[Sam samuelian]

Yesterday I had a nice long talk with Bob of Antique Radio Restoration and Repair in Connecticut. He is a very knowledgeable in every facet of restoration and gave me valuable tips. But I came away with that mind blown feeling that I'm not even close to doing a real restoration. Some of his points I absorbed when asking about my Philco 38-690, which he has great respect for. 1-recapping is only one step and not the answer to all ills as many think 2-there are many resistors that should be replaced just like the caps, especially the thinner, weaker ones. 3-Speaker paper is too old and brittle to give good sound so all speakers must be reconed. He felt speakers were only designed to last ten years, twenty at best. 4-Most people have no idea about the little "trays" of electronic parts which are covered with a black tar like substance. He said the gook must be carefully picked out with a pick and then the caps, resistors, etc, replaced. 5-Tubes should all be replaced with top quality new old stock 6-Pots that sound scratchy should be replaced rather than cleaned 7-Chassis work must be done to beautify them. Sanding, painting, etc. That applies to the base as well as tube shields and anything metal. 8-When replacing electrolytics above the chassis be careful to use the same length wires and place them in the same positions or risk unwanted hum or squealing 9-Refinish as you would a fine car. Lots of finish removal, hand work, sanding and re-sanding, many coats of lacquer, etc. 10-save all decals or put on new ones 11-stick with authentic grille cloth. He has about 50 different types after having bought out many existing inventories. Similarly he has over 100,000 NOS tubes. He also has hundreds of sets restored to the above specs for sale. They are VERY expensive. He said a set like mine done RIGHT would run about 5,000.00 and that doesn't even include the price of the set. He compared putting that kind of money into a radio to buying a 56 Ford for 2,000.00 and then spending 22,000.00 to restore it. My major concern was value. He felt sets restored that beautifully will hold their value. What? Where do I ever see table radios or consoles restored like this being sold for such high dollars. I felt the 32,000 I have already sunk into my radio was rather like a "money pit" but he said that was nothing and I still had plenty of potential for increasing the value. Oh yes, he also advised some sort of voltage regulator since today's voltages are higher than they were years ago and that could seriously damage and limit the life of those expensive tubes. My set has 20 tubes, so replacing all with new old stock can run as much as 4-5 hundred dollars. Of course silk covered power wire should be used and all knobs fixed and treated with finish. I should have asked what he does with the old yellowed dials whose black printed ink is fragile and easily smeared. My guess is he has those totally reproduced with fresh white plastic and black ink. There is more to tell, but that's as much mind blowing as I could take in one long phone session. I WOULD like to travel from PA to CT to visit his shop and see some of the miracles going on over there!

[Dave]

I have to respectfully disagree with this definition of restoration. There are different degrees of restoration, and it all boils down to how far you want to go with it and how much of an investment you want to make.
1. The functional restoration - it works but retains the patina and character of many years of enjoyment.
2. The general restoration - it both functional and beautiful. It can be used as a daily driver & your spouse won't be ashamed to have it displayed in the living room.
3. The shelf queen - so much time and money invested in it that you keep it behind glass & don't let anyone touch it, much less listen to it.

For most of us the general restoration is the way to go. I'm not much of a fan of the shelf queen myself. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with it, to each his own. But if I were to spent that kind of time & money, I would be so afraid that it may get scratched that I couldn't enjoy using it. Another issue with the shelf queen is that many of them get restored beyond factory perfect. Meaning the finish and components are actually better than it was the day it rolled off of the assembly line. My final problem is selling price. Most people would never pay that much for a radio. It's just not worth several thousand dollars when you can find one that looks almost as good for much less. Speaking of costs, when sellers see someone selling a radio for an outrageous price, they think that their unrestored barn find must be worth a fortune too, which drives up the cost for the rest of us.
Let's face it, most people won't be able to tell the difference in sound quality and appearance between a general restoration and a shelf queen. Well that's just my 2 cents worth.
Dave

[Chris Cusick]

I agree with Dave here. In the end we all end up drawing the line in a different place that makes sense to us. Since we mostly do this for fun, when we are personally satisfied, our restoration is finished.

I work on the principle of 'doing no harm' and would rather have an imperfect radio than do something that someone else couldn't undo later on. Even if I had the skills to 'over-restore' something, I would not feel the temptation to do that. But I do try to keep raising the standard of what I do, which means I become disssatisfied with earlier efforts that I then feel the need to revisit.

Not logical in any way but it keeps me happy !

Chris

[Ron Ramirez]

Here's my take. (First of all, let me say that I basically agree with Dave.)

Allow me to address Eslinger's points, point by point, with my thoughts on each.

1-recapping is only one step and not the answer to all ills as many think

This is true. Resistors also can and do go bad. Occasionally other parts such as tubes, transformers, etc. can go bad also, but not as often. These should all be checked, however.

2-there are many resistors that should be replaced just like the caps, especially the thinner, weaker ones.

If they measure more than 20% off tolerance (that is, more than 20% of stated value), they should be replaced. Really, as cheap as resistors are, it doesn't hurt anything to go ahead and replace all of them, as I am doing in my current project, a 41-616.

3-Speaker paper is too old and brittle to give good sound so all speakers must be reconed. He felt speakers were only designed to last ten years, twenty at best.

I couldn't disagree more. Simply reconing speakers just because "the cones are old" is a waste of money. Yes, the cones do get dry and brittle. These can be rejuvenated. A friend of mine carefully brushes mineral oil onto old cones; he swears by this trick. Other use silicone, but I would not let silicone near any old radio because most silicones will destroy copper (in this case, the voice coil in the center of the speaker cone).

Other folks, like myself, do nothing to the original cones if they are not damaged. Most of us do not play our radios at full volume, either, so the fear of a cone falling apart is generally a non-issue.

4-Most people have no idea about the little "trays" of electronic parts which are covered with a black tar like substance. He said the gook must be carefully picked out with a pick and then the caps, resistors, etc, replaced.

Philcos do not have "trays" of electronic parts covered with tar. Philcos made between 1930 and 1938 do have bakelite block capacitors which are filled with high temperature wax. (You will also find one of these blocks in many 1939-1947 Philco models, as the AC line bypass cap.)

The proper procedure to "unpot" these is not to pick the old tar out with a pick, but to heat the bakelite block and push the insides out in one piece. An excellent tutorial on this procedure may be found on Chuck's site.

http://www.philcorepairbench.com/capbuild.htm

5-Tubes should all be replaced with top quality new old stock

Totally disagree. This practice is not only a waste of time, it also drives up the price of remaining old tubes on the market.

The proper thing to do is to test every tube, preferably with a good quality mutual conductance tube tester. If you don't have one, find a friend, or a local radio club, that can do this for you. It has been my experience that around 80 percent or better of the tubes in an old radio are still good.

6-Pots that sound scratchy should be replaced rather than cleaned

No! Absolutely not! They should be cleaned first! If contact cleaner doesn't work, then use DeoxIT. In my experience, 95% or better of all old pots lost their scratchiness after cleaning with DeoxIT.

Some pots, such as tapped volume controls, are not easily replaced. Mark Oppat can provide replacements, but even he has a finite supply. Clean those pots first! Replacement should be a last resort.

7-Chassis work must be done to beautify them. Sanding, painting, etc. That applies to the base as well as tube shields and anything metal.

This should be left up to the individual. A lot of us, myself included, prefer to clean a chassis up; and often this may result in a chassis that looks better than it did when it left the factory. Polishing aluminum coil shields, etc., is really overkill, but it sure looks good!

Sanding and painting should only be done if the chassis has severe rust...in my opinion.

8-When replacing electrolytics above the chassis be careful to use the same length wires and place them in the same positions or risk unwanted hum or squealing

No argument here.

9-Refinish as you would a fine car. Lots of finish removal, hand work, sanding and re-sanding, many coats of lacquer, etc.

Refinishing a cabinet should only be done if it is necessary, and then there is no need to overdo it. Applying dozens or hundreds of coats of lacquer not only is overkill, but will result in a severely cracked surface sooner or later as too much lacquer will crack.

10-save all decals or put on new ones

Again, no argument here. But when replacing decals, please be careful to use only authentic-looking decals!

Antique Electronic Supply has authentic-looking PHILCO decals for 1937 and newer models. Someone is also selling these on eBay now. No one is producing authentic 1932-36 PHILCO decals...yet.

Radio Daze asked me to provide artwork so they could correct their decals, and I did so. I have heard nothing from them since, so I do not know if this is being corrected or not.

11-stick with authentic grille cloth.

This was fairly easy to do when we had plenty of authentic-looking reproduction grille cloth. Now that this is no longer available, it may not always be possible to do this.

That's one man's opinion, now let's hear others.

[Phlogiston]

Here's my take. (First of all, let me say that I basically agree with Dave.)

Allow me to address Eslinger's points, point by point, with my thoughts on each.

1-recapping is only one step and not the answer to all ills as many think

This is true. Resistors also can and do go bad. Occasionally other parts such as tubes, transformers, etc. can go bad also, but not as often. These should all be checked, however.

2-there are many resistors that should be replaced just like the caps, especially the thinner, weaker ones.

If they measure more than 20% off tolerance (that is, more than 20% of stated value), they should be replaced. Really, as cheap as resistors are, it doesn't hurt anything to go ahead and replace all of them, as I am doing in my current project, a 41-616.

3-Speaker paper is too old and brittle to give good sound so all speakers must be reconed. He felt speakers were only designed to last ten years, twenty at best.

I couldn't disagree more. Simply reconing speakers just because "the cones are old" is a waste of money. Yes, the cones do get dry and brittle. These can be rejuvenated. A friend of mine carefully brushes mineral oil onto old cones; he swears by this trick. Other use silicone, but I would not let silicone near any old radio because most silicones will destroy copper (in this case, the voice coil in the center of the speaker cone).

Other folks, like myself, do nothing to the original cones if they are not damaged. Most of us do not play our radios at full volume, either, so the fear of a cone falling apart is generally a non-issue.

4-Most people have no idea about the little "trays" of electronic parts which are covered with a black tar like substance. He said the gook must be carefully picked out with a pick and then the caps, resistors, etc, replaced.

Philcos do not have "trays" of electronic parts covered with tar. Philcos made between 1930 and 1938 do have bakelite block capacitors which are filled with high temperature wax. (You will also find one of these blocks in many 1939-1947 Philco models, as the AC line bypass cap.)

The proper procedure to "unpot" these is not to pick the old tar out with a pick, but to heat the bakelite block and push the insides out in one piece. An excellent tutorial on this procedure may be found on Chuck's site.

http://www.philcorepairbench.com/capbuild.htm

5-Tubes should all be replaced with top quality new old stock

Totally disagree. This practice is not only a waste of time, it also drives up the price of remaining old tubes on the market.

The proper thing to do is to test every tube, preferably with a good quality mutual conductance tube tester. If you don't have one, find a friend, or a local radio club, that can do this for you. It has been my experience that around 80 percent or better of the tubes in an old radio are still good.

6-Pots that sound scratchy should be replaced rather than cleaned

No! Absolutely not! They should be cleaned first! If contact cleaner doesn't work, then use DeoxIT. In my experience, 95% or better of all old pots lost their scratchiness after cleaning with DeoxIT.

Some pots, such as tapped volume controls, are not easily replaced. Mark Oppat can provide replacements, but even he has a finite supply. Clean those pots first! Replacement should be a last resort.

7-Chassis work must be done to beautify them. Sanding, painting, etc. That applies to the base as well as tube shields and anything metal.

This should be left up to the individual. A lot of us, myself included, prefer to clean a chassis up; and often this may result in a chassis that looks better than it did when it left the factory. Polishing aluminum coil shields, etc., is really overkill, but it sure looks good!

Sanding and painting should only be done if the chassis has severe rust...in my opinion.

8-When replacing electrolytics above the chassis be careful to use the same length wires and place them in the same positions or risk unwanted hum or squealing

No argument here.

9-Refinish as you would a fine car. Lots of finish removal, hand work, sanding and re-sanding, many coats of lacquer, etc.

Refinishing a cabinet should only be done if it is necessary, and then there is no need to overdo it. Applying dozens or hundreds of coats of lacquer not only is overkill, but will result in a severely cracked surface sooner or later as too much lacquer will crack.

10-save all decals or put on new ones

Again, no argument here. But when replacing decals, please be careful to use only authentic-looking decals!

Antique Electronic Supply has authentic-looking PHILCO decals for 1937 and newer models. Someone is also selling these on eBay now. No one is producing authentic 1932-36 PHILCO decals...yet.

Radio Daze asked me to provide artwork so they could correct their decals, and I did so. I have heard nothing from them since, so I do not know if this is being corrected or not.

11-stick with authentic grille cloth.

This was fairly easy to do when we had plenty of authentic-looking reproduction grille cloth. Now that this is no longer available, it may not always be possible to do this.

That's one man's opinion, now let's hear others.

Yes, Ron, If I wasn't so lazy I would have said the same thing, but let me add:

I make every effort to have a radio that looks and works like it did when it was made. I know that what I am going to say goes further than many people want to take a restoration, but is closer to original than what was in the original post.

All caps should be restuffed and displaying the original part numbers.

Replacing all the tubes for GP is ridiculous. However replacing them with the correct type - G rather than GT or Metal- Or better yet the correct type by the correct manufacture with the correct base ("engraved" or printed) is restoration.

Replace or rebuild other parts with original looking or NOS components. If it was a dogbone resistor, replace it with one.

Do not over clean a chassis. Remove the dirt and grime, leave the original plating alone. If a chassis was painted from the factory, repaint it, but not the rivets and other hardware. A plated chassis that is so far gone that it MUST be painted is a parts chassis only. Sanding and grinding are not an option for a plated chassis, nether is painting it with clear lacquer to prevent rusting. Over time clear lacquer on a chassis will yellow and /or flake off around unpainted hardware.

Cabinets refinished without grain filler are not correct.

Cabinets refinished without using toner are not correct, though some Philcos might not use much.

Cabinets refinished with Varathane are not correct.

I will say that if it is your radio do what you want with it. Some radios not properly restored sell for ridiculous amount on E-Pay. I don't buy them.

Many of the restoration steps take more time and skill rather than money - unless you are paying someone else by the hour.

If you want a radio to work like a new one, got to Wal-Mart. Old radios crackle when you adjust the volume and might even hum a bit. If you want a radio that looks old, buy one of those replicas. They are much less than the price of the OPs restoration. But if you want a restoration, it should still be an OLD radio.

[LASJayhawk]

My 2 cents.

Phlogiston is the most "correct" (in a Blooming gold Corvette way) If it's restored it should be exactly the way it left the factory. If it had 1 coat of lacquer when it left Philco, 10 coats is absolutely incorrect.

My opinion, its your radio, do it how YOU want it.

But I'll say this, if you restuff the paper caps, leave a note in the chassis of just when it was done, or the next guy will go online and be told he has to replace all those 'old' caps!

[codefox1]

Here's my take. (First of all, let me say that I basically agree with Dave.)

Allow me to address Eslinger's points, point by point, with my thoughts on each.

1-recapping is only one step and not the answer to all ills as many think

This is true. Resistors also can and do go bad. Occasionally other parts such as tubes, transformers, etc. can go bad also, but not as often. These should all be checked, however.

2-there are many resistors that should be replaced just like the caps, especially the thinner, weaker ones.

If they measure more than 20% off tolerance (that is, more than 20% of stated value), they should be replaced. Really, as cheap as resistors are, it doesn't hurt anything to go ahead and replace all of them, as I am doing in my current project, a 41-616.

3-Speaker paper is too old and brittle to give good sound so all speakers must be reconed. He felt speakers were only designed to last ten years, twenty at best.

I couldn't disagree more. Simply reconing speakers just because "the cones are old" is a waste of money. Yes, the cones do get dry and brittle. These can be rejuvenated. A friend of mine carefully brushes mineral oil onto old cones; he swears by this trick. Other use silicone, but I would not let silicone near any old radio because most silicones will destroy copper (in this case, the voice coil in the center of the speaker cone).

Other folks, like myself, do nothing to the original cones if they are not damaged. Most of us do not play our radios at full volume, either, so the fear of a cone falling apart is generally a non-issue.

4-Most people have no idea about the little "trays" of electronic parts which are covered with a black tar like substance. He said the gook must be carefully picked out with a pick and then the caps, resistors, etc, replaced.

Philcos do not have "trays" of electronic parts covered with tar. Philcos made between 1930 and 1938 do have bakelite block capacitors which are filled with high temperature wax. (You will also find one of these blocks in many 1939-1947 Philco models, as the AC line bypass cap.)

The proper procedure to "unpot" these is not to pick the old tar out with a pick, but to heat the bakelite block and push the insides out in one piece. An excellent tutorial on this procedure may be found on Chuck's site.

http://www.philcorepairbench.com/capbuild.htm

5-Tubes should all be replaced with top quality new old stock

Totally disagree. This practice is not only a waste of time, it also drives up the price of remaining old tubes on the market.

The proper thing to do is to test every tube, preferably with a good quality mutual conductance tube tester. If you don't have one, find a friend, or a local radio club, that can do this for you. It has been my experience that around 80 percent or better of the tubes in an old radio are still good.

6-Pots that sound scratchy should be replaced rather than cleaned

No! Absolutely not! They should be cleaned first! If contact cleaner doesn't work, then use DeoxIT. In my experience, 95% or better of all old pots lost their scratchiness after cleaning with DeoxIT.

Some pots, such as tapped volume controls, are not easily replaced. Mark Oppat can provide replacements, but even he has a finite supply. Clean those pots first! Replacement should be a last resort.

7-Chassis work must be done to beautify them. Sanding, painting, etc. That applies to the base as well as tube shields and anything metal.

This should be left up to the individual. A lot of us, myself included, prefer to clean a chassis up; and often this may result in a chassis that looks better than it did when it left the factory. Polishing aluminum coil shields, etc., is really overkill, but it sure looks good!

Sanding and painting should only be done if the chassis has severe rust...in my opinion.

8-When replacing electrolytics above the chassis be careful to use the same length wires and place them in the same positions or risk unwanted hum or squealing

No argument here.

9-Refinish as you would a fine car. Lots of finish removal, hand work, sanding and re-sanding, many coats of lacquer, etc.

Refinishing a cabinet should only be done if it is necessary, and then there is no need to overdo it. Applying dozens or hundreds of coats of lacquer not only is overkill, but will result in a severely cracked surface sooner or later as too much lacquer will crack.

10-save all decals or put on new ones

Again, no argument here. But when replacing decals, please be careful to use only authentic-looking decals!

Antique Electronic Supply has authentic-looking PHILCO decals for 1937 and newer models. Someone is also selling these on eBay now. No one is producing authentic 1932-36 PHILCO decals...yet.

Radio Daze asked me to provide artwork so they could correct their decals, and I did so. I have heard nothing from them since, so I do not know if this is being corrected or not.

11-stick with authentic grille cloth.

This was fairly easy to do when we had plenty of authentic-looking reproduction grille cloth. Now that this is no longer available, it may not always be possible to do this.

That's one man's opinion, now let's hear others.

Agree with Ron, except I now replace all carbon resistors while replacing capacitors as a matter or course. And some NOS tubes are unavailable at reasonable prices.

[Chuck Schwark]

I agree with Ron, whole heartedly. I like the old radios because they are a indelable part of my past, growing up in the 50s.

I restore to the point of safe playing and only clean off chassis or cabinet grime to the point that none of the age effects or patina are lost.

Don't you remember your Gramma with wrinkles? I sure do. :-)

In fact, I have my Gramma's kitchen radio in my collection which pre-dates my by two years and was always prominant in her kitchen when growing up. A plain old AA5 type: An Emerson 535. When it quit working, my Grampa just put it away and got her a Hitachi transistor radio (1965-ish). I found it rummaging one day in their attic.

[Image: http://www.philcorepairbench.com/images/535.jpg]

A piece if old/antique furniture should age gracefully and not be yanked back into some semblance of new out of the factory.

Chuck

[morzh]

And I wholeheartedly agree with Chuck.

I, of course, by no means am close to either of the posters in my experience of the antique radio restoration, but my purpose in doing all this is just one: I hate to see good old technology, built by folks during the times when people had some pride in what they were doing for living, rotting away. Today's expensive electronics is guaranteed for a year and lives for, maybe, 10 years. Those devices lived for decades, and some work even today without any restoration (though they could use some).

We appreciate patina on some old bronze statue; why make a radio glisten as a fresh spit on asphalt.
I say, make it play, and make it safe, and fix the cabinet so it stops disintegrating and looks nice enough.

Some of Bob's advice is common sense; some is wasteful.
There is nothing wrong with perfectionism, if one could afford it; however most of us are hobbyists and not making a living out of restoring radios, so we have to husband our resources when it comes to what we spend on the restoration.

[Pepperoni]

I can't truly answer that question. Too many variables. But I can show you what my idea of a complete chassis restoration is. My cabinet resto pic haven't been added yet but I'll get to it in time. They're all ready to be posted but I just haven't had the time to do it. This particular resto was done on a Zenith chassis.
http://www.speakeasyradios.com/restorati...w_its_done

Johnny

[morzh]

I can't truly answer that question. Too many variables. But I can show you what my idea of a complete chassis restoration is. My cabinet resto pic haven't been added yet but I'll get to it in time. They're all ready to be posted but I just haven't had the time to do it. This particular resto was done on a Zenith chassis.
http://www.speakeasyradios.com/restorati...w_its_done

Johnny

Johnny

My hat's off to you if you are willing to do all that. Looks beautiful. No one can argue with that.
I also understand you supplement your income doing restorations (or possibly it is your main occupation). Definitely a good way to attract customers when you radio looks like this.

This is however not something I am willing to do myself.

[Arran]

I kind of question whether Mr. Eslinger's definition of a restoration constitutes a "restoration". Lets take the speaker reconing just as an example, not only is it unnecessary and a waste of money if the cone is perfect or near perfect but the cones used for replacement seldom match the originals, some even have a foam or rubber surround (hinge). I don't know where he got the part about cones only lasting 10 to 20 years, maybe if it was one with a foam hinge?
Also unless a chassis is rusty or otherwise damaged in some way why do they need to be painted or laquered? Most had a zinc or cadmium plating when they left the factory, with the odd one being painted or copper plated, or like a Stromberg both copper plated and painted. If he really wanted to do it right he would strip the chassis down and send it out to be replated, at the rates he charges you would think he would offer this level of service?
Replacing controls is something that should only be done as a last resort, over the past 20+ years I have only encoutered one control where the resistive element was physically worn out form use. Most of the time when I have to replace a control it's because the shaft is broken off or some knucklehead replaced the original with one of the wrong mechanical or electrical size. Largely the main problem you run into with old controls, other then dirt, is a broken power switch. It just doesn't make sense to replace a control just because it's a little scratchy or is a little bit dirty, unless you find some NOS replacements whatever you put in there will not be an exact match. Recently I hunted through every bin I had just to find a suitable control for a five tube AC/DC radio, that's right an AA5, then I had to cut the shaft down to fit. I can imagine trying to find a replacement wire wound antenna style volume control for an early AC set if it had an odd style of shaft. Replacing controls, particularly volume controls, used to be a bit of a service scam back in the 1950s and 60s, but at least then you could still get OEM replacements from Philco or whomever.
I can tell from his ramble about refinishing that he either does not handle that end of the business or he is using the wrong techniques. No mention of grain filling, tone spray, wood dyes? The decal salvaging part I understand, although again at the rates he charges surely he would get new ones reproduced if they were not available off the shelf.
Really to me this sounds like a soft shoe sales pitch for the laymen who knows little to nothing about old radios, particularly the part about replacing all the tubes with NOS ones. Sure, try replacing a pair of type #50s with NOS ones just for the H%#* of it. I don't know what he does with the tubes he replaces but maybe some dumpster diving is in order. The point is that all this stuff sounds good to the laymen, most people have no idea how a tube radio works just some vague notion that the tubes are the cause of most failures.
Regards
Arran

[dnitram]

Wow! This kind of post opened up a LOT of eyes!! Everybody has their own idea of what a restoration should be, and I think that OK. This kind of reminds me of cooking and recipes. I've been making Gazpacho soup for a number of years and really like my own recipe... I purchased some "home made" Gazpacho yesterday to see how I'd like it and try to get an idea of what was in it. I Googled the subject last night for an hour looking for different variations other than mine. Found a few ideas and came up with a completely different variation for a new recipe to try, adding ingredients, dropping off a few and changing quantities of some. The ideas and comments here really aren't too different than what I just mentioned... Everybody has different styles, needs and opinions of what a restoration should and shouldn't include. I may now begin to replace all resistors, even if within 20% of variance, but don't see myself sanding, polishing or painting a chassis, even if it's rusted (I'll remove the rust, treat the chassis and make it presentable... to me.). Now, off to the store to buy the ingredients for that new batch of Gazpacho! :-) LOL!!

[Pepperoni]

MORZH this started out years ago as a hobby. Then at 43 a heart attack comes along. 27 years with the biggest aerospace company and I take an early retirement at the age of 45. Then one day I'm in the hospital for 7 days on life support. My heart's failing. My advanced directive says to unplug me after 7 days. Hospital tells my wife "It's the law, we have to unplug him". They do, I stop breathing, flat line and within a minute or so nurses and doctors come rushing in saying they have a faint heart beat at the nurses station. More of a flutter if anything. One thing leads to another and I walk out of the hospital the very next day on my own 2 feet.

I continued to improve and 3 months later comes my first ICD. (Implantable cardio-converter defibrilator). Think I spelled all that corectly. Very high-tech pacemaker. All that was 7-1/2 years ago. Now I am very healthy but still have somewhat of a weak heart.

Being the kind of person who can't sit in front of that thing (sometimes referred to as a Boob Tube) I started woodworking. Then I combined that with my electronics background and I start restoring tube radios. One day someone offers me a lot of money for one of them. A light goes on and I think... I can make money doing this. I have a nice 401K that I couldn't touch until about a year ago or you know who would take it all because I was too young. So yes! I "supplement" my income by restoring radios for people. I work 7 days a week because I love what I'm doing and it does take a lot of time to perform a restoration the way I do it. But in the years I've been doing it I have honestly never had one come back with a problem. Not even a tube going bad.

I want people to be proud of what they're displaying in their home and to have a piece of history that is as original as I can make it for them and have it work for their friends to listen too. How much do I make... About a dollar two ninety eight a day. I just do it because I love it. And I believe, especially now that I'm 60 that if one keeps the mind busy with something that makes the mind work and think that one may have a better chance of having a healthy mind for a very long time. Example: I don't have advanced degrees in anything. Just some electronics. My very best friend is one of those couch potatoes who sits in front of that thing I mentioned earlier. He has a masters degree in business management. Calls me up... I chopped my extension cord in half with my hedgehog. How do I fix it?

Thanks for listening. Now I have a post to place about a tube radio.

Pepper

[Sam samuelian]

Wow--I didn't think my very first post as a new member of the Phorum would attract so much attention. But I'm glad it did because now I have come away feeling much more "grounded" and justified not going overboard. Even at car shows I never much liked the guys who had to trailer their beauties. They have lost out on the great feeling of actually driving what they paid for much for. (Speaking of that--I had a typo in my post--I have spent 3,200.00 and not 32,000 thankfully!!)

I don't think anyone addressed the idea of having a voltage regulator used with vintage electronic equipment....

After seeing how lovely and useful a reproduction dial like those carried my Mark Oppat can be, I decided to spend just a tiny bit more on my radio. I'll keep the old dial but at least now when it lights up it won't look smeary and I'll be able to see what stations I'm on.

Speaking of Mark he advised me to dry clean my original cloth (which is surprisingly strong--I tried tearing it to test and no problems). I realize how many are treasuring old cloth but was surprised when he told me to do that since my dry cleaner said nothing would take away fading. What really hurt was knowing he has some cloth which he was going to sell me before I sent him photos of mine. I searched for week and weeks and he is my last hope. Outside of him, my wife saw some very fine looking cloth at JoAnn Fabrics. It has the same olive color, has the gold tones, but also has a fine reddish stripe here and there. Hmmmm....