The PHILCO Phorum

I have been successful so far in resisting chassis removal of my 38-8. I am wanting to get through the holidays before I dive into my first Philco.. So,.. I am getting to few things in hand before the time comes..
As I said, I am not wanting pull the chassis, so can someone tell me what gauge wire did Philco use? I have some of the cloth covered pvc stuff.. Its very nice wire but has a large profile, so I don't want to use it under the chassis.
I am wanting the true push-back variety, just don't know what gauge..

Thanks,.. Stan    

Philco used wire with cloth cover over rubber back in the day (1938 and earlier); the unrated 20 gauge cloth-covered PVC wire sold by Radio Daze and others is an excellent replacement for Philco sets made before 1939. Why wouldn't you use it? It looks correct and performs as original.

The wire I just bought is thick.. Way thicker than I had imagined it being.. I wouldn't expect to see wire like it under the chassis.. The only reason I bought it was because this stuff has the cloth bonded to the pvc.. You can cut it and it doesn't unravel..  I guess it really doesn't matter other than making it look nice and neat.. personal preference.. The wire that is exposed seems it be stranded cloth covered, but its rotten.. I didn't notice any rubber in it..


Stan

(11-21-2015, 03:37 PM)Stan the Man Wrote: [ -> ]The wire I just bought is thick.. Way thicker than I had imagined it being.. I wouldn't expect to see wire like it under the chassis.. The only reason I bought it was because this stuff has the cloth bonded to the pvc.. You can cut it and it doesn't unravel..  I guess it really doesn't matter other than making it look nice and neat.. personal preference.. The wire that is exposed seems it be stranded cloth covered, but its rotten.. I didn't notice any rubber in it..


Stan

Stranded wire does tend to be thicker than solid wire. However I have to agree with Ron, I have used only the stranded cloth covered bonded wire from Radio Daze. It strips very easily and tins easily. Early Philco chassis that I have worked on, prior to the model 90 used solid wire, but I have always used stranded as a replacement. Are you sure that the wire you have, even though it is cloth covered, isn't the heavier gauge used on many tube guitar amplifiers for the filaments?

The unrated wire Ron mentioned is available as both stranded and solid. It is called small profile and does not carry the 600v rating. See:
http://www.radiodaze.com/cloth-covered/

(11-21-2015, 03:37 PM)Stan the Man Wrote: [ -> ]The wire I just bought is thick.. Way thicker than I had imagined it being.. I wouldn't expect to see wire like it under the chassis.. The only reason I bought it was because this stuff has the cloth bonded to the pvc.. You can cut it and it doesn't unravel..  I guess it really doesn't matter other than making it look nice and neat.. personal preference.. The wire that is exposed seems it be stranded cloth covered, but its rotten.. I didn't notice any rubber in it..


Stan

I know exactly what you mean... I bought the same stuff I think - but I couldn't use it everywhere I wanted to because it was too thick.

You can see the standard Philco stuff in the bottom right here - the reddish coloured twisted pair that goes off to the dial light... it seems to just be a couple of bound layers of cotton or something similar then the woven sheath.  The stuff I bought is just to the right of it (brown/black twisted pair)... Its way too thick to look right, and way too thick to use in places like the large cap block which only has a hole to suit the smaller wire.

Pushback wire should be ok size- and appearance-wise though as it doesn't have the PVC insulation (although the downside is that it also doesn't have a high (or any that I've found) voltage rating).

For solid push back wire I use Hoffman Amps.
For stranded push back wire I use Luxe Wire.

http://hoffmanamps.com/
http://luxe-radio.com/collections/wire-tubing