[morzh]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Antique-...true&rt=nc

Picked up this today.

Really clean and nice. Do not think it has been restored, the cord cut and all.
Photos later.

[Arran]

 I would have prefered this one myself, even if it is not a Philco:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RCA-Victor-Antiq...1631665707

 I would try to do better then the $99 they want for it of course, and only if it was local. Or this for that matter, a nice Majestic, with doors and a tuning meter.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Tube-Rad...1469361253

Regards
Arran

[Ron Ramirez]

Congratulations, Mike.

Have fun restoring that chassis. The rubber wires going to the band switch will test your patience and sanity. But if you can successfully overcome that hurdle, you will have a very nice radio indeed.

[morzh]

Arran

I in fact wrote the guy about 2 weeks ago about the RCA (he has it listed on CL for $95 also) but no reply so far.
As for the Majestic it has been on my watch list but it is reserve so I do not know what he really wants. 120 miles too.


Ron,

yeah, I know, the 40-s chassis, all rubber.
But I have decided I am going to be judicious about it, the radio looks so clean and the finish preserved so well (and the chassis has not been really cleaned, maybe dusted) and the rest is in great shape inside so I think maybe it was kept indoors in a living space all this time, so I will see first what condition the rubber is in and if a wire is not cracked and does not have to be touched, it will stay. Of course if it is cracked, all over, it will go.

[Arran]

Mike;
  The rubber, or gutta percha, covered wire would not really be a deal breaker for me necessarily, but it, along with the usual Tenite plastic problems, would have a great impact on what I would be willing to pay. Another factor being that Philco built a lot of 40-180s, 41-280s, 42-380s, so you can be more particular about what you buy. The rotting wire is not a feature unique to 1939-42 Philcos, Majestic radios, like the set in question, are notorious for being full of the stuff, same with their Canadian Rogers built cousins along with several Atwater Kent models from the mid 1930s, so it's a price one must pay if you want to restore any of those. One pain in the bum about those Philcos is the fact that they used the rubber wire as leads for the IF cans, even the Canadian Toronto built versions have this problem, which has B+ voltage running into one winding of course, and is a delicate operation to change. I'm not sure about the Philco set but one thing I have noticed with the Rogers built sets is that certain colours of rubber wire deteriorate a lot more then others, the blue wires break down the most, followed by the green, yellow and white hold up the best, whilst the black, brown, and red lie somewhere inbetween.
Regards
Arran

[morzh]

Arran

Thanks for heads up.

In fact while repairing a couple of Transitones I had to deal with those, some of them coming from IF cans. The insulation though was intact where it went in IF can so I put a heatshrink tube all the way into the can's orifice and this took care of it at the time.

I am about to start on that AK I bought a year ago in august from mid-30s and yes I was forewarned back then that this was in stock for me, so...can't wait

This particular one 41-280 I bought because I thought it was very clean and original and when I got it it was indeed very clean and original, no cabinet work required, so I hope this will be a purely electrical project which is always my preference as I am, well, a "woodwork-challenged" type.

And I know of gutta percha too - I got a root canal four years ago.