The PHILCO Phorum

I picked this up locally today.  It has 7 tubes, and a sticker inside saying that its a 645.  But I can find no other 645 with this cabinet.  The cabinet looks like it is a 620.  So maybe they mixed and matched?  Its a factory sticker with the tube layout that says 645.

You might want to throw a set a 42's in it.

Will it hurt it by running 41's?

Probably not the plate impedance is a little different and the dissipation is higher. 41's less heater and plate current.

I read somewhere that you can substitute 41's for 42's, but not the other way around.

I ordered a pair of 42's from Bobarino.

Definitely not a 620. The 620 is a different cabinet, and does not have a shadow meter.
I have a 645 chassis here from a console version and it has the same chassis layout as yours.
So my verdict is it’s a 645.
The cabinet looks like a 640 or 650.
Maybe a factory PhrankenPhilco?

Something nobody seems to have noticed, in your inside cabinet picture showing the chassis, look at the tube layout sticker on the side of the cabinet. I don't know about anyone else, but I have never seen an original sticker that is THAT white. They used an acid paper which yellows over time, and every original one I have seen has gone much browner than that one. Also, look at the cabinet. It looks VERY good. It is my bet that someone has put a 645 chassis into another cabinet, made a replacement sticker, and put it in over the original sticker, or maybe removed the original first. The chassis DOES look like a 645, but the cabinet does not. Looking at the various cabinets from 1936, it looks like a 630B cabinet. It also looks like someone replaced the vertical piece on the left side of the front, since it seems to be missing the fluting on the right, which it should have. Also, note the fluting is even at the top edge, whereas the fluting on the 640B, 645B and 650B are higher toward the center of the radio, and less as you go outward. See the pictures in the gallery for the cabinet, and here:  https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philco_645.html    for the chassis.

I have a 144B with a label that's still white like that. (There's a photo of it on RadioMuseum.  https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philco_144.html )

So I think it's possible that that's the original label for that cabinet.

The fluting is there. The one photo is kinda weird that it made it look flat.

I got a pair of 42's and installed them today.