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I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Printable Version

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I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Jamie - 08-18-2013

I picked up a couple of new projects today. I found a Philco 37-650 and a GE GD-63 at a local antique mall. Got them both for a pretty good price. I really like the looks of the 650. Are they known as nice sets? Sound pretty good?

The chassis looks pretty clean and original. Of course, I haven't gotten inside it yet.

   
   

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - codefox1 - 08-18-2013

Looks really good! Best of luck with it.

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Phlogiston - 08-18-2013

That crack in the veneer running down the radius of the curve on the right side (picture left) will be a problem.

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - KCMike - 08-18-2013

Good find "PuhPow". Is that your line up of radios in background?
Mike

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Electrothaumaturgist - 08-18-2013

Is that switch on the backside original?

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - British Philcos - 08-19-2013

congrats, always like the looks of that console, pretty good radio, and yours looks very clean

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Jamie - 08-19-2013

Thanks guys. Yeah, that crack in the veneer will be an issue for sure. It's not too bad as far as peeling away from the cabinet, but it is dried out and cracked. I don't know about that switch either, It didn't appear to be connected to anything, but we will see. 1930's Philcos are hard to come by in my area, so I'm not too picky.

I never did properly introduce myself here, so here goes..

I'm 52 years old, and I reside in Kentucky. I used to be a partner in a company that installed and serviced computer networks, so I have some electronics in my background. I'm also a sports agent, and have been in that business for 30 years. I've been messing with radios for about 6 months..

There are three cabinets behind the 37-650. Those radios all there because of my very first attempt to restore a radio. About six months ago, we found a Philco 46-1226 at a yard sale for $20. It looked great and the cabinet was almost perfect. At the time, I had zero experience repairing radios. Little did I know that the black sticky stuff on the chassis was the remnants of the transformer. So, we had a very nice cabinet with no working radio and I couldn't fix it. A month later, I find a 46-1209 (the cabinet was totally shot) for $10. I bought it hoping to do a transformer swap. That's when I earned my nickname ... "Puhpow" ..lol.. Since then, I've been looking for another 42-1226, and I finally saw one on Craigslist. Picked it up for $20. The cabinet is shot, but the chassis looks good. I hope to get it up and running and swap it into my original 1226 cabinet. The 46-1226 isn't a rare radio, but it got me into this hobby, so I owe it a good repair job. Since I bought it, I've learned a lot, mostly from reading posts here, but I've also read several books. I've now successfully repaired about 30 radios and sold several to some very nice collectors. I've got a tube tester and a signal generator, and I'm looking for a variac.

I've done a lot of things in my life.. I rode rodeo when I was younger, did a stint as a jockey, raced motorcycles, restored Corvettes and Mustangs... but I tell you this - There is no other hobby that has nicer people involved than antique radio. I can say that I genuinely like everyone I've met and been involved with. This forum is a great example of that attitude, and I really appreciate the way everyone jumps in to help out a newbie who is stuck. Thanks to you all, and to Ron for creating such a cool website.

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Chuck Schwark - 08-19-2013

Electrothaumaturgist wrote:

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today..
Is that switch on the backside original?
**************************************

I believe so. It appears to be a Philco after market antenna switch module.

Chuck

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Ron Ramirez - 08-19-2013

So, PuhPow, what part of Kentucky? Central, east, west?

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Ron Ramirez - 08-19-2013

By the way, guys, that switch in back, mounted on the metal flange...that sure looks like a radio-phono switch to me. Notice the RCA jack also on the flange, and the shielded cable going from it to inside the radio chassis. It was added by someone, not original.

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Chuck Schwark - 08-19-2013

Ah, you're right. Didn't get a chance to blowup pic.

Chuck

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Jamie - 08-19-2013

Ron, good info on the switch. Maybe I can use it to run an MP3 player to the radio?... I'm up in Northern Ky, about 20 miles south of Cincinnati.

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - AI2V - 08-20-2013

The cracking of the veneer on the radius is not a major issue. I've had the identical cracking/splitting on several Philco's over the decades and fixed them in just minutes! It's just a matter of using a 3-4" strip of fabric backed sandpaper, 220 to 400 grit works fine. Pulling the strip back and forth with the grain will quickly make that problem go away. Don't apply and extra pressure to the sandpaper. At this moment I'm looking at my Philco 37-670 that I got for a song since the cabinet had the same terrible splitting; in five minutes the splitting was gone. The resulting finish is smooth as glass with no evidence of splitting.

Just try it. You have nothing to loose.

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - Phlogiston - 08-20-2013

That is correct, but over time the split will return unless the veneer is replaced.

RE: I bought a Philco 37-650 today.. - AI2V - 08-21-2013

Phlog-
Interesting. I haven't had that problem yet. Perhaps there's something I do in the finishing process that retards future splitting. It' been over ten years on some of my radius sanding projects and so far they have held up. Tnx for the input.