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City: Chattanooga
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OK, I just bought this radio after seeing it on CL and brought it home. The man I got it from was a very nice gentleman and even gave me a coffee can full of tubes.
The cabinet seems to be in really good shape- no damage to the veneer or serious cracks. There are some scratches on the top and the normal amount of vacuum cleaner bruises on the bottom. The faceplate is warped. All the buttons are there and in good condition, but two knobs are missing. The chassis is rust free, antenna is good, and the speaker is in excellent shape.
[Image: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r233/...5310-1.jpg]
[Image: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r233/...195323.jpg]
You can see the scratches here:
[Image: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r233/...195340.jpg]
[Image: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r233/...195410.jpg]
[Image: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r233/...195445.jpg]
It's not how bad you mess up, it's how well you can recover.
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2014, 10:18 PM by Eric T.)
Posts: 15,843
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Joined: Oct 2011
City: Jackson, NJ
Excellent radio. Looks nice. And I am sure (I see many of these around) you will be able to score a faceplate or maybe someone makes repros. Or you could find a repousse/chasing artist and ask him to straighten out the plate.
Posts: 2,353
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City: Clayton, NC
http://www.renovatedradios.com/ makes the repop knobs, faceplate, and push buttons for your set.
They are a nice set with good reception and sound. The internal antenna works well and gives you more options as to where to display your set. From my experience they tend to do better when placed against a wall that faces the outside of your dwelling.
IF you refinish it be aware that the dark strips above and on either side of the grillework are photo-finish.
Posts: 298
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City: Chattanooga
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I'm willing to bet that a good cleaning will do wonders for this cabinet, along with a little touch-up here and there. I have no plans to refinish it. The cabinet is in really good shape overall, including the photo-finish. I just highlighted the flaws in the pictures.
I've located a reproduction escutcheon and knobs. Those will have to wait for next payday. The first thing to do is going to be ordering literature from Chuck Schwark. The schematics on Nostalgia Air for this one look like they were received on a 1990's fax machine.
It's not how bad you mess up, it's how well you can recover.
Posts: 298
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Joined: May 2012
City: Chattanooga
State, Province, Country: TN
Score!
The rectifier tube is a 6X5GT, not the notorious 6X5.  8)
It's not how bad you mess up, it's how well you can recover.
Posts: 4,708
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Joined: Sep 2008
City: Sandwick, BC, CA
Actually Old Time Replications makes the reproduction plastic escutcheons for 1941 and 42 Philcos like that one.
http://www.antiqueradioknobs.com/
Regards
Arran
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City: Clayton, NC
(This post was last modified: 01-18-2014, 04:08 PM by TA Forbes.)
Posts: 298
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Joined: May 2012
City: Chattanooga
State, Province, Country: TN
Finally home from work Friday night after a super busy week of interstate travel, job interviews, and 10-16 hour work-days.  
Got my 39-45 warmed up and have some great surf guitar music from Pandora running through the transmitter. (Is there anything cooler than a twangy Telecaster reverberating through a tube amplifier?) 8)
Gonna crack open a bottle of Shiner and get started removing the chassis to see what I'm in store for on this thing.  :
Wish me luck...
It's not how bad you mess up, it's how well you can recover.
(This post was last modified: 01-24-2014, 08:32 PM by Eric T.)
Posts: 298
Threads: 22
Joined: May 2012
City: Chattanooga
State, Province, Country: TN
The chassis is covered in a ton of dust:
[Image: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r233/...191959.jpg]
But underneath is in pretty good condition, with no obvious aftermarket amateur tinkering aside from the extra On-Off switch added to the back:
[Image: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r233/...192021.jpg]
There is a bit of rubber insulated wires, especially in this knot on the switch deck. Surprisingly, even the rubber is in OK shape (I'm still going to replace that stuff):
[Image: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r233/...192118.jpg]
And this pair of 41 output tubes isn't exactly a matched set:
[Image: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r233/...193736.jpg]
It's not how bad you mess up, it's how well you can recover.
Posts: 4
Threads: 1
Joined: Apr 2016
City: Albany, California
Advice on how to clean up the octagonal push-buttons on a Philco 41-280? They don't appear cracked, but are "gunked up" from having sat outside (I didn't do that to it, some other unthinking person did!). Thanks!
Posts: 5,091
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City: Wilsonville
State, Province, Country: OR
Hi Debra, Welcome to the Phorum!
If you poke around on the Phorum there are some threads discussing techniques for cleaning knobs and buttons. I use the warm water and Dawn with a toothbrush approach. If they are really grungy I'll use some GoJo (the type without pumice in it) on them as well. I'm not sure about the buttons on the 41-280 but many of those pushbuttons have degraded over time because the material they were made from was not as durable as the plastics made today. You can buy reproduction pushbuttons from the fellow at Renovated Radios. Scroll down a bit on this page http://www.renovatedradios.com/parts.html and you'll see some 1941 pushbutton reproductions.
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