Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - Printable Version
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RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - RodB - 03-10-2021
Hey Vinny, I can help you out with the socket and at a good price, shipping cost. I'll send you a photo in an email.
Well, there's no way to attach a photo to PM or email so I'll drop it here:
Holes are 1-1/2 inches OC
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - unclevinny86 - 03-10-2021
Hi All!
Thanks for replies on the tube socket...I believe I have a way forward for that issue. After many many hours at the bench, I'm getting closer to getting this rewire and recap done! If all goes well, should be done this weekend (assuming I get time to work on it), and will be getting ready for the first controlled power up with the Variac and time of prayer. It will then be on to the cabinet restoration. I have a thread in the Cabinet Restoration area on that topic, feel free to give your advice there too...it is much welcome!
One item I still need to figure out are the rubber gaskets for the dial glass brackets. Mine are long gone...have the brackets still, but the rubber that helps hold the glass in place and keeps it from sliding around rotted away long ago. What have you used to make new replacements, or should I say, what have you found to be suitable replacements? I searched on eBay, and only thing I found was a set of brackets.
Thanks again for your help on this journey!
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - unclevinny86 - 03-12-2021
Dumb question...is it normal for some of the molded mica cap values to not match the schematic value? Case in point, cap 14 is supposed to be 100 pF per schematic, but based on the three dots, it looks like value should be 42,000 (yellow-4, red-2, orange-multiply by 1,000). What am I missing here. It measures out at 70 pF so I’m leaving it alone, but curiosity is killing the cat here. Was there a different color dot convention here? I’ve not been able to find it if so.
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - unclevinny86 - 03-14-2021
I have an idea to run by the group. For those who’ve worked on a 40-180 before, you likely know about the alignment instructions stating that the loop cylinder is to remain in the cabinet during the RF alignment. I unfortunately do not have small hands, so am going to have to align on the bench. I’m thinking of connecting the loop and SW loop to a 6 screw terminal block which would allow me to keep both loops in the cabinet and then connect lengths of wire between the terminal block and respective terminals on the chassis. I’d keep these wires as short as possible. Thoughts on if this will work?
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - morzh - 03-14-2021
Philco had their own color coding.
Don't know if that was the case all the time or only for a while.
Others can tell you more.
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - tbone - 03-15-2021
Philco Mica Condensers
The link above will help you with Philco Mica Caps. It was invaluable to me on the last radio I worked on. I printed it out and keep it by the bench.
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - OZ4 - 03-15-2021
Tony
I tried your antenna extension idea on a small table top radio and it threw off the resonance
of the antenna circuit. I had to hook up the antenna directly as assembled and then it tuned.
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - unclevinny86 - 03-22-2021
Pleased to report that the old 40-180 has come back to life. Performed first power up after the recap/rewire yesterday with good results. Brought voltage up slowly on the variac, started making noise around 90 volts, and at 120 volts AC was getting 274 volts DC across the first electrolytic cap, and close to 180 across the second. Also picked up several stations on Broadcast band, so I’m pleased so far, especially with this being my first chassis.
Was getting an occasional popping noise from speaker. Believe it was the 7B7 tube as it got worse when I wiggled it and was also able to make it do it when I wiggled the band switch. Cleaned pins of the 7B7 which helped a lot and cleaned contacts of band switch more with Deoxit on a Q-Tip. Going to let that dry well before powering up again, but believe that should take care of it.
Thanks again all for the help and advice, so much appreciated!
Now, on to refinishing the cabinet and eventually the alignment as I get things put back together.
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - Radioroslyn - 03-22-2021
Do make sure that the bandswitch is dry and all of the flammable solvents have evaporated. I've set a few on fire by being in a rush. It's a downer for sure! [Image: https://philcoradio.com/phorum/images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif]
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - morzh - 03-22-2021
I recommend, as this is a radio that mostly uses loctals, scraping every single pin with an Exacto knife.
These pins develop really tough oxidation layer.
For the same reason any loctal tube that tests bad on a tube tester should first have its pins cleaned and then re-tested before declared bad.
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - mikethedruid - 03-22-2021
Do any of you know why they use silver as the contact metal in relays? Because silver oxide IS A CONDUCTOR ! That is also why it is used as a plating on the pins of loctal tubes. If you scrape them, you defeat that silver plating by scraping it away. BE CAREFUL cleaning them. More common is a bad socket which needs cleaning since they didn't plate the contacts on the tube SOCKETS.
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - unclevinny86 - 03-22-2021
Thanks all! I did clean all sockets using a small dental brush and Deoxit D5. I just sprayed a little on the brush, cleaned each socket pin, and let it dry while I worked on other stuff. Actually, everything had over a week to dry. For the tubes themselves, all of the original tubes but one tested bad, and I ended up replacing them. The 7B7 had one pin that was visibly dirty so just went over all the pins very very lightly with a small piece of dry Scotch Brite pad. Seemed to do the trick!
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - unclevinny86 - 03-25-2021
Let everything dry for a few days, gave it another test tonight...crystal clear with no pops or static. I’ll take it!
On to the cabinet...
RE: Philco 40-180 Chassis Restore - unclevinny86 - 06-06-2021
Well the weather here in Indiana is finally cooperating, and I finally managed to work in some time to get the cabinet work completed. I finished that up yesterday allowing me to get the loop speaker and loop back in the cabinet so that I could do the alignment. After fiddling with my VTVM and tube socket adapter, finally got it aligned per schematic and am pleased with the results. Dial is pretty close to spot on and she sounds beautiful. I fiddled around out in the garage late last night and was able to pick up quite a few stations including WWV at 15 MHz, 710 WOR in New York, 880 WCBS in New York, 650 WSM in Nashville, and of course 700 WLW in Cincinnati. There were many others as well. I'm very please with how it all turned out!