[Contributed by Ed (etech)]

I discovered how to clean the old Philco tuning dials on the 1936 to 1938 sets. This may work on other model years too. As you are probably aware, cleaning these dials with a water solution will usually result in a loss of the original ink markings. So, just for kicks, the other night, I took a broken dial from a 1938 Philco ( I think it came from a 38-116 chassis) and did a test cleaning with mineral spirits. I thought sure it would wipe the ink markings clean off. Lo and behold, it did not. It just did a very nice job of cleaning the dirt and grime off that old dial. Having had that success. I did a test cleaning on my old 1936 116B dial by testing an area just off the normal scale where it would not show, if the printing had been removed. But, surprisingly, the results were the same. The minerals spirits did not remove the old ink, it just cleaned the dirt and grime off of that old dial. It actually looks pretty good now. I used Kleen Strip brand mineral spirits in case anyone is interested.

If you want to try this method, I would only offer this caution that it would be worthwhile to test a non-critical area of your dial first, before you take a chance on destroying your dial. YMMV!

 

[Comment by Ron Ramirez]

I would suggest, however, that you not apply too much pressure on the markings. Heavy pressure seemed to make the markings slightly lighter.

YMMV…

Note that this cleaning method does not apply to Philco’s 1940 and later glass dial scales.