The PHILCO Phorum

This radio was only 20 minutes away, yet took me a week to finally get my schedule to jive with the seller's to go see it. I actually found out about this before my 38-116 after the guy answered my want ad for a 37-116 or 38-116!
I stumble on this and the 41-280 model Philcos quite often around here, but they always have the automatic $100 price tag no matter what they look like. This one was a lot cheaper, but has the usual 40-180 issues. Bad push buttons, bad finish, and it is missing a tube. (The 1235?) One nice thing is it still has all the knobs and I still have to fish two 45 record adaptors out of the grill. I can use those!

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I think I have a good set of pushbuttons if you're interested. Weren't there 2 different lengths? PM me if you want.
Art

There are actually three types of push buttons. 39's are longer than 40's that slide on with a snug fit. I believe the 41's were short, but needed the little spring clips inside of button to fit snug. Wine Red or Brown. 40-180 usually used the Wine Red which look better when lit than the plain brown ones that don't glow when radio is on.

Out of the three XX-#80 models I prefer the 40-180, if nothing else the ones thing it has going for it is the brass escutcheon and the Bakelite knobs. Reproduction pushbuttons are not hard to come by and are relatively inexpensive.
At one point I was contemplating getting the Canadian version of a 41-280, apparently they do not use as much of that crappy rubber covered wire as the U.S versions do. The problem was it needed everything, knobs, pushbuttons, escutcheon, the lot, and he wanted $80 I think. I suppose if I really wanted it I could have negotiated the price down, but the fact that it needed about $60 of repro parts made me walk away.
Regards
Arran