[OldRestorer]

I have my first battery set and have some questions.
Can I make a battery for this radio?
I dont want to have to buy all the tubes if I cant make it work.
I remember hearing it is quite hard.

Maybe someone I can hire to do it?

It is an Aircastle but I have no model # yet.

Any thoughts?

   

Kirk

[morzh]

Kirk

I am sure ANY radio can be made to work, but this is my personal strategy when I by radios:

My weakness is cabinetwork, so when I buy I look for cabinets I do not have to do anything really heavy duty on in order to make it look somewhat presentable. (to be perfectly honest even though I can make any chassis work, I will not buy (knowingly) overly rusty and otherwise in bad shape chassis. I want t work on electronics but I do not necessarily want to scrub rust and paint).

So, you know where your weak spot is. Why buy radios that will clearly present a problem to you to the degree that you would be thinking of hiring someone?

[OldRestorer]

I dont know if you saw my post but I have a problem!

I will have to learn to do it some day so learning early will make it easier later.

I tried googling but didn't find anything

[morzh]

Kirk

Obviously you can make batteries. You can even track an original noon-working battery, gut it, leaving the exterior, OR make a thick cardboard exterior (if this is what it was) with a print that replicates the original, and then put battery holders in it in needed quantity, making Anode battery and filament battery. Filament batteries could be made from D-size, and anode from smaller size ones (you will need many of them) like 9V type alkaline or even rechargeable.

[tab10672]

AES sells a battery eliminator kit. It has voltages for trf's and your type.

[OldRestorer]

AES? i looked but only found a ham radio site but no battery packs.
What battery pack would I need?

[Eliot Ness]

It won't be a problem at all, but as others have mentioned it will require a few batteries or an eliminator (power supply). I suspect that radio may run off a 1.5V "A" battery and a 90V "B" battery. Some battery sets from this era ran off a 6V battery.

These radios, often called "farm sets", aren't as popular with collectors or the public because they aren't able to plug them directly into the wall. Being not as collectable also means they usually sell much cheaper than a similar 110V radio.

With the minor investment of a power supply (battery eliminator) these radios can be a lot of fun to restore and play. Decide what you want to do, find a model #, and then we can advise you better on what you'll need.

Just a little off topic, but I still remember listening to my first battery powered restoration. It was a mid-20's home-brew three dialer with a cheap little horn speaker, but I have yet to match the thrill of hearing a station come alive through that primitive old set.

[Raleigh]

If the battery is internal, as with a portable radio, the schematic will probably give a model number of an Eveready or Ray-O-Vac battery that is recommended. Sometimes the "A" and the "B" batteries are separate, but more often radios use an "A/B" battery to supply both voltages.

Usually the schematic will also say what "B" and "A" voltages you need. Sometimes they don't say, so you have to guess from the voltages of the recommended Eveready, Ray-O-Vac, or Mallory batteries.

You can find dimensions of these portable radio batteries on line and sometimes scans of the covers that you can print out. I use 1/4 inch plywood to make boxes the size of the original battery, and then make the battery internals to match however much room I have.

I'm not sure how this is done on farm radios that are not portable and have external batteries. Presumably you can make the batteries any size you need rather than whatever fits, unless you want to authentically reproduce antique batteries in the correct size.

I've made reproduction portable batteries by putting together enough 9 Volt batteries in series to make up the B voltage, usually 10 of them to make 90 volts. I've used eight 9 volt batteries plus 2 AA cells in series to make 75 volts. Some portable batteries were too small to reproduce with eight 9 volt batteries, so I've used three 22.5 volt batteries + 3 AA cells to make 75 volts.

I buy 9-volt connectors and battery holders from Radio Shack and solder them together in series to put as many in series as I need.

Batteries for the filament supply ("A" batteries) for portable radios are made up of regular 1-1/2 volt alkaline cells in series to make any voltage you need, however many you have room for. Recently I made one with 5 AA cells to make 7.5 volts. I didn't have room for larger cells. Another uses 2 "D" cells in parallel for 1.5 volts, just because I had enough room.

A forum member named "Batterymaker" makes accurate reproduction radio batteries with perfectly printed reproduction exteriors. You might be able to buy an appropriate reproduction battery from him or to get advice for the kind of reproduction battery you need.

[Eliot Ness]

AES? i looked but only found a ham radio site but no battery packs.
What battery pack would I need?

http://www.tubesandmore.com/products/rad...20Supplies

There are other options available depending on the radio. Those run the range of using batteries (ten 9V batteries makes a decent 90V supply), building your own supply, or buying a pre-assembled supply.

[OldRestorer]

I have been told it is this schematic by another member.
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByModel...003114.pdf

It has the right tubes but I haven't found any match on the cabinet

Kirk

[Eliot Ness]

If that is the radio, and it has a vibrator as shown, then it is probably a 6V set.

Also looks like the speaker wiring is missing so you may want to inventory the rest of the chassis to see if anything else has been removed/tampered with before you invest too much time or $$$ into the radio.

[Arran]

This set used 2 volt battery tubes in a series parallel arrangement to add up to 6 volts so they could be run from a car battery of the era. It's a farm set from the mid to late 30s or so, yes it can be fixed up to work but it's not as straightforward as a normal battery set with "A" and "B" batteries. Aside from the tubes all of the other important parts look like they are still there.
Regards
Arran

[OldRestorer]

I am currently working on the chassis and boy oh boy are there a lot of caps! there is a rectangular cardboard box in the middle that I have no idea what it is.

I dont think this is going to be a repair I can do because of all the loose wires. Maybe I can try to follow the schematic and rewire it.. It will at least help me learn to read the sch. better, (well read them at all)

Kirk

[Dan Walker]

I have worked on a few 6 volt battery sets and if I remember correctly there is a cap near the vibrator
that is about 1000 to 1600 volts. I don't see a parts list so I don't know if yours has a cap with that high voltage.
When you replace that cap I suggest you check the voltage on it
Someone else here might have a little more insight into this..
Dan in Calgary

[OldRestorer]

Yes there is a cap and it is .5 10? I am guessing that the 10 is 1000V?

There are 3 of these.
There are a lot of caps crammed into this little set,