The PHILCO Phorum

I had restored the cabinet of this radio back in 2013.

Before:



After:



I've decided to let this one go, along with a few others, to try and raise a little $$$ since I'm still out of work.

So on Sunday, I began working on the chassis.

Two and a half days later, the chassis was complete. A new world record for me, I think. That's replacing all of the old rubber-covered wiring as well as replacing all paper and electrolytic caps and all of the carbon resistors. Plus two tubes had to be replaced.









Unfortunately, the original clock is shot. The wires were clipped off at the motor, and the outer housing is missing as is the original two-pin connector coming from the original motor.

I have no choice but to replace the motor with a new one. I found an electric movement at Klockit, and decided to go with it. I have the original two-pin socket which connects inside the radio to supply AC power to the clock, and I've found a matching two-pin plug to take care of the missing plug, so I can at least hookup the new motor as the original was hooked up.

The new motor will be here Friday, and the dial covers were shipped today so they should be here by next week.

That looks fantastic, Ron! Much better than mine. Excellent work!!

[attachment=6978]

no kirk you cant have it
price ron ?
sam

Sam - see my ad in the For Sale or Trade section. (Remember, no ads allowed in this section of the Phorum, which is why I did not reference my ad previously.)

Greg - thanks! The cabinet did turn out very well, better than I expected. I was able to take Arran's advice and steam out almost all of the bad scratches. I should have used a smaller PHILCO decal but it still looks good, I think.

Don't knock your set though, Greg; I think your radio looks great!

Very nice looking radio.

Can I get it with an MP3 port and a mini-bar?

Phlogiston Wrote:Can I get it with an MP3 port and a mini-bar?

And Warren - thanks!

The clock movement is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and the dial covers on Saturday, so hopefully this weekend I'll have this set ready for K-town.

Hey, I forgot to mention something. This is an AC/DC chassis with a series filament string, and it uses a resistor in parallel with the dial lamp instead of a tap on the rectifier filament. Just for fun, I tried a 6 volt AC/DC bayonet base LED lamp in place of the 47 lamp. The LED worked! It did not dim as much as the 47 lamp does while the filaments warm up, and it worked well overall. Good to know! (I put a new #47 incandescent bulb back in after conducting the experiment.)

(04-23-2015, 08:56 PM)Ron Ramirez Wrote: [ -> ].......This is an AC/DC chassis with a series filament string, and it uses a resistor in parallel with the dial lamp instead of a tap on the rectifier filament. Just for fun, I tried a 6 volt AC/DC bayonet base LED lamp in place of the 47 lamp. The LED worked!  It did not dim as much as the 47 lamp does while the filaments warm up, and it worked well overall. Good to know! (I put a new #47 incandescent bulb back in after conducting the experiment.)

Ron, just curious why you thought it might not work?  And was the LED brighter than the 47 after warm up?

That's a nice looking radio and since the clock doesn't have any alarm settings or other knobs the new electric clock motor should have minimal cosmetic impact except for a purist collector.  In fact, for a non collector wanting a working radio for display, this would be ideal with the new finish, clock movement, chassis rebuild, and new dial covers.    

(04-24-2015, 10:30 AM)Eliot Ness Wrote: [ -> ]Ron, just curious why you thought it might not work?

Lower LED current which I thought might disagree with the circuit with the parallel resistor, expecting a device with a larger current draw than the LED. Heck, I half expected the LED to pop upon turn on - you know how the incandescent bulbs get very bright when the radio is first turned on, then get very dim, then gradually comes up to nearly full brilliance once the tube heaters warm up? No - the LED was not overly bright upon turn on, did not dim much, and came back to full brilliance (not that you could tell much of a difference) once the heaters were fully warm.

Quote:And was the LED brighter than the 47 after warm up?

No, it was not overly bright nor overly dim - just right. Edit: Yes, the LED is brighter than the 47, but it was obviously not operating over its limits. So anyway, now I'm more sold than ever on LEDs as replacements for incandescent bulbs.

The new electric motor looks just like the typical Asian battery movements, but it has an electric cord dangling from it. So this may be objectionable to some, but to me, it is preferable to a non-working clock.

I've decided to use battery movements in my 41-KR and both of my grandfather clock radios. I'll be using the battery movements with sweep second hands that look like an electric clock in operation. And, off subject a bit, but I have a 1956 GE/Telechron Mid Century clock in my office that has gone through two rotors already...and I'm debating on converting it to battery and being done with it.

Well, when we left off...I was looking forward to receiving the dial covers and the clock movement.

Both arrived on the 24th.

I hooked up the wires which supply 120 volts AC to the clock into the radio. To the other end of these wires I attached the original two-pin socket. As the plug did not come with this radio, I used one from my 41-KR as I plan to convert it to a battery clock movement with sweep second hand.

I put clock hands on the electric motor and tried it out. All seemed well; the clock worked.

So I proceeded to cut the cord and attach the two-pin plug from the 41-KR clock motor to its cord, and attached the motor to the backing plate after removing what was left of the original clock movement. I did this carefully so that it can be converted back to original if someone wants to later on.

Well, Murphy's Law being what it is...naturally, after modifying the thing so I could no longer return it...

I put it all into the 42-22 cabinet. Oh, the second hand ran fine...but the hour and minute hands would no longer move! 

So this morning, I disassembled it all.



Notice how I modified things so the new clock movement could be used. I cut a piece of 1/8" masonite to go behind the clock face to act as a spacer. I also cut two strips of 1/4" wood to space the unit further back from the front of the cabinet. I did all this to ensure that the clock shaft would clear the dial cover. I fastened the dial cover to the back of the cabinet, instead of to the clock face as it was originally, for this reason.

I had a choice of converting it to a battery movement with a sweep second hand (and I luckily had another one of those battery movements), or just forgetting about it.

I chose the former.





After reattaching the twice-modified unit to the cabinet, here's how it looks:



Works fine...and with the sweep second hand, it looks like an electric clock.

I decided not to modify the original clock hands - again, in case someone wants to convert this back to an original electric motor later on.

All done...





This radio had no back when I bought it, so I made one from 1/8" Masonite.

As for the clock...with a battery movement, it can be displayed and used as a clock without being plugged in. And there are advantages to that, I think.

I feel that this is one of my favorite restorations. Overall, it turned out really well. Especially considering the condition it was in when I purchased it. The scratches on the right side of the radio dial are almost invisible now.

Looks very nice Ron!!

wow very nice ron
sam

That's a beauty, and it won't last long if it even makes it to Kutztown.

Wow!  Waaaay Kooool!

A multi-tasking Philco!

Great job on that.   


Dat Udder Guy