The PHILCO Phorum

Here we go again...



This is the chassis for a Philco (Canada) model 35A. It is almost identical to the USA-made-for-export Tropic 41-712.

You can read more about the 41-712 and see a photo here.

Back view of the chassis:



A close-up of the model number tag in back:



Someone had fun with the speaker, unfortunately:



You can see besides the holes which were probably poked with a pencil, a piece of cone was also glued on to cover a large hole in the cone.

Let's take a look under the hood.



A previous owner replaced the AC cord and two of the electrolytics...and apparently nothing else.

The good news is that the only rubber-covered wire in the entire radio is the lead going up to the single dial lamp. I am surprised that it does not have a lamp on both left and right sides of the dial. I double-checked the schematic to be sure, and no, it only shows one dial lamp.

Even the IF transformer leads in this set are cloth-covered.

As usual, you can follow along with my progress by looking at the schematics for yourself.

Philco Canada Model 35 Schematic (623K)

Philco-Tropic Model 41-712 Schematic (661K)

The main difference between the 41-712 and the Canadian 35A, besides the lack of rubber-covered wires in the Canadian version, is the audio output tube used.

The 41-712 uses an octal-based 6K6EG.

The 35A uses a loctal-based 7B5E.

And my 35A is a 25 cycle set (the A suffix = 25 to 40 cycle AC).

Anyway...

I started working on this set after lunch today. By dinnertime, I had managed to remove all of the paper and electrolytic capacitors as well as all of the original resistors.



This set had all but one of its original paper capacitors. Of those, only one was a USA Philco cap - the others have "Made in Canada" printed on their shells.



The one original electrolytic was also made in U.S.A.

The next job is to melt out the innards from each of those caps and restuff them with new components.

Well it's nice to know there was someone else spending their Sunday afternoon between lunch and dinner working on a radio recap! In my case it was a Coronado C640, which is like the classic Belmont 6d111.

Looks like you've got another nice project going, Ron. At least this one has a nicely flocked dial plate. It is too bad about the speaker. Perhaps temporarily, until you can have it re-coned or find a replacement, you could push some of the holes closed (or I should say back as far as they will go) from the backside, and put a dab of liquid tape over each of them. I've had success dealing with small holes in speaker cones this way. Of course, I was only dealing with one or two. But at least you might be able to make it work for now to try the set once you've finished replacing the caps & resistors

Not finding a chassis full of rubber coated wire is also a welcome sight!

What do you use to seal in the new capacitors inside of the cardboard tubes? In the past I used hot glue and then poured some molten beeswax on top of the ends. I have been thinking about buying some brown hot glue and giving that a try without using the wax.

Brown hot glue is an excellent idea, Jeremy!

I'm currently using conventional (whitish) hot glue which looks OK. But I agree, the brown hot glue would look more authentic. I don't use any beeswax. I tried just using the wax (without hot glue) several years ago, the first time I tried to restuff old paper caps, and decided that using molten wax was too much work.

http://www.amazon.com/Brown-Colored-Glue...merReviews

I'm going to shop around locally for something like this. The beeswax was a lot of work. I had a pretty good system down when I last used that method and could do them pretty fast. I would like to eliminate the beeswax step if possible for my next restoration.

It looks like neither Michaels nor Hobby Lobby carry brown glue sticks, which really surprises me.

Well, after working for an hour or two, I had a set of newly restuffed capacitors:



...and after working a couple more hours, here is where I am at:



I have two more paper caps, one electrolytic, and one resistor left to install. Plus, I need to remove, empty out, and restuff the line bypass bakelite block, and run a new wire to the pilot lamp socket.

  Looking good and original Ron. Would a 41-240 speaker work in that radio?
I can check the one I have if it will.

Thanks, Mike! A 41-240 speaker would be an excellent replacement...but I already have one on the way from Sam. Thanks anyway though, I really appreciate it...and who knows, I may need it eventually for another project; if so, I will let you know.

Well, I did get the remaining components installed.

Once again I am happy to say...It's Alive...



I'm sure you folks are wondering about that speaker...



I hit every hole with fabric glue; that is the dried residue you see in the photo above. The speaker actually sounds amazingly well, considering the cone was damaged in the manner it was. It sounds better than my 42-720.

Observations:

1. It tunes my SSTRAN very broadly. As I then proceed to go up the AM band, after leaving my SSTRAN signal it breaks into oscillation briefly, then the rest of the band comes back and tunes normally. I do not notice this oddity on either of the SW bands.

2. The on-off switch seems a bit flaky.

3. The tone control, which is part of the on-off switch, is not functioning.

Otherwise, all seems well. I let it play for about 20 minutes and the transformer didn't even warm up. I still need to replace the antenna and ground leads as the originals are pretty badly frayed.

Good old 25 cycle transformer. Also since it has a single ended output, and uses mostly loctals with 150 ma filaments, it will not overstress either the 7Y4 or the transformer much. It's strange that they would use a 7B5 rather then a 6K6G or GT as opposed to the U.S built Tropic. I've noticed that the 6K6G and 6K6GT was an underutilized tube in Canadian built sets, most seemed to prefer using 6F6Gs unless it was a small table set, though Rogers seems to have liked 6K6Gs but they manufactured their own version that they called a 41M, with a metal spray shield, something unnecessary for a power output tube. Ironically Rogers was one company that went overboard when it came to what power transformers they used in a given model.
Regards
Arran

Yeah, the 7Y4 appears to be a loctal equivalent to the dreaded 6X5, only the 7Y4 draws slightly less heater current (0.5A vs. 0.6A).

I'll try cleaning the off-on-tone control switch with DeoxIT today, and see what happens.

Nice work!

I noticed that you replace the resistors as well. Were the original ones out of spec or do you do this just as a precautionary measure?

I replace as a precautionary measure. I figure that since I'm in there anyway and have to remove all of the old caps for restuffing, why not unsolder a few more joints and remove/replace the resistors, too? We all know what can happen to carbon composition resistors through the years; this ensures maximum performance from the radio with (usually) minimal problems afterward.