had a single ended output transformer; I found and installed a push-pull output transformer for use with the 655.

Also in this photo, notice a new, reproduction shadow mask with the original, and a new, reproduction dial scale next to the original. I made these parts as the originals had serious flaws which will be shown later.

Here is a back view of the unfinished chassis. Note the "650" stamped on the back of the tuning condenser. That's right...this tuning condenser came from a 650 chassis. The original 655 tuning condenser had severe rust and rubbing plates. The 650 tuning condenser is the same as used on the 655, so it is a perfect replacement part.

On this chassis, I even went to the trouble of not only rebuilding the dial lamp socket, but repainting it as well.

Just like the original, this dial lamp socket is painted black on the inside. As with the Satin Nickel on the outside, the black paint is new on the inside.

If you look closely, you can almost see where the name "Brentano School" was scratched on the back of this filter choke.

The scratching is easier to see on the power transformer, even though the name is misspelled here - someone scratched "Brentao Scool."

The original dial scale. As you can see, it has a serious break.

I scanned the original dial scale, cleaned up the artwork with Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop, and made a new scale. This is simple to do. Once the artwork has been cleaned and corrected, I simply printed out a properly sized scale on plain white paper. This paper was then laminated, and the scale was then cut out with scissors and an X-Acto knife.

Looking above, you see the original shadow mask with the reproduction just below it. The same procedure for making a dial scale was used to make this mask.

The reproduction shadow mask is given a test fit on the chassis. It fits perfectly, just like the original.

I would discover later, however, that I should have made the mask in pale yellow or even plain white. Laminated dials do not let as much light through as translucent plastic dials.

The piece of plastic with the three arrows was missing on my 655, so I had to improvise, using a piece from a 630 as a template for the arrows.

This should definitely be white instead of amber, as we will see later.

The 655 chassis is now completely reassembled and ready for a test. All paper and electrolytic capacitors have been replaced, as have most of the resistors.

See how the only light getting through is the arrow indicating the set is set to band 1 (AM)? I will have to make a new arrow indicator and mask later. For now, though, I will enjoy the set as is.

Here is a back view of the completely rebuilt 655 chassis.

Oops, I almost forgot something...the original 655 chassis sticker.

Using contact cement, the 655 chassis sticker is reunited with the chassis, in the same position it was in originally.

The finished product! The knobs have been cleaned and polished, and the old Brentano School radio now plays as well as it looks. Only the chassis and some of the tubes now carry the scars of its past, where the school name was scratched in several places.

A back view of the completed 655B. The speaker was also given new cloth-covered wires.