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Philco 60 restoration - Printable Version

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RE: Philco 60 restoration - NostalgiaRadioTime - 12-20-2016

I started with 18 turns on the OSC primary and the radio worked up to 1200 on the dial, then cut out. Terry suggested more turns so I went to 22 turns. Turned out to be 4.0 ohm with 38 ga wire. Helped somewhat but still not getting the local station at 1470. Did notice a couple of green dots on the secondary winding which may be the cause of it cutting out. At any rate the point I was trying to make....18 turns or 22 turns, it still should work if wound the correct direction.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - morzh - 12-21-2016

I am pretty sure the direction is correct. It starts from pin 3 CCW from the bottom and ends at pin 2 after 17 or 18 turns. (Bottom/top orientation is not important).

Well, good news is, the rest of the coils, the two IF xfmrs seem to be good.
I reinstalled the oscillator coil tonight.
Maybe I can try starting sone recap tomorrow.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - morzh - 12-21-2016

Tonight finished all the backelite caps and some of the resistors.
The backelites proved to be very stubborn: except one the tar block would not come out and eventually break. Some different tar?
There's one tubular cap left.
The run I have seems to be the last one described.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - Ron Ramirez - 12-22-2016

Philco switched to a different type of tar (or whatever that stuff was) in the 1940s in their bakelite blocks; the latter is much harder than the previous substance.

Mike, are you using heat or are you digging the insides out of the blocks?

RE: Philco 60 restoration - morzh - 12-22-2016

No I am still using heat. Same thing, heat up the walls and the top, and use blunt pin (I am using a small Allen wrench) to push it out. This time after repeated heating I was pushing with all my might and after 5th or 6th attempt it would start to move, barely. I was able to push out 3 out 5 as a block but still had to dislodge tar at the top, and two came out more or less fully and a bit easier.

But...speaking of 1940-s......these are 30-s...no? And...did they actually used the same backelites in 40s?

RE: Philco 60 restoration - Ron Ramirez - 12-22-2016

The vast majority of bakelite blocks are from the 1930s, yes. (To be more accurate: 1930 to 1938.)

Philco continued to use bakelite blocks as the AC line bypass or "death caps" from 1939 to 1946 or 47; possibly some 1948 models may, or may not, have one of these also. The later blocks have the very hard pitch, tar, or whatever it is...it looks and feels like a lump of coal was super glued inside the block. These too can be rebuilt by using heat to help remove the insides; it's just a bit tougher to get the old stuff out of these.

If Philco made replacement blocks for the older radios between 1939 and 1948, these would also likely have the harder material inside.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - morzh - 12-22-2016

Yep, the Death cap block was one of those hard to push out (surprisingly the large one, the only one was one that came out better, though still with higher than normal effort). Also they used the one death cap in this radio. I put two of them in to make it a usual two Y-cap solution, considering the other AC wire come soldered to the free terminal as a "convenience soldering post" so everything's been set up for it, except the block is slim so I had to really push the caps apart to create the space between the leads.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - morzh - 12-23-2016

Forgot to mention, obviously the power switch is not working. But the volume pot itself from end to end is good, 300K as prescribed. Will have to open anyway, to lube and to clean the switch.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - morzh - 12-24-2016

Finished recap, recarb and tone control. I only replaced 3 resistors. The block cap took me 15 minutes, tone ctl - same.
If not for coils, this is very nice radio to deal with, not crowded, good access to everything.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - morzh - 12-24-2016

Some pics:


Before recap
   
   
   


After, without tone ct installed.
   

RE: Philco 60 restoration - Ron Ramirez - 12-24-2016

Fine job. Yes, other than the coils, model 60 sets aren't too difficult to rebuild.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - Nathan Slingerland - 12-24-2016

Nice job Mike!

I've been lucky so far with respect to coils - but haven't worked on a 60 yet.
Congrats on getting yours rewound and working.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - morzh - 12-24-2016

Mounted the tone ctl, and rebuilt the volume pot.

This one required drilling out the rivets to expose the power switch. I cleaned it (photos later), it was covered with soot. Now is fine.
The rivets had enough protrusion left to them for me to reuse them; seems sturdy. Also cleaned and lubed the resistive part.

The last one- the grommets. I will have lunch and then ho yo Lowe's trying to find something I could use.

I decided to try the electrolytics that are there now. They show good capacitance so there's hope.
Oh...and the tubes check.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - morzh - 12-24-2016

So I went, bough the grommets (took some grommets plus some spacers - this small cap has surprisingly thick grommets), installed the tuning cap, checked the tubes - all  tested very good, assembled the radio, checked the transformer output, then put the rectifier in.
As I said, I left the electrolytics alone, they seemed good.

Turned it on, brought it slowly to 80V, then to 110V.

It started whistling but attempted the reception. Eventually I had some, than it went away.
It would start when I touched the cap's rotor and then go away as I released.
This prompted me that I forgot to solder the GND mesh wire to the cap.

After that it was all good.
Even the local station which is 1140 AM is...at 1140 AM. Considering the coils were rewound...not bad!

OK, it is singing. Or, rather, speaking - there is no music anywhere nearby somehow for now.

Last thing I did before I decided I have done enough today - blasted the band switch with Deoxit - it is scratchy and at the Police band the reception could come and then disappear and return after rocking the switch. BC band is solid though.

More pics:

The innyrds of the power switch: you can see the soot-covered contact.
   

And the rest:

   
   
   
   


Alignment tomorrow.

RE: Philco 60 restoration - vecher - 12-24-2016

Nice Glad you were able to get it working..

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