[Ron Ramirez]

Saturday's progress, Part I

Let's Make a New Speaker Cable

This technique is also applicable to 1938-1948 Philco radios.

Take a good look at the RCA's speaker cable.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...-5_021.jpg]

Someone cut the original speaker wires and substituted AC zip cord for the original wires, joining them at each end with wire nuts and electrical tape.

I want the speaker cable to look original. So let's do this over and do it right.

You can see the new speaker cable in the background of the photo above.

The wire I used to make this cable came from Antique Electronic Supply. They sell 8 colors of cloth covered wire, each color in a 50 foot spool, for $10.50 per spool. In contrast, Radio Daze sells unrated cloth covered wire in 25 foot spools for $10.50 per spool or $68 for all eight colors.

Hmmm...$68 for eight 25 foot spools, or $84 for eight 50 foot spools?

Yup...Antique Electronic Supply won.

When I received this wire, I discovered that their wire is the thick 600V rated wire - thicker than the unrated Radio Daze wire, which is actually the correct size for most 1930s applications.

Am I disappointed in the thickness of the AES wire? Yes. Would I buy it again from AES? You betcha! Eight rolls with double the wire length per roll for only $16 extra is a no-brainer.

Anyway...

The hardest thing to do is to remove the insulator from the end of the speaker plug. That is, it is usually the hardest thing to do. Removal of this part often involves drilling out the center rivet and when finished, resorting to glue to hold the insulator in place when finished with rewiring the plug.

Fortunately in this case, though, both insulator and rivet merely popped off...

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...-5_022.jpg]

To be continued later. It's very late and it's way past my bedtime.