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

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Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - morzh - 08-31-2024

Today, after having finished alignment of the previous 38-12 in a veneered wood cabinet, I proceeded to the next 38-12 in a painted white wood cabinet.

These are the initial photos of the cabinet.

   
   
   
   

The chassis is a bit dustier than the previous one.
   
   
   

Under the chassis there are some mediocre quality repairs.

   
   
   

I checked the AC input, and it looked like it was open. The switch on the pot (which is a replacement pot) was not making any contact at all.
When opened, it was fully oxidized.
   

After using alcohol and then some Deoxit D5, the contact was restored.
   

I thought of trying to put it on Variac, but then thought I needed to check the tubes. The 75 tube was barely alive. Judging by both the triode and the diodes were super-weak, it is emission. I have a good tube. The rest of the tube are OK.

I will start with the recap tomorrow.

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - Brad Winder - 09-01-2024

It's interesting how many manufacturers offered the painted wood cabinets in the later 1930's and into the 40's, when one would have expected the "cheap" cabinets to have been offered in the depths of the depression, say 1933-34.

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - morzh - 09-02-2024

Finished restuffing caps other than the electrolytics, and fixing the resistors.
The bias network 250 / 70 ohm had to go.
The rest was good enough to either be left alone, or have a parallel small resistor tacked to bring the resistance within specs.
I will probably rebuild the elctrolytics this week. The first one is not original, but fits the size, so I will let it stay.

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - radiorich - 09-02-2024

Hello morzh,
Nice Job I also have that radio in my collection except mine is original wood finish !

Sincerely Richard

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - morzh - 09-02-2024

Rich

This is also original.
If you mean the "original" veneer with the lacquer finish, then that is the previous one I have just completed the last week.

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - radiorich - 09-02-2024

Hello morzh,
Yes , that is the one I am talking about I never knew they made one in that color as a factory color .
Sincerely Richard

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - morzh - 09-02-2024

Rich

I think there were 5 Versions:

Backelite brown and white Plaskon (2), natural wood with 2 different grillworks (another 2), and the white painted one, I only saw one grillwork.

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - radiorich - 09-03-2024

Hello morzh ,
Yes I have both the wooden one and the bakelite one !

Sincerely Richard

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - morzh - 09-07-2024

A snag I hit....

I was about to plug it in and measure the voltages, when I thought to check the field coil just in case.
"What if",- thought I, "the coil is open. Then the cap will charge and stay charged, and I will touch it after the turn off, and get zapped, and...."....and I measured the resistance, and it was open.
I am sure, it is doing that out of spite.
I went to my two donor chassis....one has a replacement speaker with different mount, for which there were two holes drilled, and the FC is 700 Ohms, and the other is 39-6, and the speaker has a different mount and no transformer.
Removing the transformer (which is good) was a drag: the tabs are either soldered, or something, but I had to grind one off.

All that work...
This is the cap after restuffing: this time I avoided direct contact of aluminum and copper, by putting the star washer in between, and then putting the copper pad under it.

   

And this is the chassis after the recap/recarb

   

Now I am off to the supermarket to buy some lamb and some carrots: my daughter (my wife is away for 2 weeks) asked for lamb pilaf, and her wish is my command...at least sometimes.
Will continue...

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - morzh - 09-07-2024

   
   

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - RodB - 09-08-2024

That's a hefty field coil, Mike.

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - morzh - 09-08-2024

Yeah, this is the 38-12 and family's speakers.

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - morzh - 09-08-2024

Turned it on, got reception, then aligned.
Unlike the previous one 2 weeks ago, this one was quite a bit out of alignment, though I got the beep at 470kHz. But all three padders added to the strength quite a bit.
I also adjusted the pointer position and realigned the tuning cap's padders.
Unlike on the previous radio, the dial of this one does not have the lines denoting the missing numbers, so I used the photo of the previous dial and made the alignment using the same position of the pointer at 1500kHz.
It receives well, all across the dial.

I also made a video, similar to the previous one, to show reception in the basement with short wire for the antenna.

This is the link to the video.

https://youtu.be/1b5fTfGY5vs

This concludes this radio's restoration, unless I get my hands on an original 38-12 speaker in full working order.

Now I have a 38-15 in brown backelite case to deal with.

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - DJW - 12-21-2024

Wow looks nice. For some reason mine didn't have the bakelite block for the AC input so I installed some safety caps instead. I may get with you for some tips as mine currently doesn't pick up anything.

RE: Restoring Philco 38-12 in a white wood cabinet - jrblasde - 12-21-2024

A very well done job. I never realized the volume of radios you’ve restored until I read through this discussion. Do you keep them all (I must admit that I would be guilty of this), or do you repair radios for others? 

I agree that it is unexpected to see a factory painted wooden cabinet, but this model does look nice. The ivory colored paint compliments the brass trim of the dial.