Posts: 236
Threads: 30
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Minneapolis/St. Paul MN
I'm hoping this will be a fun discussion group. Hello to everyone!
My latest "save" is a 42-122, a table battery radio I found at a flea market in southern Minnesota for the sum of $5. It was in fair to poor condition, with the top finish completely gone from sitting in the sun and rain (thankfully not warped), a piece of the veneer band around the top was missing, the escutcheon was slighly shrunk but still useable, and the cabinet was scratched up. It was also missing a tube, but for $5, why not?
Besides the missing tube, the RF coil and the IF coil both had opens in their respective primaries. I happened to have an RF coil that worked, but I had to unwind the IF primary far enough to find the open, repair it, and rewind the coil. Thankfully it wasn't too bad a chore. After the alignment, it plays great. A note of thanks to Chuck at the Philco Repair Bench for his sage advise.
I put a new band of veneer on the top, painted it brown, painted the other veneer band and the bottom to match it. I dipped a rag in some walnut stain and wiped it over the main cabinet body to hide the majority of the scratches (worked pretty good!), then cleaned the top with lacquer thinner. A couple of coats of spray lacquer and it's done - not museum quality, but very much presentable.
I brought it to the most recent meeting of the Northland Antique Radio Club as one of my "summer finds", and it was very well received. I got the most questions regarding the battery pack I built for it, which consisited of 10 9V batteries in series inside of a Radio Shack project box for the "B" battery, and a double D cell battery holder I rewired for a parallel 1.5V "A" battery. I was asked how long it ran with those batteries, and I honestly don't know yet - I haven't run it for more than an hour at a time yet. I'll have to just let it cook sometime to find out.
When I have an opportunity, I'll post before and after pictures of it.
That's my latest Philco Phind!
Bill Hutchinson
Cottage Grove, MN
Sent from my Pentium II on the AT&T Dial Network
Posts: 13,776
Threads: 580
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Ferdinand
State, Province, Country: Indiana
Hi Bill
Sounds like you've done an excellent job with your $5 find. Congrats!
I, too, am hoping this will be a fun group. I don't expect we'll ever see a huge amount of traffic, but we can still have a good time talking Philco here. 
Speaking of Chuck, I'm sure he will be joining in soon...
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
Posts: 1,703
Threads: 55
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Evanston, IL
Ahemmm.....
Been out of town all week and only now found this new hangout.
Posts: 13,776
Threads: 580
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Ferdinand
State, Province, Country: Indiana
Well, here's a bit about my latest "save"...a Model 66S.
A month ago, I acquired this poor little set:
http://cgi.ebay.com/6555566566
from our favorite online auction place.
The cabinet had been refinished all one color, and not very well. I actually made time to re-refinish this one, and it is now done in the proper factory two-tone colors. I don't have a digital camera, guys; sorry. But mine now looks like this:
http://www.radioatticarchives.com/images...dsmith.jpg
When I get this roll of film finished and developed, I'll post a pic of mine...
I haven't done anything with the chassis yet, other than get rid of that Zenith PM speaker and install the proper Philco Type S-7 electrodynamic. The chassis is a Model 60, so I guess I'll be looking for a 66 chassis, too...
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
Posts: 236
Threads: 30
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Minneapolis/St. Paul MN
Ron,
Looks like it'll be a great radio, and for a good price, too!
As long as we're going toward metioning favorite Philcos, this one, a 37-650 console, which happened to be my first Philco/console/wood/transformer radio, and I'm still impressed with it's looks and performance. Found it in a SE Minnesota antique store for about $40.
[Image: http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c170/p...37d6ae.jpg]
This was also the one I probably learned the most from, which might be a kind way of saying it was my "mistake" radio.  What I mean by that is what I learned from the mistakes made on this one helped with many others that followed in the years to come.
Things such as restoring the bakelite caps. I made the mistake of tearing them out completely and replacing them with terminal strips to hold the components in place. Won't do that again! (Then again, you wouldn't know unless you pulled the chassis out to look). Electronically, it's OK, but....it ain't quite right! 
Also, the finish is a little uneven. The top half looks fantastic, but the bottom half came out too dark - tried to hide some veneer craks, and went too far with the toner. A rookie's mistake for sure, but some time in the future, should I have the time to do so (retirement?), I could do it over again.
All things considered, it didn't come out too bad. I love the shadow meter and the warm glow of the round dial. It sounds terrific! Definately a keeper - it holds a place of prominence in our second bedroom.
Each one has a story to go with it. I'll provide a few more in the months to come.
Bill
Sent from my Pentium II on the AT&T Dial Network
Posts: 13,776
Threads: 580
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Ferdinand
State, Province, Country: Indiana
Hi Bill
You have some nice sets, for sure! Looking forward to hearing more of your stories, too.
I just finished a customer's 89L console cabinet. The chassis is another story...
I am hoping that before cold weather sets in, that I get to refurbish the cabinets of my 1935 Model 18B cathedral (identical to a 118B) and a Canadian 3118B tombstone. I don't often get to work on my own stuff, so it's a real treat when I do get to fix one for myself.
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
Posts: 29
Threads: 8
Joined: Oct 2005
Well, I joined up today, and think this will be another great resource! Looking forward to a lot of Philco conversations in the future!
Frank
Posts: 225
Threads: 14
Joined: Oct 2005
City: Grand Blanc, Michigan
I thought I would drop in and see the site since most my radios are Philco consoles. I must admit that some of the 34-37 model Philcos are some of the most stylish radios out there. 
Posts: 13,776
Threads: 580
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Ferdinand
State, Province, Country: Indiana
ANOTHER "save"...
A big Model 38-116XX followed me home from today's Nashville, TN swap meet. It is missing two of the five grille bars, had no escutcheon, wrong grille cloth, and the entire automatic tuning mechanism was gone - in its place was a small vernier dial! 
Thanks to "49Stude63," I already had an escutcheon for it. A junk 38-3 chassis back in the "archives" yielded its automatic tuning mechanism. Happened to have a 37-116 dial scale which will fill in the blank, so to speak, for the time being. With the addition of those parts, it already looks better. The cabinet has been stripped; it just needs to be cleaned up and, once I find a solution to the missing grille bars, will be ready for refinishing.
Sorry, gang, still no photos yet...hopefully coming soon...
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
Posts: 13,776
Threads: 580
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Ferdinand
State, Province, Country: Indiana
EDIT: I moved my 66-S photos to the "Philco Cabinet Restoration" section under the thread "mrphilco's 66 before & after pics." I also moved the 38-116 pics to a new 38-116 thread in this section.
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
Posts: 225
Threads: 14
Joined: Oct 2005
City: Grand Blanc, Michigan
Ron, pop one of the grille bars off and send it to me. When I took the ones off my 38-2 to refinish them they appear to be made out of poplar, not hard enough for maple and harder than pine. I could make 2 from maple and you would have to work the staining laquer to have all of them match. My wife would beat me with a broom if I took the grille bars off my 38-116. It would be easy enough to make them, poplar would be the easiest but maple would not be that bad.
Posts: 13,776
Threads: 580
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Ferdinand
State, Province, Country: Indiana
Claude - you're my hero! Thanks very much, will do.
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
Posts: 13,776
Threads: 580
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Ferdinand
State, Province, Country: Indiana
I have a 38-3 also, and I must admit, I don't really care much for it. Right now, in its "as found" condition, the 38-116 pictured above is kinda reminiscent of the 38-3...
A good refinish would bring out that veneer inlay, though; that, along with correct cloth and replacement of the missing grille bars would make a BIG difference in its looks.
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
Posts: 80
Threads: 10
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Warren, Ohio
Ron:
My 38-116 was kind of a project too. The band switch was ruined and I had to transplant the whole middle tuning unit from another chassis. It's a great performer. I've yet to start on the cabinet. After playing quite well for about six months it developed weird symptoms. The magnetic tuning wouldn't work and there were birdies that weren't there before. Turns out half of the 6N7 tube had quit working. Fortunately, I had saved the tubes from the donor chassis and this cured the troubles.
Steve Chambers
Posts: 225
Threads: 14
Joined: Oct 2005
City: Grand Blanc, Michigan
On my signature link you can see my 38-116 ($78 off ebay) it is now complete with all knobs (3 new knobs and bandswitch knob) and a new grille cloth and dial. Unlike Ms. R. my wife loves the 38-116 in the family room, but she has been eyeballing the 38-2 that I am doing in the basement thinking it would look good in the family room also when it is done. I guess I am partial to the 1938 model year since I have the 38-2, 38-4 and 38-116 all very nice radios. Trying to do Ron's grille bars will give me an excuse to purchase a nice shiney new router, as long as Ms. G does not find out, life will be good and happy.
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