Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ

Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Printable Version

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Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 12-11-2014

I'm about to start on another one.

This 41-758EZ chassis is similar to the Canadian Philco 39 (41-722), but has eight tubes instead of six, including push-pull 42E outputs. It is also a three band radio.

This is the only Philco I am aware of that has a chrome grille! I'll post a photo when this set is done. Right now, it needs grille cloth. I have some that I have been saving for this set, and it will be installed in the next few days.

You can read more about the 41-758, and see a (poor quality) illustration, here. Scroll down the page to Models 41-745T, 41-758T, 41-759T.

The cabinet is sort of "on the borderline" in that, in one way, ot sort of looks halfway decent; yet in another way, it has several flaws including a missing large chip of veneer on top and some other finish issues. I haven't yet decided whether or not this one will be refinished; if I decide to do that, it won't happen until next spring at the earliest.

Meanwhile, I shall proceed with chassis restoration.

If you want to follow along, you can see a 41-758EZ schematic here (766 KB).

So far, all I have done is pull everything out of the cabinet, and taken notes on where the paper capacitors connect under the chassis as well as wiring for the audio output transformer. The plan is to remove those components, restuff the paper caps, replace the wiring and all resistors, then install the restuffed caps and finally, reinstall the audio output transformer. The electrolytic cans will also be rebuilt, and a new power cord attached. I will also have to restring the dial cord as the cord on this one is broken.

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 12-12-2014

Photos:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00001.jpg]

This is the front view of the 41-758EZ chassis. If you followed my Philco Canada 39/41-722 Tropic restoration thread, you will see that this 758 is mostly identical in appearance to the 39.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00002.jpg]

Back view of the 41-758 chassis.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00003.jpg]

I started working on it before I remembered to take a "before" picture; pardon me. As you can see, I've already removed all of the paper capacitors...

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00004.jpg]

...and here they are.

I will now be replacing each wire and replacing all of the old resistors, before I restuff and reinstall the paper caps.

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - jerryhawthorne - 12-12-2014

Another enjoyable adventure to follow Ron. The underside of that chassis sure looks tidy with those caps out!
Jerry

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Geoff - 12-14-2014

The underside looks very clean. I'm usually not that fortunate with most of the radios I get.

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 12-14-2014

It's not bad, really. Now, the topside of the chassis is pretty grungy, with a rust spot or two. I have not yet decided how to go about cleaning it.

I haven't touched the radio in a couple days, but today I cooked all of the old paper caps in a recent acquisition - a used toaster oven. I left a few in too long and they became burned on the ends; otherwise, this process worked well.

Each cap was removed from the oven, one by one, and the old "guts" removed and the outer shells wiped off.

I then restuffed them with new capacitors.

Here they are - yes, there are more here than in the last picture, as I "cooked" some extras for the next project:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00005.jpg]

The next job is to start replacing the wires that have rubber insulation (in short: all of them). Well, there will be a few solder terminals where wires connect that I will not be able to reach with my soldering gun; these will get resleeved with heat shrink tubing instead. I'll also be replacing resistors as I replace wires. The next job after that will be replacing wires on both IF transformers, followed by restuffing the electrolytics, installing the restuffed paper capacitors, installing a new power cord, and finally, installing new dial cord.

This set is missing its dial pointer, so I will have to see if I have something suitable to use as a replacement.

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 12-20-2014

This has been a terribly rough week for me. In case you do not know:

http://www.philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=11185

On Tuesday, I made myself resume work on my 41-758, although my heart really wasn't in it.

So I did not take any pictures of the progress in the work.

I found the work to be therapeutic; it helped take my mind off things. So, overall, it was probably good that I continued to work on this radio.

Tonight, I finished the radio except for restringing the dial cord. Here it is, on the bench, playing:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00006.jpg]

Notice how nice and bright the dial is.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00007.jpg]

There is good reason for that...

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00008.jpg]

These are the warm white LED lamps with miniature bayonet bases and flexible leads that I have mentioned before.
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3108

These really dress up a Philco slide rule dial...in my opinion.

Here is the under-chassis view, with all new (restuffed) paper caps, restuffed electrolytics, and mostly new resistors:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00009.jpg]

Oh, yes, and 95% new wiring.

Work that remains to be done: Restring the dial cord, find or acquire a dial pointer, and perform a complete alignment.

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - klondike98 - 12-20-2014

Welcome back!

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 12-20-2014

Thanks, Bob.

Forgot to mention: When I started on this set, the tone control was very stiff, and the volume control was stuck - would not turn. I shot both with liberal amounts of DeoxIT, and now both controls work as they should - very smooth, apparently no electrical problems, either. I also sprayed a little WD-40 on the shaft of the volume control where the shaft goes into the bushing, as there was a fair amount of corrosion at that point.

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Arran - 12-21-2014

(12-20-2014, 11:25 PM)Ron Ramirez Wrote: Thanks, Bob.

Forgot to mention: When I started on this set, the tone control was very stiff, and the volume control was stuck - would not turn. I shot both with liberal amounts of DeoxIT, and now both controls work as they should - very smooth, apparently no electrical problems, either. I also sprayed a little WD-40 on the shaft of the volume control where the shaft goes into the bushing, as there was a fair amount of corrosion at that point.

Ron;
I've had some controls that were so stiff that the only way to get them loose again was to remove the retainer ring from just ahead of the bush, and press the shaft and wiper assembly out, clean the bush with mineral spirits followed by a light wipe of grease on the shaft, and then re-assembly in reverse order.
With regard to the dial lamps, those LEDs seem to work fairly well for edge lighting the dial, though a typical G.E 47 or 44 style lamp with the filament in the proper orientation will also work well if carefully selected, believe it or not the focus of the light beam matters with incandescent bulbs too.
Regards
Arran

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Eliot Ness - 12-22-2014

(12-20-2014, 10:40 PM)Ron Ramirez Wrote: ...These are the warm white LED lamps with miniature bayonet bases and flexible leads that I have mentioned before.
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3108

Thanks for that link Ron. I have ordered LED bulbs from PinballLife before but they didn't have the version with the flexible leads back then, those look pretty versatile. The extra illumination those provide for an edge lit dial makes a lot of difference. I just placed a few on order as well as some of the following:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3105

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3211

All in warm white....if they provide some brighter illumination along with less chance of heat burning a dial face then it is a win-win.

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - GarySP - 12-22-2014

Hello and welcome back, Ron. Those LED dial lights look great. Quick question... how feasible would it be to replace the incandescent dial lamp in my model 20 with one of those? That would probably light up my dial a lot better than it illuminates it now. Take care, Gary

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 12-22-2014

John (Eliot)

I have not yet tried the LED lamps with clear dome lenses, but I do have some of the LEDs with frosted dome lenses, and they are very good - a bit brighter than an incandescent #44. Icon_thumbup

Do keep in mind that the lenses are larger than the glass bulb of a #44, in case clearance is an issue.

This morning, I aligned the 41-758.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00010.jpg]

Yesterday brought good news and bad news. The good news is that I found the original dial pointer.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00011.jpg]

The bad news is the chrome grille. I managed to break one of the grillebars. Fortunately, J-B Weld seems to be working to correct the issue. I reglued two of the pieces last night, and they held together. A little while ago, I finished gluing the thing together. We shall see tomorrow if it works out.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00012.jpg]

Yeah, I know this isn't the Cabinet forum, but I also installed new grille cloth this morning.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00013.jpg]

This is one of the patterns that John at Radio Grille Cloth Headquarters used to sell. While it probably isn't exactly like the original cloth, it is better than no cloth at all (which is what it had when I bought it). Actually, comparing this to a poor quality original Philco illustration of a 41-758 (see below), I think this cloth is a pretty good substitute.

[Image: http://philcoradio.com/gallery2/images/1941a%20-%201941%20(June%201940)/1941a.bd%20-%20Model%2041-758T/image_00.jpg]

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 12-22-2014

Gary

Thanks! I don't think anyone currently making LED substitutes are making anything for 2.5VAC applications. I also have not seen any miniature screw bases in these lamps; Pinball Life only has miniature bayonet, made for 6V DC or 6V AC/DC.

If you are really handy with miniature parts, you could make your own. It would take a large frosted LED lamp, a diode to rectify the AC to DC, a small resistor to drop the 2.5 VAC voltage to 2.2V, and a miniature screw base from an old lamp. It's not something I want to try at the present time, though.

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 12-23-2014

Icon_sad

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00015.jpg]

The glue didn't hold. So let's move over to Philco Cabinet Restoration.

http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=11230

RE: Next project - Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - radiohenry - 04-25-2015

Hi Ron,
I attended the NEARC swap meet in NH today and on what was going to be my last look around before leaving I found a 41-759 EZ ! At a quick look it is the same as your model 41-758 EZ above. The seller said it doesn't work and I have not had time to look it over. I will put a picture later but it does have that chrome grill.
So for me that is Tropic #2.
Henry