[Electrothaumaturgist]

Brought home this giant beauty yesterday, and was wondering a few things about it such as how to safely remove the dial face and backing screen without damaging them? These appear to be in perfect condition, though dirty. What is the best way to clean these? (never dealt with this style before). I successfully removed the chassis without a hitch, but I'm not even going to tilt it up until that dial face is removed. The chassis on this looks untouched with all of the light sockets looking to be in great shape. All shields and tubes are there, and they claimed that it worked when they put grandmas' radio into storage many years ago. (Though it would have to be MANY years ago judging by the disintegrating power cord). The cabinet is solid, although it appears the someone attempted to spruce it up at some point a few decades ago, as it has some touch up done to it, and the grille cloth is changed to match someones' living room.. Also, I'm not sure, but it almost looks like someone gave it a wash of shellac or something, as the top layer was light flaking, but when I gave it some lemon oil, it smoothed out some, but still is crackled or crazed. The original finish underneath looks nice, but that top coat stands in its' way. What could I use to maybe get down to that original finish?  i am so excited about this project, but won't proceed until that dial face is off. Any suggestions?

[morzh]

There is a document about the "No stoop" dial.

[Electrothaumaturgist]

yes, I want to get as much literature on this radio as I can, as it seems like it'll be a nice one if I can get that finish cleaned up. I guess the lacquer is peeling. The dial glass is there, but needs to be buffed back up. The top of the chassis looks unmolested. I see that there's not much info on here on that particular model for some reason. Which chassis would most closely match the 38-1 so that I can apply the same repairs to mine? And also, what does that "A" in code 121A signify, and would I need a revised schematic? Well, I'm going to take a deep breath and attempt to pull that dial face without breaking it. Any last minute pointers? Wish me luck...

[Radioroslyn]

Hi and welcome back,
>Well, I'm going to take a deep breath and attempt to pull that dial face without breaking it.
Remove the screws along it's edges (4 I think) and lift the escutcheon off. Don't drop it...
If you are going to clean the dial use only mineral spirits as any soaps or water will remove the print. Clean gently.
The light sockets are hard to tell the condition by looking. Try pushing the bulb in like you are going to remove it. Most of the time they won't budge as the rubber inside has turned cenment.

[Electrothaumaturgist]

Ah, mineral spirits. Seems odd that water will remove the print, but not the chemical. I will get mineral spirits. Thanks a bunch!

[morzh]

Being spirits, maybe it is even better than water for you to drink

[Radioroslyn]

I know someone we can ask.

[morzh]

Me too!

[Arran]

If someone has slobbed shellac over the original lacquer finish then alcohol should remove it, either ethyl or isopropyl alcohol, without damaging the original finish. If the dial is similar to a 116 series set then there should be a locking ring that holds the dial on it's hub, sort of a flat disk with two tabs sticking out, give it a 1/4 turn and it and the dial should come off.
Regards
Arran

[Electrothaumaturgist]

Well, it's been five days since I mated the chassis to the cabinet. What a beast... I can only imagine what a 690 would be like to service, or, egads, something worse. I took my time over the course of a few months as time and circumstances permitted and found a beautiful, super solid, powerful player as the end result. It is nothing short of a miracle that I didn't have to purchase any tubes, transformers or anything else other than caps, electrolytics and resistors to make it play!!! (As a matter of fact, I don't know if my multimeter was acting up or what, but a few things tested *AHEM* bad, or half-bad: choke, output transformer, field coil, etc... Just didn't think about it much and didn't worry as I "knew" it would come alive regardless, as ALL my other sets have done in the past. I guess the spirits of technicians past must channel through me, and have even made mysterious repairs to the unit in the middle of the night on their own accord!   Truly, I have no other explanation  ).  At any rate, if any of you saw the condition of this speaker (I posted an image recently in someones' post), you would not believe the wonderful sound it puts out! The bass is completely adjustable in all of the tonal ranges, and THUMPS!!! The sound is full and rich, and I understand what Philco was going for with that 4 position tone switch set up (Though, as Arran put it I think- slightly clunky in operation), it just goes through the whole spectrum with dynamic sound!!! Nothing short of MARVELOUS!!! It played flawlessly for over 400 hours over the last couple of months before final reassembly. I fell asleep the other night for 9 hours with the radio on, and when I got up, it was at the volume I put it at to begin with. That scared me a little bit, but all seemed normal, save she was a tad bit warm... There are still a couple of things I need to do to it (maybe a bucking transformer to kick the voltage back to 115v, instead of the 123v she runs on now). The building I live in is the worst ever for reception on any radio, but I'm running a 20' reception wire looped back around and grounded to the chassis (it eliminates 99% of static on the lower end of the dial especially, much like a DX/LOCAL switch). It pulls in stations better than any modern radio in the house! I want to thank everyone who donned assistance to me with this project!!! THANK YOU!!!