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1928 Atwater Kent project - Printable Version

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1928 Atwater Kent project - NostalgiaRadioTime - 07-13-2013

Yesterday, I attended the Iola Old Car Show & Swap Meet in Iola, WI. Among the largest antique auto show in the midwest, there are around 2200 show cars and over 4400 swap spaces. This was the 32nd consecutive year I attended, and I spent 12 hours on foot combing the swap spaces looking for some motorcycles (& car) parts with 3 good friends. Near the end of the day, I found a vendor with a trailer full of antique radios! There was one Philco, a common post war transitone he had $25 on. But then an Atwater Kent caught my eye, because it was a metal cased console, something I'd never seen before! I was used to seeing the 'twenties AK's as the metal coffin with the speaker on top. Well the guy selling it knew something about old radios, but his guess of 1925 was a bit off on the date. He wanted $75 for it, which I didn't think was too bad for an AK of that vintage. I made him an offer of $70 for the AK and the Philco transitone combined, and he took it. So I felt pretty good that I got a good enough deal to where I could at least get my money back should I decide to resell.

So here is where the fun starts.. trying to restore this battleship! For that, I am going to need to utilize the resources of the wonderfully helpful Phorum members who have worked on one of these in the past. I quickly discovered this is a model 52, made in 1928, and uses the familiar AK model 40 chassis. Here is a pic:

   

Happily I found a ton of resources online with schematics, which pleased me (and also influenced my decision to purchase this, knowing they are popular with collectors). First question of many I'm sure is what paint have others used to refinish these metal cabinets? It looks as if it was a chocolate brown, with wrinkle pattern. I believe the top of the lid (the insert area) should be a gold in color, but what kind of gold? It shouldn't be too bright I'm guessing. It's a new experience having to paint a cabinet rather than refinish wood!

The power supply will be another challenge, I'm sure, so any thoughts, ideas, personal experience on that would be greatly appreciated! My first AK, and the oldest set I've ever tackled. Wish me luck... Lord knows I'll need it!

RE: 1928 Atwater Kent project - NostalgiaRadioTime - 07-13-2013

More photos:

   
   
   
   
   

RE: 1928 Atwater Kent project - NostalgiaRadioTime - 07-13-2013

The medallion is in beautiful condition:

   

RE: 1928 Atwater Kent project - BrendaAnnD - 07-13-2013

A-K power supplies are made of pretty stout stuff. I've restored at least a dozen sets and never found a bad transformer yet. The filter caps are likely bad, and resistors under that P/S header are usually way out of tolerance. I love A-K chassis. Very nicely laid out and a snap to service.

RE: 1928 Atwater Kent project - 37silverstreak - 07-13-2013

Nice catch Greg!Icon_thumbup Actually, I think that is a fairly desirable set. i think they nicknamed it "the stove". The last one I saw was at the Kewaskum antique mall this last winter. I missed the Iola car show this year. It's the first one I haven't gone to in 15 years! Too many chores at home and not enough money, (I spent my Iola money on that Zenith 12S471 last weekIcon_lol)
Anyway, good luck with your new find!
Kevin

RE: 1928 Atwater Kent project - Mondial - 07-13-2013

I guess I am lucky, but my AK 40 is still running on its original power supply filter caps. Being potted in tar, they seem to survive a bit better than one might expect. I did have to change a couple of the glass incased resistors though. One decoupling resistor under the PS terminal board and the detector grid leak. Other than those and the output stage coupling cap which was changed many years ago it is otherwise original and still works great.

One common problem with these radios is the audio interstage transformers, which as I have heard tend to develop open windings. Looking at the schematic, you can see that it is a very simple TRF circuit.

Here is a link to the photo of the workmen making the cabinets for your radio.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/3872?size=_original#caption

RE: 1928 Atwater Kent project - Jayce - 07-13-2013

Good score! I have been trying to find one of these sets since I failed to save one from the scrap years ago. Guy thought it was worthless without the tubes and scrapped the console.

RE: 1928 Atwater Kent project - NostalgiaRadioTime - 07-13-2013

Great photo, Mondial! I work in mfg. for a stainless steel cookware company, so what they're doing to form and polish the cabinets is very familiar to me.

RE: 1928 Atwater Kent project - Radioroslyn - 07-14-2013

I picked up a model 40 a few years back. After making a few repairs to it played really well. I was impressed with it but shortly after I got it working the filters took a dump! Have done the messy stuff but haven't put it back together with some new caps. It's on a long todo list.. Have model 53 that I have to go pickup. It's just like the 52 but has P/P 71's in the audio and a different speaker.
http://www.atwaterkentradio.com/ak53.htm
Terry

RE: 1928 Atwater Kent project - Arran - 07-15-2013

One nice thing about a steel cabinet is that you can set up an electrolysis tank to strip both the paint and the rust off of it rather then using paint stripper, and unlike sandblasting it doesn't pit the surface and can't cause it to warp.
Regards
Arran