The PHILCO Phorum

The hole in the front of the cabinet is 3/8" diameter and the original tenite jewel was lost at some point between 1940 and now. I can get a 9mm cubic zirconia jewel for under $20 that's pink-to-red and it will fit nicely in the hole somehow. I'd like to stay faithful to the original look if possible - not that is would be as down right ugly as a Philco floor model that I saw in an antique store with a bright colorful floral pattern for the grill cloth and flat-gold spray painted bakelite knobs.

Has anyone seen the original jewels and do you know what they look like? I'm not sure if they were plastic that was molded in the shape of a circular jewel or if the shape of the jewel followed the contour of the molding. Are they all the same for the floor models?

I've been very fortunate in my restoration so far. The grill cloth looks original (tan to to gold diamond cross hatch) with some signs of wear around the on-off switch from scraping fingernails. The condition of original buttons look as you might expect for the age; shrunken with a crack through the center. I've got a glass dial cover still and the paint is in excellent condition. There's even felt around the volume, tone, tuner and selector wheels. About all that missing there are the pads for the push buttons on the inside of the face plate. The only finish that need some attention was the cover. It was shalack and needed a vigorous rubdown with 0000 steel wool after softening to remove the roughness. I'm not ready to say working with shalack is easy but it could have been worse. The radio is ready to find a proper resting place once I'm able to move some furniture around or out of the way. The jewel is the last hurdle.

Cannot tell you what the original looked like, but I have some other equipment of that vintage which uses a red glass with a chromed screw bezel. I have extras and could send you one if you'd like to try it. I think it's 3/8th, more or less

Bezel. I've been thinking about how to attach a lens or jewel other than the original. That may prove handy and I could always paint the chrome black so it wouldn't stand out. I'll keep your generous offer in mind. It may be the best way to go.

I found a repair shop that has molds but he has never made one for a 40-201. Who knows, all of them may look alike. I may gamble on one.

One thing I've decided I will not do is case one myself. Thinking back about all of my experiences with resins and hardeners has tempered my enthusiasm. I never end up using the leftover so that option seems wasteful.

I have a $2 solution and it looks great. I was in Radio Shack this afternoon and started snooping through their component drawers and found a 10mm Ultra High Brightness Red LED. The clear plastic shell is 9mm and is somewhat ovoid, which matches the shape of the molding on the radio. Here's the specifications: Intensity = 400 mcd, Wavelength = 660nm, Viewing angle 16 degrees, Current = 20mA, Supply voltage = 2.4 V max. In other words, you get a very red light that's reasonably bright and the voltage out of the existing light socket is ample to light it.

I used a breadboard to find the best load resistor value. Since the voltage source is AC I connected another diode across the LED to conduct when the polarity changes, anode to cathode and cathode to anode. One end of the diode pair go to ground and the other end is connected to a resistor that draws current from the light socket in the radio. I selected the resistor to give less than 20mA of current. This measurement was done by connecting my Fluke multimeter in line. I had a 220 ohm one watt resistor and and a 330 ohm 1/2 watt resistor to choose from. The 220 ohm resistor resulted in 21.5mA while the 330 ohm resulted in 15.5mA. I decided to use the 330 ohm resistor since the sacrifice in brightness was marginal and should allow the LED to work for thousands of hours with no heating problems.

Before assembling the circuit I had to use a small metal file to cut off the flange on the LED. Once that was done I got the best fit by filing a little more to reduce the diameter of the LED so the tip was not sticking out far beyond the molding and the light would fit snuggly with a press fit by hand.

I used six inches of multi-strand wire to extend the LED leads. The diode and resistor were soldered to the extension and an another six inches of wire was used to connect to the chassis and the radio light bulb socket. All exposed metal wiring was covered with heat shrink.

As I mentioned the light look great and for some reason the viewing angle is good all angle except for a small range around 30 or 45 degrees for some reason. I know this isn't a historical restoration but the result is outstanding considering the cost and difficulty involved. I also got a set of TV tuning screw drivers that were on clearance for $2. That's about the best $4 I've ever spent at Radio Shack.

I spotted a source for some jewels to use with lamps located in the front of the cabinet. Check these out:
http://www.tubesandmore.com/products/amp...e%3DJewels
The jewels shown come in many different colors and are still supplied for guitar amplifier construction. These may not be an exact replacement, but should serve well enough and look good instead of just leaving a hole in the front of the radio. Your choice.