05-31-2020, 03:45 PM
I bought this radio at the Stanton auction for $700. I knew nothing about it at the time other than it was a 15 tube model, a shutter dial and I liked the cabinet. I always thought I should have a shutter dial just because and I like high tube count radios. Plus it had a tweeter! So I bought it, not knowing its value. I have since found out that this model seems to command a higher price than I paid - a good thing. Anyway, the chassis is almost complete with just a couple of details to take care of. Best of all, it cranked up first shot out of the box, all bands. I like that kind of good fortune.
This radio had been worked on (the cabinet has been refinished) and should have played except that it blew the added fuse as soon as I turned it on. One of the 5Y4's flashed a beautiful blue just before the fuse went. I decided to clean up the restoration a bit. All the caps had been changed with a real hodgepodge of brands. All of the lytics had been changed with 4 section twist lock. 2 had been disconnected but at least were still on the chassis. I bought one Zenith painted can type on ebay and another stud mount from Mark Oppat. Kim Herron (w8zv at goldenradioservice.com) supplied me with a whole bunch of Zenith tubular caps to restuff and with a multi-section, strap mounted, cardboard electrolytic that I could stuff with 3 x 10mfd at 50v caps. many of the original resistors had been changed out so I decided to do a complete resistor job. Only 2 sections of the candohm where still in use. I disabled all sections and strapped on replacements. I hope the candohm insulation doesn't fail! There is a part of me says why stuff capacitors but put in modern looking resistors? It's a quandary in my mind, but there is something about Chinese yellow I don't like but I can look at new resistors and feel good about it. I just can't bring myself to molding all of those resistors!
Here are some cabinet pics and some before pics.
This radio had been worked on (the cabinet has been refinished) and should have played except that it blew the added fuse as soon as I turned it on. One of the 5Y4's flashed a beautiful blue just before the fuse went. I decided to clean up the restoration a bit. All the caps had been changed with a real hodgepodge of brands. All of the lytics had been changed with 4 section twist lock. 2 had been disconnected but at least were still on the chassis. I bought one Zenith painted can type on ebay and another stud mount from Mark Oppat. Kim Herron (w8zv at goldenradioservice.com) supplied me with a whole bunch of Zenith tubular caps to restuff and with a multi-section, strap mounted, cardboard electrolytic that I could stuff with 3 x 10mfd at 50v caps. many of the original resistors had been changed out so I decided to do a complete resistor job. Only 2 sections of the candohm where still in use. I disabled all sections and strapped on replacements. I hope the candohm insulation doesn't fail! There is a part of me says why stuff capacitors but put in modern looking resistors? It's a quandary in my mind, but there is something about Chinese yellow I don't like but I can look at new resistors and feel good about it. I just can't bring myself to molding all of those resistors!
Here are some cabinet pics and some before pics.
