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Philco Model 20 Lowboy - Printable Version

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Philco Model 20 Lowboy - WallaceRoger - 02-23-2017

Hi all, I am new to the forum. I picked up a Model 20 Lowboy at a demolition sale for $20 a couple weeks ago and it will be my first restoration attempt. Three of the tubes were missing, so I bought (good tested) used ones. The other tubes were still in the chassis, and although everything was pretty dusty, it otherwise seems to be in good repair. It looks like it mostly just sat for decades. It has the original speaker which physically seems fine, all the caps, resistors and whatnot are all original. I have not plugged it in because I don't want to fry anything and I'm sure the caps and resistors are mostly no good.

I've found some schematics online, but to tell the truth I'm somewhat of a novice. I've done some of my own electrical projects, mostly turning vintage cameras into hi-intensity LED lamps, so I understand the basics, but tube stuff is new to me and I don't want to kill myself. Does anyone have a parts list with values for the various capacitors and resistors that I need for this? Does anyone have any suggestions or advice for how to go about this?

Thanks everyone!

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - morzh - 02-23-2017

http://www.nostalgiaair.org/pagesbymodel/582/M0029582.pdf

This has both caps and resistors data.

If you want better quality sch you could buy one from Chuck Schwark at Philcorepairbench.com.


Welcome!

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - KCMike - 02-23-2017

Welcome to the Phorum. Icon_smile

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - klondike98 - 02-23-2017

Welcome to the Phorum!
Icon_wave

All the caps will need replacing except micas and most resistors as well. There are a number of restoration threads in the phorum that would be worth a read to get a feel for what and how people approach restoration. Chech the technical section for tips. Clear schematics available from Chucks Philco Repair Bench for a few bucks. Take lots of pictures and notes as you go along.

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - WallaceRoger - 02-23-2017

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'm also planning on building a kit AM microbroadcaster so I can play a variety of music through it (and my Trav-Ler in the bedroom).

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - Radioroslyn - 02-23-2017

Hi and Welcome,
Just for grins unplug the spkr plug from the chassis and use your ohm meter to check the resistance from one pin (doesn't matter which) to the other three. If all is well you should see a fairly low resistance like less than 4,000 ohms
If you find something like 10,000 or a meg ohm this would indicate a problem.

Some common issues w/the 20 are: open(bad) field coil, output transformer primary, primary of the rf coils (easy to fix) and audio driver transformer.

GL

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - morzh - 02-23-2017

Open sections in the bias vitreous resistor.

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - David - 02-24-2017

   
Hope I get this to load!!!!

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - WallaceRoger - 03-23-2017

Hi guys, thanks for all the info. I ordered up a set of large schematics (very helpful). The caps seem pretty straightforward to me, but one thing I can't seem to find anywhere is what watt rating I should have for my resistors. The values are all there in the schematic, but I'm guessing 1/2 watt resistors probably wouldn't be sufficient for this, or at least for parts of it.  I'm planning to just snip and replace the old, out-of-spec resistors with new (I'll save the old ones in case I want to try to cut and restuff them later to look more authentic).

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - Steve Davis - 03-23-2017

The "dogbone" resistors in the 20 are all 1 watt. 

You can't restuff old dogbone resistors, but you can make new ones.  http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=5501

Steve

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - morzh - 03-23-2017

1W was just a popular size: many of them dissipate very little.
Where the extra size is useful is that the span between connections is long sometimes and a smaller resistor simply cannot reach point to point.

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - WallaceRoger - 03-23-2017

Excellent, thanks again! Since they used 1w before I'll use that again, easy enough.

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - Arran - 03-24-2017

Check the value of the resistors first, they may have drifted upward, but maybe not if they were 1 Watters to begin with, no sense replacing and replicating unless you have to. As mentioned the big power resistors used as a voltage divider and for tube bias (part #25) are a common failure point as well, but you may get lucky As for anything else, the model 20 is a fairly common early 20s set (at least the Baby Grand versions) so lots of documentation and experience to be found with restoring one, some people like Mike (Morzh) have owned and overhauled several of them.
Regards
Arran

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - morzh - 03-24-2017

In my experience with the 20s, every single dog-bone resistor in them drifted enough to warrant replacement.
Unfortunately. There might be exceptions, of course.
Same was the case with 70 and 90.

RE: Philco Model 20 Lowboy - WallaceRoger - 03-24-2017

Yep, my research pretty much confirmed that, everyone seems to say they'll be out of spec and I figure it's cheap insurance to put in new ones anyway, even if a couple of them test ok. I picked up a load of resistors and stuff from a Radio Shack that was having a one-day store closing "everything must go" sale a few years ago, so I'm sure I have something here. If not I'll just run a couple half watts in parallel and double up to get back to the resistance I need. Learning and having fun as I go along!