[eewill]

I recently bought this Philco Model 620.  I know absolutely nothing about these old radios.  I’m trying to decide if it is worth restoring.  The cabinet is in pretty good shape.  The electronics are very dirty and probably have been stored in a shed or barn somewhere.  I’ve started cleaning out leaves and some of the dust to get some pictures.

I’ve notice people mention 37-620 but I don’t see anything like that anywhere on here.  Only the “Philco Model 620” on the tube diagram inside the cabinet.  No idea what schematic or anything I would need to move forward if this is a viable restor.  I see images of others and they look in a lot better shape than this.

[radiorich]

Hello eewill,
First all let me say welcome to our little world of Philco and far as that radio goes That was from their 1936 line introduced in june of 1935 . I have what they call the model 610B yours is the model 620B here you find the 1936 year lineup on our Philco Gallery . philco gallery
your set sold for a whopping $49. when sold brand new .

To answer your question that set is a good one to restore and the chassis looks original and I would go for it 
you have a lot people here that can help and aswer questions here is a link to the  schematic in our Philco libary 

Philco 620


Sincerely Richard

[morzh]

Just yesterday I put the 620 chassis I restored in...2016 in the cabinet that I just got from restoration.
It actually sounds pretty nice.

This is my thread on it. There are a few more. You might find some info helpful.
https://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthrea...philco+620
Overall, properly restored, it is a very nice radio.

[klondike98]

Welcome to the Phorum!


That's a perfect radio for restoration in my view. I like them a bit crusty to start with. Of course whether its worth it to you depends on what you want to do with it. You can easily put more money and effort into these restorations than you will get back if you try to sell it. For me its just a hobby I enjoy. I get a charge out of seeing the old relic come back to life and look more like it did when it was new. I've sold a few, given away a few, donated some to charities and kept a few.

Yours seems to have a good grill cloth although I'll bet its pretty fragile at this stage. The cabinet looks pretty solid, the chassis appears dirty but not too rusty. As long as the IF, audio and power transformers are OK you probably have a winner.

[eewill]

Thank you for the welcome! I'm definitely considering a restore. It looks a little daunting right now. I'm used to nice neat circuit boards and what is under that chassis looks like a mess!! lol. I have no idea the condition of any of the components or how to go about testing the tubes. Definitely not going to plug this thing in without a little more confidence on the state of things.

My first thought would be to pull everything off clean and test. That could be quite a puzzle to put back together!

The grill cloth is actually in very good condition and surprisingly not very fragile. The paper on the speaker LOOKS good, but it IS very fragile and has come unglued on the edges. It definitely needs a new power cord. Would love to have something like the original braided cable. The other braided wires are probably ok.. just dusty, dirty and old.

I'll have to read around on here to see what the best approach to start working on this would be.

[klondike98]

Definitely do some reading on restoration of tube radios and take a look at some of the many restoration threads within this Phorum. While its not part of our web/forum, Phil's Old Radios has a nice write up for beginners in the hobby.

Our digital library has a good set of service info https://philcoradio.com/library/ and the documents section has lots of other Philco related info. The Shop Talk section has a lot of helpful tips on techniques (along with our late founder's personal website postings in Ron's Radio Archive). Our Resources section of the library has places to buy some of the components you may need.

The speaker cone can likely be repaired. All the paper capacitors will need to be replaced along with the electrolytics. Out of spec (off by more than 20% or so) resistors need changing. You'll want to become familiar with the schematic symbols and check for bad transformer coils. Those can sometimes be repaired depending on your skills but can require a replacement.

Tubes are often good even in radio as old as yours but testing requires a tube tester. Most of us in the hobby have one so you may be able to find someone local to help you with the testing or there may be a vintage radio club someplace near you.

[RodB]

Hi eewill,

Welcome to the Phorum. One thing to keep in mind is to take photos before taking anything apart. We often get distracted or something causes a pause in the project and if you don't have photos to remind you how things were then you can get headed down the wrong path. One other point I noticed from your photo, it appears someone tried cleaning the dial and used water or a water based cleaner. Well, you can see what happens in that case. The dials from this era are printed with a water based ink, so using water to clean the dial is not recommended. You can use mineral spirits and a soft cotton cloth or cotton swabs to gently clean the dial. And speaking of dials I believe your dial assembly teardown and rebuild is covered in the Philco Library Service Info section.

[morzh]

All that needs to be said have been said, so I have little to add to that.

If this is your first radio, as has been suggested, do some reading.
Don't plug it in.
Replace all the caps.
If you plan to keep doing this after this radio (very likely; most of us wanted that one radio restored...and look at us now), get some decent tube tester (the prices have come down a bit).
Hickok 800 or 600A are good basic mutual conductance testers and will test most if not all tubes.

I have just listened to this radio in my basement with 3-ft dangling wire for the antenna (earlier when i wrote about it, I had me touching the antenna clip); sounds good. Our local station transmits music round the clock exactly at 1160 AM, very convenient for the first check.

[morzh]

Can't help asking: does EE in "Eewill" stand for Electrical Egineer?

[eewill]

@morzh - That's correct. Electrical Engineer. But while I find this radio's circuit fascinating, I have no idea how the vacuum tubes work! A little before my time.
Also, you know, I'm itching to plug it in to see what will happen! I understand the need to replace the caps though. Right now, I'm just trying to go over the hole thing and clean it up. It's filthy with dust and small debris. It would be really nice if someone had a list of caps that are recommended to replace. I'd start by getting those. Otherwise, I just need to go over the schematic and see what's there.

@RobB - Absolutely. I'm taking plenty of pictures! Yeah, I notice the dial is missing some of it's printing. I've already figured out how to remove it so I can clean. Are replacement dials available? I haven't tried looking yet.

@klondike98 - Thank you! I have already starting looking at the resources there. Lots of good information.

[Arran]

Those Olson brand caps are replacements from the 1950s or 60s, they used to be a discount mail order house that not only sold parts, but kits, and early Japanese import electronics, sort of like Lafayette Radio. I believe that most of the original paper caps were of the Bakelite block type which the Olson brand ones are either bypassing or are connected across. The Bakelite blocks can be restuffed and Morzh (Mike) has worked out a method to do so without disconnecting the wires from the terminals on top. The filter cans can also be restuffed, and are large enough to fit larger value film caps inside if you want to go that route. The resistors may or may not be still in spec, those body-end-dot code resistors, of the dog bone style, often like to drift in value.
One thing that you may find useful is a larger soldering iron of 100 Watts or more, you can probably find someone with a tube tester that you can borrow. There is a fellow that comes on here sometimes who lives in Meridian, Mississippi by the handle of Radiotvphononut, he has a Y.T channel, maybe he can help?
One more thing, whilst you are cleaning don't use water to clean the dial, or the letters and numbers will wash off oft it, dry dusting, followed by mineral spirits.
Regards
Arran

[462ron]

Hi Eewill, I have that very same radio I restored 8-10 years ago and it is a decent performer so yes it’s worth restoring. I know it’s very tempting to plug it in but don’t until at the very least the electrolytics have been replaced. When you have it ready for a test run, it’s probably in need of an alignment so a signal generator will be needed. If you need a new dial, radiodaze.com is a good source for that dial and other parts…https://www.radiodaze.com/philco-620-630-27-5098/.. Enjoy your project.

Ron

[dconant]

I would definitely take this radio on and restore it. I had (sold it) a Philco 650 with same cabinet. It turned out very nice after I did my magic on it. I have the 620 in a different cabinet. The chassis was very dirty but no rust. I fully enjoyed working on it. I am not an expert by any means.

My advice is same as others. Just take your time and pay attention to the details. I take pictures and sometimes find they are not adequate when I need to see just where something went. Oops picture was not good enough but lucky I can figure it out after consulting the schematic. So now I take notes and draw pictures along with pictures.

Good luck and enjoy.

Dan

[morzh]

Eewill

Yeah, me too. An EE. Educated as a physicist though, self-taught otherwise.
Grew up around tubes but practiced with transistors mostly as an amateur in end of 60-s to 70s. Graduated as a Soviet specialist in physics (give or take, an MS); join a factory to repair NC machines. Then a software research facility, as a computers (PDP-11 and what else we had) service guy. Then immigrated here.
Did some power in 90s, then switched to hi-speed telecom, until almost 14 years ago came to work here and became a GP guy (all-around). A this point the only EE in my division.
Still practicing but nearing the "throw in the towell" line


When young, I tried tubes, but then kept mostly at solid state, and eventually started with old radios and amps some 14 years ago.

Tubes....well, if you understand MOSFETs well, you understand the tubes. Different voltage range, but otherwise very similar.
You'll have fun, especially after a couple of zaps (if you survive) only kidding.

Welcome!

[RodB]

There's a reproduction dial available from Radio Daze but it's pricey.
https://www.radiodaze.com/philco-620-630-27-5098/
You might want to wait until a parts 620 comes along. It's not like the radio won't work without it.