The PHILCO Phorum

Hello all, this is my first post on the phorum so I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Ed Cafarella, I live on Long Island New York. About 15 years ago, my uncle moved from Long Island to South Carolina and invited my wife and I over to see if I wanted to buy a snow thrower (not much use in S. Carolina!) and a 4" Rockwell jointer. I bought both for $100. Before I left he asked me if I was interested in taking his old radio too (for free). I had remembered it in his basement in the 60's and 70's, my cousins and I used to poke our fingers through the grill material. Youth...

It turned out to be a Philco model 38-116 code 125.

I looked at it and my wife looked at me and, despite her looks, I said yes! We got it home and I put it in the living room and turned it on. I was shocked when it actually came to life. The thing that had me almost running away from it was that, after trying all the various bands, the only thing that came in at all was a station playing big band sounds from the 30's and 40's! I thought I had gone into the twilight zone.... I later found out that I just happen to live near WALK radio 1370 AM that plays that music all day and night. It's the only station the radio receives.

Time has passed, three children were born and the radio has been in my office in the basement since. I turn it on occasionally (turning off the fluorescent lights) and listen to it. It really has a beautiful sound and the big band music completes the picture.

I'd like to do a complete restoration on it both cabinet and chassis. I've ordered the necessary manuals and schematics and I'm looking to get a few restoration books. I have absolutely NO experience repairing radios and no electronic experience either. I do have a complete workshop with all imaginable tools so the cabinet restoration shouldn't be too much of a problem. I've been reading the posts here all morning and have gotten some great info.

I noticed a few things right off the bat that are wrong with the radio. The back is missing. I can make one out of thin masonite or some 1/16" paneling. I read in one of the posts that there is a "hole pattern" on the back, does anyone have a resource for that? Second, one of the "acoustic clarifiers" is missing, the one in the middle, are these available? I'd like to put one on and retain the original condition instead of just covering up the hole. Also, when I turn it on, I get a lot of static and the radio will occasionally mute itself, if I wiggle the volume knob it comes in clear. I assume I will have to either clean or replace that rheostat. I read that I should replace all of the capacitors too, I'll do that. When I was in the Navy, I worked on photo processor machines and remember the first thing I had to do prior to working on them was to discharge the capacitor before touching anything. Does that apply to this radio and, if so, where do I discharge it? If you look at the one picture of the chassis, you'll see on the right side (what I believe are) two capacitors with white stuff coming out of the top. What is that and what caused it? One last question, the dumbest of them all, When I turn the unit on, all of the tubes light up except one can I safely assume that if a tube doesn't glow it's bad?

Anyway, I have attached pictures of the radio as it looks now. Hopefully in a few months it will be pristine!

Thanks in advance for the advice and for all the stupid questions I'm going to ask in the future,

Ed

Hi Ed, my name is Doug and I live on Long Island too. The first thing you will want to do is replace those electrolytic caps for safety and all the rest of the caps for reliability and functionality. I am not sure but I think those are wet caps that are leaking, you can replace those with modern electrolytics that are a fraction of the size, mounting them either under the chassis or inside the old cans after gutting them.
You might want to drop by Speaker Specialists just east of the seaford oysterbay expressway (135) on Sunrise highway in Seaford. There is a radio swap meet/radio show that takes place there the first Sunday of every month. It usually runs til about 12 noon. There are a few old timers there you can maybe get some advice from.
If you PM me I can give you a couple of places where you can order parts from (caps, tubes, etc.) . As for the missing reprducer, try the want ads on this forum. The schematic for your radio is here: http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Resources/235/M0013235.htm
Good luck and have fun with it!

Doug

Hey Doug, thanks for the info. I actually live out in Suffolk but have breakfast every Sunday at the Seaford diner with my family and parents. I must pass by Speaker Specialists every week and never noticed them! I'll look this weekend. I'll PM you for more info.

Ed

Best try next Sunday- It is held on the first sunday of the month..

Oops! Right, I though this Sunday was the 1st!

Welcome aboard ecarfar!! If your ready to rebuild a vintage Philco, your in the best forum ever!! Get your replacement capacitors ordered, ( those electrolytics in your photo) MUST be changed immediately!! Dont continue turning on your vintage Philco till you get those filter-caps replaced!! More than likely, if you do a close inspection under the chassis, you will most probably see where they were replaced already sometime ago with some round cardboard-types replacements? With all that "oozing" out of the top of the orig filter-caps mounted on top of your chassis, I doubt seriously if the radio still works at all using those original caps. That said, even the replacements under your chassis needs replacing also. Regardless, dont try to use your radio again until you replace those bad electrolytic filter caps first!! Save your power-transformer before those "leaky" filter-caps cause a major-short!! Anyways,just tryin to help!! Randal, (TxRocker)

There are some good tips on Chuck's site (Philco repair bench) about stuffing the electrolytics. Most people curse the 37-38 magnetic tuning models because they all had the sub-chassis arrangement that is a bear to service. You can replace the paper cabs that are visible but on the 38-116 there are a few more stuffed under the sub-chassis so take the time to take good notes and pictures. All the versions of the magnetic tuning models are good sounding radios, 9 tubers and up with the whopper being the 690 with 20 tubes. Also on yours is something you see time to time, where they had to round out the tube shield to get the metal tube to fit. You should be able to find a glass tube to fit that spot and find a tube shield to replace the missing one, if you use some pliers you can get the shield base back close to original looks.

Thanks Randall, no I won't use the thing anymore! It does work very well, however, but I am kind od leary about using it. Is there a package of capacitors I should orfer that you could give me some advice about? I saw some at various sites but since i haven't taken it apart yet I'm not sure what I'll need.

Ed

Texasrocker Wrote:Welcome aboard ecarfar!! If your ready to rebuild a vintage Philco, your in the best forum ever!! Get your replacement capacitors ordered, ( those electrolytics in your photo) MUST be changed immediately!! Dont continue turning on your vintage Philco till you get those filter-caps replaced!! More than likely, if you do a close inspection under the chassis, you will most probably see where they were replaced already sometime ago with some round cardboard-types replacements? With all that "oozing" out of the top of the orig filter-caps mounted on top of your chassis, I doubt seriously if the radio still works at all using those original caps. That said, even the replacements under your chassis needs replacing also. Regardless, dont try to use your radio again until you replace those bad electrolytic filter caps first!! Save your power-transformer before those "leaky" filter-caps cause a major-short!! Anyways,just tryin to help!! Randal, (TxRocker)

Thanks for the info, I did hear that it is a bear to work on and since I have no experience, it might be a grizzly. I'm looking forward to it, it'll keep me out of trouble this winter.

49Stude63 Wrote:There are some good tips on Chuck's site (Philco repair bench) about stuffing the electrolytics. Most people curse the 37-38 magnetic tuning models because they all had the sub-chassis arrangement that is a bear to service. You can replace the paper cabs that are visible but on the 38-116 there are a few more stuffed under the sub-chassis so take the time to take good notes and pictures. All the versions of the magnetic tuning models are good sounding radios, 9 tubers and up with the whopper being the 690 with 20 tubes. Also on yours is something you see time to time, where they had to round out the tube shield to get the metal tube to fit. You should be able to find a glass tube to fit that spot and find a tube shield to replace the missing one, if you use some pliers you can get the shield base back close to original looks.

Here is a picture of my restored 38-2 (11tubes) http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/phot...9633qtfvVL and the electrolytics have been resuffed with new electrolytics but the chassis still retains the original look. Some people just take the old electrolyic off and pop a replacement somewhere under the chassis but stuffing them is not hard to do and Chuck's site give good tips on how to do that. I have each of the following models 38-1,2,3,116 along with the 37-11 even the low tube count models 38-3 are nice performers.

I have one of those 38-116 sets to restore, as well. I bought a complete package of service literature for that radio from Chuck, and it's well worth the price.

Tim KA3JRT

If this would be your first radio restoration, I would advise you not even starting this just yet. The only way this might work out is if you have someone physically there to check on your progress, and advise you of how to proceed. This is a complicated radio, and it wouldn't take much to ruin it. You now have a working, restorable radio. Try to rebuild a simpler radio first to get a feel for what you are doing. I have rebuilt several Philco 116 radios, and even for someone who has experience at this, it is a very big job.

Never be discouraged Ed!! The new capacitors you need for your vintage Philco Radio are available from several sources. Personally, I like doing business with Dave at (http://www.justradios.com/). Also A.E.S. has a good selection (http://www.tubesandmore.com) If this is your first restoration, as long as you carefully replace all your old caps one at a time, you will be fine since the set was already working. Start with your Filter Caps (electrolytics) first and follow proper UF (mfds) & separate voltage ratings from the orig cans on top of your chassis. The UF's & voltage ratings should be stamped or printed on those units. Also, those caps have a (+) and (-) and be careful of not getting them reversed. Once you have your new filter caps installed with proper polarity, the rest of your recap can be done by close inspection of reading the UFs (mfd's) & (voltage ratings) of all other old wax style tubular caps by reading the print on them individually, one at a time and careful replacement using a good 30-40 watt soldering-iron ,proper solder type (60-40) resin core from your local radio-shack. Go slow, 1 cap at a time, and ask questions here if you have any! On your 1st go-round with a "re-cap" job, I would'nt worry about "re-stuffing" the old orig caps at all. That is not necessary to getting your radio properly serviced! Just save all your original-caps you remove, and if you decide to "re-stuff" them someday housing your new caps, you can do that later also. Never be discouraged to learn a new hobby!! You have to go slow, and get your first-experience under your belt for a complete recap! Since your radio is working with the old-caps, ( even though they are not safe to use daily), I figure you can on your own, can get your vintage Philco as a daily-listener again! Keep the faith, and good luck with your Philco restoration! Randal