[Bob Andersen]

The top turned out well and the dial glass clean up nicely
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I also picked up a set of reproduction pushbuttons, rubber mounts, etc from Renovated Radios.

[Ron Ramirez]

Looks great! You do excellent work on those cabinets, Bob.

Now, if you want to see a challenging radio chassis, take a look at my 41-616.

[Bob Andersen]

Thanks. I've done a lot of reading on refinishing techniques, tried a lot of products and made plenty of mistakes. I'm finally starting to feel like I know what I'm doing

[Bob Andersen]

The remaining old finish is in decent condition so I'm not going to strip it. Rather, I''m lightly sanding it then using lacquer sanding sealer followed by gloss lacquer to fill in all the voids. (pardon my mess)
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It took me quite a while to figure out how to unmount these decorative rails. There is a long wood screw up through the bottom of each. Removing those did loosen them up but not enough. I finally discovered a small wood screw at a 45 degree angle behind the top of each used to wedge them in.
The metal tubes appear to be sold brass, but very corroded. It's going to take a lot of Brasso and buffing, but they should look great when done.
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I also went over the chassis more thoroughly. The output transformer resistance readings check out, but this concerns me. The wires going to the volume motor have been clipped and taped off
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[Doug Houston]

This cabinet is a good example of how Philco aced RCA, and especially Zenith with quality cabinets. The matched wood on the dial door is a good example of Philco's quality supremacy. The veneer inlays are another example of Philco's cabinet quality. There were very few, if any Zenith sets in the 1936-42 years, with doors on the cabinets. Not so, for Philco and RCA. Maybe the customers never fully understood why they were drawn to the Philco sets, but these were some of the reasons why. Some of the reasons that I never do do handsprings and cartwheels over Zenith stuff; even the Strato.

Also, a restorer here in my general area, observed that you see a lot of Zenith and RCA power transformers burning up, but rarely a Philco. I've observed the same thing.

If you look at some versions of the model 633X (?) carrying into the 37-630X, the inlays are amazing for a household set.

Interesting!

[Ron Ramirez]

Bob

No, that doesn't look good...good luck to you with that.

The motor on my 616 is still wired up, as is the original motor start cap. A new motor start cap arrived today, and it will go into my set in place of the original.

Check those chassis mount resistors carefully. There is a 2000 ohm resistor that may be bad; the one in mine is open.

You know how sellers often tell you that the radio was "working" when you buy it? I was told that about mine...but between the open 2K wirewound chassis mount resistor and a burned up 2.7K, 1/2 watt resistor in the Mystery Control circuitry, I seriously doubt that my set has worked in a long time.

[Bob Andersen]

My parts should be here in a few days too. I tried to measure the big multi-tap chassis mount bias resistor and got some funky values so I ordered discrete power resistors to replace it.

I do have a 39-55 parts chassis. I wonder if the motor is compatible ?

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[Arran]

This cabinet is a good example of how Philco aced RCA, and especially Zenith with quality cabinets. The matched wood on the dial door is a good example of Philco's quality supremacy. The veneer inlays are another example of Philco's cabinet quality. There were very few, if any Zenith sets in the 1936-42 years, with doors on the cabinets. Not so, for Philco and RCA. Maybe the customers never fully understood why they were drawn to the Philco sets, but these were some of the reasons why. Some of the reasons that I never do do handsprings and cartwheels over Zenith stuff; even the Strato.

Also, a restorer here in my general area, observed that you see a lot of Zenith and RCA power transformers burning up, but rarely a Philco. I've observed the same thing.

If you look at some versions of the model 633X (?) carrying into the 37-630X, the inlays are amazing for a household set.

Interesting!

Especially with the Zeniths, you can tell just looking at one that the power supply was greatly underengineered for what was intended, along with whacky power supply designs like dual 6X5 tubes with both sections wired in parallel to form one diode, autotransformers, and other stupid things. I have noticed that with Zenith what quality they did have in their cabinets from 1936-38 was pretty much gone from 1939 and later, and I never did like superficial glitz over true quality and performance anyhow. Commander MacDonald really should have kept his nose out of the engineering department, not unlike another used car salesmen named Ed Muntz.
In Canada some of the worst offenders for smoking power transformers are RCA and CGE sets from 1939-42, not undersized like the Zenith ones for the job but they also can't stand much abuse. As yet I haven't found even a Philco from that period with a burned transformer, but I have encountered a CGE and an RCA with a shorted high voltage winding and another CGE set with a burned transformer, and and RCA and a Northern Electric with Hammond replacements. But one thing they all had were nice cabinets on all but the cheapest models and were otherwise decent performers.
Regards
Arran

[Arran]

Bob

No, that doesn't look good...good luck to you with that.

The motor on my 616 is still wired up, as is the original motor start cap. A new motor start cap arrived today, and it will go into my set in place of the original.

Check those chassis mount resistors carefully. There is a 2000 ohm resistor that may be bad; the one in mine is open.

You know how sellers often tell you that the radio was "working" when you buy it? I was told that about mine...but between the open 2K wirewound chassis mount resistor and a burned up 2.7K, 1/2 watt resistor in the Mystery Control circuitry, I seriously doubt that my set has worked in a long time.

I was told that story once about an RCA A23 I bought at a garage sale. When I got it home I found that the dial cord was off, the tuning condenser seized up with old grease, and a burned resistor under the RF amplifier tube. I also got that story about a Stromberg, they claimed it worked when they got it but when I got it home I found that the power cord was wound up and had since become petrified in that position, when did they get the set 1972?
At least your 41-616 has some evidence that it was operational at some point after Eisenhower left office. I now take the term "Was working" along the lines of used car ads that say "Running when parked" and the other one about it needing "Just a tube" along the lines of a used cars needing "something minor", well if it's just a tube or some minor thing why didn't you change it?
Regards
Arran

[TA Forbes]

Bob: nice work on your set!

With respect to Philco sets, I find more problems with previous "repairs" done on the set than I do anything else. I have noted that the older sets from the early 30s tend to have resistors that have drastically changed in value.

RCA sets from the mid thirties have issues with their smaller wax/paper caps, you MUST replace all of them. With Philco, you should replace all but many are still fairly good.

Of course we are all familiar with the issues with the early 30s Philco RF transformers. 'Nuff said.

[Bob Andersen]

My arm is about ready to fall off, but the brass is starting to look good
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[w4rtc]

Hi Bob
I really like your YouTube video's, especially the admirals and your videos of alignments. I await you next show . I think i have watched all. I used to service TV in the tube days but I changed jobs and got away from radio and TV service for a long time. I never serviced any solid state stuff much. Just thought I would drop a line and tell you. So keep up the good work .
Joe

[Bob Andersen]

Thanks. I have lots of Admiral TVs left to restore. First though, I'm going to tackle a Philco Predicta for the first time

Meanwhile, this crazy heatwave is allowing me to make rapid progress on the cabinet

I'm going to pull out the speakerboard and tackle the central area next.
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[Arran]

My arm is about ready to fall off, but the brass is starting to look good
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Sometimes if the brass is really oxidized, like turning black and green, you can speed things up by soaking the brass in vinegar or lemon juice for a while. Obviously you don't have one but a bench grinder with a buffing wheel with jewelers rouge on it also does a nice job, they do have pads and wheels that would mount in a drill press though.
Regards
Arran

[Bob Andersen]

I'll try to remember that tip and give it a try next time I encounter some nasty brass.

Extracting the speaker and grille cloth was a bigger pain than I expected. The antenna had to come put first, then the speaker, then the speaker board, then the grille cloth and cardboard backer.
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I suspect this is not the original cloth.
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