Restoring Philco 38-12 in a wood cabinet - Printable Version

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Restoring Philco 38-12 in a wood cabinet - morzh - 08-17-2024

I am eventually back in my workshop, after 10 months of suffering through the repair and the consequences of it.

This radio was acquired by me for a very reasonable price of upward of $40 a year ago, during the Kutztown show of 9/2023.
I am trying to assemble a collection of 38-12, towards which I already have a brown backelite one.
I could also count the 38-15 in a wood cabinet I have towards it, as these two radios are exactly the same, with a SW antenna coil and the switch  for it added.
So I bought this wood cabinet one, and a wood white-painted (the factory painted) one.
I would love to have the Plaskon one too, but they are exceedingly rare. Ron bought one and it came broken, so he had to glue the case together and then refinish it.

Anywho, the shape of both the case and the chassis of this one are excellent, and I don't think I will be doing anything to the cabinet.
The chassis is very clean, and, though I do not like it, it was restored at some point. Not to my standards, but it is, all in all, a good restoration. It's just I am not a fan of hanging caps and electrolytics over the existing old parts. Even if it is properly done (they are).

After having realized the radio has been restored, I simply plugged it in, and it worked OK. It pulled in our local station, fairly clear. It has some "motorboat-like" hum, which only exists when the station is not on. It is not motorboating, per se.

Then I tested the tubes. All, except the rectifier (84) are in good to excellent shape. The rectifier was not just weak. It was VERY-VERY weak. And it still worked. Luckily, I bought a few junkers a couple of years ago, one of which was 38-12, and the tube in it was super-good, tested like new. This said, it made very little difference in reception.

As seen from the photos, not all caps have been replaced. I intend first to replace all of the original caps, then tackle the electrolytics and those that are outside of the backelite etc.

This is the first photos, the case and the chassis.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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