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Finally finished - a Philco 650B - Printable Version

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Finally finished - a Philco 650B - Ron Ramirez - 05-23-2011

It only took close to five and a half years, but I have finally finished my 650B.

First, a "before" shot, as it looked when I acquired it in late 2005:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/650.jpg]

And the "after" shot:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/054.jpg]

The cabinet was refinished by Barry Jones in early 2008. The set has languished since then - until last week when I finally restored a working chassis for it.

Only today, I put the finishing touches on that chassis.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/038.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/044.jpg]

As it turns out, the original chassis in the 650B was beyond economical repair, so I used a spare 650 chassis I had - a 650RX chairside chassis, complete with side brackets to hold it front side up in the cabinet, and an upside down dial scale.

I removed the brackets, made a new dial scale, cleaned the chassis and painted it with Krylon Satin Nickel. I removed all coil and IF shields and polished them with Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish. I removed the audio interstage transformer, filter choke and the top lid of the power transformer, and painted these with Krylon Satin Black. All three electrolytic cans were cut open and rebuilt using new electrolytic capacitors. The volume control and band switch were cleaned with DeoxIT.

I used the tuning condenser and shadowmeter from the original 650 chassis, so it has something in the chassis that came from the factory with this cabinet.

I did not have the original speaker, so I improvised by using a Philco K-22 I had on hand, and replaced its original single ended output transformer with a push-pull unit.

It plays great! I plan to use this as my "daily driver" for awhile.

Here's a look at the back of the set:
[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/047.jpg]

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - ipwizard - 05-23-2011

Looks great Ron..

6 years aint bad I'm 6 years into my current project. Life just gets in the way of our hobbies... Icon_wink

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - Doug Houston - 05-23-2011

Those '36-'37 Philcos were dynamite sets. Visitors that hear any of mine just can't understand how well they work, and how goo they sound.

Congrats. Now, fer Pete's sake KEEP that thing!

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - TA Forbes - 05-23-2011

Wow! That is some nice work that you did on the chassis! I'm impressed!

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - Glenn Roberts - 05-24-2011

What a great looking radio.. It's an inspiration to see the before and after pic's. Icon_clap

Glenn

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - Marsupial - 05-24-2011

Are you tellin' me my radio won't be finished for another few years? LOL

great job, everything looks nice in that radio. I guess it sounds great as well.

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - etech - 05-24-2011

It looks great Ron, very nice work! I particularly like your restoration of that chassis. It is a lot of work. I too have some projects that are several years in the works. Icon_smile

Oh, I forgot to ask, how did you recreate the dial?

Ed

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - Michael Dennis - 05-24-2011

Beautiful work Ron! Icon_thumbup

Mike

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - Uffda - 05-24-2011

It looks fantastic Ron. Inside and out. I like hearing of others taking so long on projects too. Inching along is still progress.

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - exray - 05-24-2011

Nice!

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - Steve Davis - 05-24-2011

The chassis and cabinet both look very nice. Icon_thumbup

I was wondering, if there is anything to listen to one the long wave band.

Steve

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - exray - 05-24-2011

Along the East Coast, and where I'm at, its fun to DX for the European/North African broadcasters on LW. You can hear them, sometimes at "listening" quality during the season (Winter) and depending on propagation. I don't know how well you'd fare in mid-continent but I shared some real-time reception reports with a fella in Detroit and we were hearing basically the same things at the same time.

Apart from that there are the aircraft NDB beacons using modulated Morse Code. You can get some interesting DX via that mode as well in any part of the US. Easy to identify them Icon_wink

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - 37silverstreak - 05-24-2011

Beautiful job Ron! Icon_thumbup Cogratulations and enjoy!

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - Ron Ramirez - 05-25-2011

Thank you very much, guys; I really appreciate your compliments.

Doug: I will absolutely keep this one!

Ed (etech): I make dial scales in a similar manner to the Rock-Sea/Radio Daze method; which is to scan a good dial scale, clean it up using Paint Shop Pro (I have Photoshop but I'm so used to the decade-old Version 4.14 that I just keep using it), print out the artwork, laminate the sheet, cut it out and use it. Only I print mine in light amber instead of light yellow...looks more authentic that way, and just as much light gets through. Printing on a translucent amber plastic sheet would be the best way to go, but I don't have the capability of doing that.

I found that LW is very weak on this radio. And, wouldn't you know it, I was going to listen to it last night but the oscillator started acting up. Another 6A7 may be called for, even though this one tested good.

The night before, I was tuning across the LW band and at two points on the dial, I could just barely hear voice transmissions. It was too weak for me to understand what was being said, though.

Re: Finally finished - a Philco 650B - FStephenMasek - 05-25-2011

Nice work!