The PHILCO Phorum

An early check indicated the radio actually worked, well not well but enough to suspect the iron and coils were OK. First task, attack the big can carrying a number of caps. Not wanting to disconnect all the wires underneath, I opted to take my little hand drill and go underneath and snap the wires coming through the eyelets from the top. After that, a piece of cake to remove the top of the can with all the nasty tar and parts. A lag bolt and large drill and the insides came out without much of a problem and no heat applied. Time to order some caps.
Jerry

Very good!

Tell us, how long is that lag bolt you used?

They need to go into the tar 2 or 3 inches. Drill a hole first.

I notice that yours has a light color paper liner. Most I have taken apart are a dark grey, and sticky. So some heat is required, but as I mentioned before, not enough to blister the paint.

That would be a 6" lag bolt Ron. Longer than the drill I had for the pilot hole. Leaves enough head sticking out that I can invert the can with the bolt head down and slip the bolt into my bench vise loose around the bolt shaft. A few yanks up the bolt head stopped by the almost closed vice and it just came sliding out. Think improvised slide hammer. I did go around the inside of the can with a putty knife between the cardboard and metal but met no resistance of tar touching the can. Guess I was lucky Phlogiston.

Jerry

Attaching a pic of the underside now. When removing the bottom cover it was obvious from some shiny areas around the hex screw that someone had been in there after assembly. Not real surprising. Well, I can only see one thing that looks to have been changed. Looks like a cap has been added under the big cap can I'm about to restuff. Perhaps a failure of one in the can with an external fix? It's the orange, yellow, brown component that looks like a fat resistor. Other than that it looks untouched.
Jerry

I'll bet half of those resistors are open, the ones with the pointy ends. The dog bones will have drifted up X2 or more. If you take them out, don't throw them away.

I cant tell what the extra thing is in the picture, probably a cap replacement. There are supposed to be 3 resistors under there.

Phlogiston, I wish they were all the "pointy" ones. I actually like restuffing those. Replace the ceramic body with a proper sized soda straw, resistor inside going through drilled end holes. Paint the straw and nobody knows!
Love this stuff. I like the bakelite cap pots because at the end of the restoration, no unsightly yellow or orange caps showing. Not that anyone would look underneath. Hope 1 watt resistors or ok for all the standard resistors.

Jerry

Resistor wattage ratings comparison old and new from my site:







Chuck

Reckon that lag bolt will survive WWIII even if we don't.

Thanks for that Chuck, like the measurements. May need a few 2 watt resistors. We will see when we get underneath. Waiting for some caps for the big box. Using Solen Fast caps @ 2.3 mfd for the main caps and poly for the 1.0 mfd. Waiting for those and a few more 630V caps to arrive. I'm starting to believe I should order all my resistors @ 2 watts. Smaller than most any of the old ones and will fit any situation with no problem. Live and learn.
Jerry

With regards to using all 2-watters, remember with a larger component in certain areas, lead dress can be very important, and accommodating a larger resistor body and longer leads may cause some instability due to being close to other wiring and other parts.

Chuck

Good point Chuck, that must be why my inventory is 1 watt resistors. Just dumb luck probably.
Jerry

Well, after a couple of shots at protyping the layout. I finally got all the caps in the right place (I think). Brought it up to 60 V and got some DC off the caps. May be good to go on. Thanks to Philogeston (sp) I got a look at his notes on one of his posts on the wiring of the block, specifically the resistors underneath. This will help a lot. Help more if he changes name. Dang, I had it written down at one time but couldn't find it now. At any rate, time to do some resistors under the big can as I had to remove a later add on cap and figure out where the wire lifted off went. Then another low power run to see if the radio still works. Off to the bakelite caps and resistors.



Jerry

Looks good Jerry!
That's probably the worst of the whole job.
The rest is just a lot of small stuff
GL
Terry

Phlogiston = 18th century Physics - the stuff that makes EVERYTHING burn. If it won't burn there is no Phlogiston in it. Unfortunately most radio part will burn.