This was the first time I bought anything from willeezwarez on eBay.
Willee ships via Greyhound which keeps shipping costs down (he also eats some of the shipping cost as a way to entice bidding).
He does an *awesome* job packing these big consoles. Here's how it arrived:
Now Greyhound shipping takes a long time. Seriously. I bought this on July 22. I brought it home from the Greyhound terminal on September 20.
Tracking was really spotty - it basically just looked like it sat in Chicago for the better part of 2 months - and still showed as in Chicago after it arrived.
The important thing is that it arrived safe and sound.
The original #51 (15K resistor) likely suffered from the problem of being under-rated (described by Ron in this previous thread).
The open filter choke is a slight bummer but shouldn't be that bad to replace. According to the 1936 Philco Quality Radio Parts Catalog the specs are: 4H, 130ma (150ohm DC Resistance). Hopefully I have something on a parts chassis that will be a good replacement.
All resistors except #35 and #10 (both 99K, 1/2W) measure within spec. As usual it's these 'standard type' resistor that have the most problems. This chassis mostly has the 'metallized type' (metal end caps) which have been noted to be more reliable.
Lately I've switched to using large value film caps rather than modern electrolytics based on the advice I've read here. These are 400V rated caps (I bought these by mistake). I expect that's still OK for this radio since the original caps (not the replacements) were rated 400V (Part No. 4916). But next time I will buy 630V caps to be on the safe side for other models.
The original is Part No. 5643. So 4H, 130ma, 150ohm.
I have a model 90 parts chassis which uses the identically spec'd Part No. 4819. Unfortunately the filter choke had already been stripped.
Next best option: model 18 parts chassis. It uses a 32-7115 filter choke. It's pretty close - rated 5.25H, 125ma, 170ohm - hopefully close enough?
Anyway, I went with that. Physically the model 18 filter choke is very close to the original on the 112:
It's too cold to paint it right now - pretty will have to wait.
1st RF Coil
During my initial inspection I noticed a wire hanging from Part #2 first RF coil (the 10K resistor in parallel with the primary is already removed in the below pic).
There was just barely enough bit of the lead remaining to solder to. Full disclosure: in a stroke of brilliance I forgot to unsolder the other side of the primary coil before pulling it from the main form.
So both sides of the primary needed to be repaired. D'oh.
Tonight I recapped the filter can. First step was just to desolder the wires and carefully label everything (the schematic shows the terminals from the bottom of the chassis - makes sense). [Image: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4625/3909...a933_z.jpg]
Next up - a couple of the hacked up bakelite blocks.
#9 capacitor block is a 3615L (middle of below pic) - should be 3615D. The taped together connection with the 70K resistor original went to the middle terminal of that block.
I had a 3615N block in my parts bin that I turned into 3615D just by rotating one of the terminals.
Philco probably could've saved some more pennies by not making so many different (but similar) blocks!
#6 capacitor block is 3615W (lower left of below pic - with Zenith cap) - should be 3615J. Evidence of hackery as middle pin connections are there but floating.
Done right? Well...I put the set back on the test bench and it was pretty clear that I broke it.
It turned out that I didn't pay close enough attention to that Zenith paper cap that I removed. When looking at layers of past repairs it's hard to guess exactly what's going on without tracing everything out - which is what I did next (should've done that to begin with). That Zenith cap was in fact a stand-in for 1/2 of #25 - a dual 0.25uF cap in a metal can. I didn't notice during my initial look through but one of the leads of #25 was clipped off:
Nathan,,,,are these units ( 112) ,,,Good or Great players,,,and sensitive or not,,,there is one in Jersey shore for $200.00 ,,is that a Good Price,,,Thak You for your tome ,,Ken
Ron Ramirez Wrote:Five words - You're going to love it.
In my opinion...the 111 and 112, along with the 1932 model 15 (which is essentially the same radio only with 6.3 volt tubes) are the very best AM-only radios Philco ever built. RF stage, two IF stages, and a "normal-maximum" switch for sensitivity. They are amazing performers. Actually, I think the 111 and 112 are both better than the 15. Again...my opinion. Anyway, there is a lot to like about these sets. Great performers.
The only drawback: They only tune as high as 1520 kc, and as low as 550, so you lose part of the modern AM band on both ends (mainly the high end). But as long as you don't have any AM stations you want to listen to at 540 kc or above 1520 or so, yep...you're going to love it.
$200+ would be about going rate here on the West coast - although I've seen only one over the past several years (and it was poorly refinished). That's why I bought one from Willee - I'd been searching for a while for this model (one of my favorite Philco consoles) and he had one with a cabinet in great shape. I'm still happy with what I paid even though it was quite a bit more than $200 with shipping.
I removed the tar block and used a terminal to connect the replacement caps. I like this method because it's easy to work with and doesn't require any permanent modifications to mount.
