[wonderwrench]

I went and purchased a 650X. My first console model. I really do not have the room but it needed a good home. It looks to be complete. Cabinet is ruff but almost all veneer is in tacked. I found it on craigslist locally. I payed $50 for it what are your thoughts? Did I pay to much?

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Run # 1?

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What no gear drive? How does this drive work?

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Looks like it has been worked on a very long time ago. All tubes are OE engraved Philco less the rectifier tube. Now all I need is the time to work on it. Any tips or pointers specific to this model welcome.

[Ron Ramirez]

Hi Bill

Great find...looks like a clean chassis...I think you did very well indeed. Congrats!

[etech]

I would have snapped that up in a heartbeat for $50. That is a very nice one. It should restore beautifully.

Ed

[Syl]

I think you did good.

Here's one I restored last summer:

http://www.oldradioz.com/temporaire/philco.jpg
Syl

[BDM]

Nice find. Wish I had a 650

[49Stude63]

Brain you have a fleet of 650's keep that pace up and you will have an armada!!!! lol

[BDM]

Maybe, but nothing like Doug Houston's fleet. Heck, that's the US Navy by contrast

[Doug Houston]

Brian, for Pete's sake. To hear you talk, you'd think I was some sort of a hoarder. Heck, there are lots of people out there with bigger accumulations than I have!

Now, on that 650. The cabinet looks to be in nice enough shape to just do some touch-up on it. I've re-capped a couple of mine, and they will whip the slats off of quite a few decent radios. Get that 650 back up to full performance, and you'll see what a good radio is, and how well it can work.

By 1936, radio technology had come to a plateau that wasn't bested until the appearance of tlevision-special tube types, and Loktal tubes, in 1939. Metal tubes, introduced in 1936, had some advantages, but Philco proved vividly, that fat pin tubes still had it in the delivery of performance.

By memory now, I think that Philco used the triode 42, driving push-pull triode connected 42's. You may be wringing about 10 watts out of that ensemble. If Philco would have pushed those tubes a bit harer, the tube charts say that they can get 20 nwatts out of them.

I think that Jim Skinner's policy carried through to the upper level sets like this one. He started with having the model 16 done as an extended fidelity set (in its day). That was one of the things that drew customers to Philco. The other feature of the 16, that carried through to all their sets, especially the upper level ones, was the short wave performance. The model 16's sold exceptionally well. Investigating, Philco learned that the buyers were going for those radios for the short wave bands. World tension was growing, and that was how listeners kept up with it. If you had even a decent short wave receiver, it was a status symbol. In that regard, Philco was one of the very best and tneir prices always cinched the sales.

[BDM]

Actually Doug, I think of your fleet as a well put together collection of Philco's many different models. Not a hoard. You know I haven't seen it yet(except in Ron's book), but I've heard it's a fine collection.

Thanks for the history Doug. You know I soak it up

[wonderwrench]

Now, on that 650. The cabinet looks to be in nice enough shape to just do some touch-up on it. I've re-capped a couple of mine, and they will whip the slats off of quite a few decent radios. Get that 650 back up to full performance, and you'll see what a good radio is, and how well it can work.

Touch up? How would you suggest doing this? You did notice the finish is gone below the speaker, looks almost dry rotted. Also a small strip of veneer is missing from the top. I would do a touch up if I knew how.
Any help greatly appreciated.

As far as performance goes all all I can see a 650 has over a 620/630 on paper anyway is push pull outputs. I would have added an other stage of IF before going push pull myself. It seems Philco added push pull to their mid range sets but only added a second IF on the top models.

[DCASAZZA]

Doug,

This radio seems to be in great shape for the price. I found a 650x locally for $50 dollars and the cabinet was in very rough shape, lifting vernier, opened joints, gouges, rust on chassis, bad caps, dark dial, and on and on. But I'm loving every moment of restoration from caps' to cabinet.
I am glad to see the pictures you had because to seems to show the colloring mine had before stripping. My faceplate is darker than yours shows. Yours being lighter realy shows off the detail of the wood grain ... beautifuly.

Good score

FYI: My speaker cone was destroyed. I fornd a supplier locally that sold me a 10" replacement cone so I am trying my hand at rebuilding it with the original spyder and paper shims while re-assembling. Wish me luck and patience.

[Texasrocker]

Very nice set indeed! Seems Ive ran across troubles with most of the old "candohm" resistors used in these type chassis in the past. Many of those are shorted internally to chassis,or, are open altogether in some cases. The best thing is plenty of room to service these type chassis! And for $50, You got a very good deal too boot!! Congrats, & enjoy your Philco restoration!!

[Doug Houston]

The issue of touching up or doing smal repairs to a cabinet cn be something that takes a book to describe. I once did an hour presentation on that topic at AWA, and it wasn't enough to do it justice.

This set needs a small veneer graft, and a scratch or two covered. From the pictures, I don't think I'd want to refinish it though. Maybe they're hiding imperfections. I wish I could go into the necessary detail here to satisfy your needs to get these cabinets back in good shape.

In this case, I think that some scratch "remover" polish would help a lot, and the veneer graft done by some local guy with a touch or it. Best to clean the finish with an application of Go-Jo, or something similar will bring you long way. Whatever you do to any cabinet, don't use any kind of soaps and water.