Robert in Wisconsin here, with my first post. I did some combing through the Philco Phorum the other day trying to determine the model/year of my recent find. They sure did make some beautiful radios back in the day.
I could not find my exact model based on Google search suggestions (2625A 1935/1936, or 623B 1935/1936). Can anyone help me? Might be looking to have it restored as well with new tubes and such. I don't want to plug it in and try it and fry everything unnecessarily.
It looks like the label inside the chassis has it as a 620. The cabinet is in the style of the 625B. The 625 series was a mid-season revision of the 620 (see the gallery info). Philco would often use up all their existing chassis inventory even if they no longer had the cabinet to put them in. In this case it looks to me as though they used one of their remaining 620 radios and put it into the newer 625B cabinet.
You are right to not plug it in. You will need to replace the electrolytic and paper capacitors at a minimum and probably some of the resistors. Hopefully all transformers are still all ok. Tubes may well still be good but the only way to tell is to test them is another radio or a tube tester (unless its the filament that is bad and you can check that with an ohm meter).
Thanks for your reply and information. Putting the mechanics inside of another case, that's why I was so confused, and nothing matched the pictures! Makes sense now.
I'm going to keep my eyes open for more Philco sets. They look like they were probably the most ornate for the time? Madison's antique radio swap is coming up the first part of May. I'll likely go.
If nothing else, this is in beautiful condition. I only paid $49 for it which I think was beyond reasonable. I'm not quite sure how to reply to your reply, so I'm sending a PM also just in case.
