11-12-2018, 09:21 PM
Last December I received this Philco 444 People's Set from 1936 from across the pond after shoveling out quite a bit of quid which translates into many worthless Canuckastan Beaver Pelts .
The good:
In many ways it is in excellent condition including the impossible to find back cabinet cover that many don't have and replacements are usually impossible to find. Reproductions have been made but involve hours of drilling the tiny vent holes.
The chassis has minimal rust whereas many are usually brown or worse from high humidity and poor storage.
The speaker is in excellent condition, all wiring being cotton is very flexible, undamaged, and all in very reusable condition with only slight fading of the speaker wiring.
Also under the chassis, it appears to be completely untouched, molested, or as they say on the British forums "it's been got at"
The cabinet other than filthy with mostly tobacco tar from decades of smoking has zero cracks, scuffs, or other damage but a bit dull after cleaning.
All around appears very complete a major bonus.
The Bad:
After removing the chassis, speaker, speaker/grill cloth mount a complete or somewhere close to this cleaning was performed to the empty cabinet and speaker cloth.
After much pondering, procrastination, and concern about possible finish damage I decided to use Spray Nine cleaner being concerned about what possible damage to the gloss this could result in.
I placed the cabinet in the bathtub, sprayed it down with Spray Nine and
dark brown liquid looking like dark chocolate oozed out and continued after numerous rinses and reapplying.
The speaker grill cloth is supposed to be a light cream color, was yellow/brown barf (looking like it was under a chicken coupe) and now is a yellow amber color after much cleaning to attempt to use as a sample.
A label inside indicating various jargon about regulations etc. was dark brown instead of white and fell apart but I was able to get a scan from over the pond for reprinting.
The Ugly:
The Speaker grill cloth is (what's left of it) Silk which numerous collectors and those knowledgeable about these radios say it is, is next to impossible to find due to not being reproduced including Tygon as well. Sources have totally dried up and disappeared making exact replacement harder to locate than wooden rocking horse droppings!. Out of desperation I went to our local sewing shop, asked for satin material and came up with a light cream colored thin, glossy like the original, somewhat conservative, not to gaudy or "loud" (I hope?) that looks a bit fancier, hopefully looks politically and period correct? Correct me if I'm wrong and steer me to something more tasteful if necessary and possible?
After a number of hours of polishing using Automotive Clear Coat Finishing polish it recovered from the cleaning process looking very close to what it originally looked like when new in 1936 (I hope) and descriptions, pictures etc. indicate it is close. It has a bit of an unusual appearance but is mostly the appearance of Bakelite being pressed into a mold during manufacturer.
I had it partially disassembled doing an assessment of what I should order for capacitors from Sal and decided to take a pause for the cause so I reassembled it without the speaker cloth so nothing would get lost/misplaced, damaged, or worse forgetting how it went together in the first place
On the UK forums many chirp about that PENDD61 "valve" being miserable close to impossible to find but I located a good spare for 30 quid and it arrived before the radio. An NOS British Mazda AC2/PEN/DD Valve was located in Germany of all places for 7 Euro so I snapped that one up as well as it is a direct substitute replacement with the exception of a resistor being needed to drop the heater voltage from 6.3 down to 4 volts. If they want difficult to locate perhaps they should purchase a 3NFW, 3NFWL used Loewe Opta EB100W, Opta Gotland WL of which someday I hope to glom onto because having a tube containing 3 individual "valves", resistors, and capacitors, all enclosed in their own individual envelopes all contained on one bottle I find quite interesting and is probably as close as I will ever get to a Loewe EO333.
The good:
In many ways it is in excellent condition including the impossible to find back cabinet cover that many don't have and replacements are usually impossible to find. Reproductions have been made but involve hours of drilling the tiny vent holes.
The chassis has minimal rust whereas many are usually brown or worse from high humidity and poor storage.
The speaker is in excellent condition, all wiring being cotton is very flexible, undamaged, and all in very reusable condition with only slight fading of the speaker wiring.
Also under the chassis, it appears to be completely untouched, molested, or as they say on the British forums "it's been got at"
The cabinet other than filthy with mostly tobacco tar from decades of smoking has zero cracks, scuffs, or other damage but a bit dull after cleaning.
All around appears very complete a major bonus.
The Bad:
After removing the chassis, speaker, speaker/grill cloth mount a complete or somewhere close to this cleaning was performed to the empty cabinet and speaker cloth.
After much pondering, procrastination, and concern about possible finish damage I decided to use Spray Nine cleaner being concerned about what possible damage to the gloss this could result in.
I placed the cabinet in the bathtub, sprayed it down with Spray Nine and
dark brown liquid looking like dark chocolate oozed out and continued after numerous rinses and reapplying.The speaker grill cloth is supposed to be a light cream color, was yellow/brown barf (looking like it was under a chicken coupe) and now is a yellow amber color after much cleaning to attempt to use as a sample.
A label inside indicating various jargon about regulations etc. was dark brown instead of white and fell apart but I was able to get a scan from over the pond for reprinting.
The Ugly:
The Speaker grill cloth is (what's left of it) Silk which numerous collectors and those knowledgeable about these radios say it is, is next to impossible to find due to not being reproduced including Tygon as well. Sources have totally dried up and disappeared making exact replacement harder to locate than wooden rocking horse droppings!. Out of desperation I went to our local sewing shop, asked for satin material and came up with a light cream colored thin, glossy like the original, somewhat conservative, not to gaudy or "loud" (I hope?) that looks a bit fancier, hopefully looks politically and period correct? Correct me if I'm wrong and steer me to something more tasteful if necessary and possible?
After a number of hours of polishing using Automotive Clear Coat Finishing polish it recovered from the cleaning process looking very close to what it originally looked like when new in 1936 (I hope) and descriptions, pictures etc. indicate it is close. It has a bit of an unusual appearance but is mostly the appearance of Bakelite being pressed into a mold during manufacturer.
I had it partially disassembled doing an assessment of what I should order for capacitors from Sal and decided to take a pause for the cause so I reassembled it without the speaker cloth so nothing would get lost/misplaced, damaged, or worse forgetting how it went together in the first place
On the UK forums many chirp about that PENDD61 "valve" being miserable close to impossible to find but I located a good spare for 30 quid and it arrived before the radio. An NOS British Mazda AC2/PEN/DD Valve was located in Germany of all places for 7 Euro so I snapped that one up as well as it is a direct substitute replacement with the exception of a resistor being needed to drop the heater voltage from 6.3 down to 4 volts. If they want difficult to locate perhaps they should purchase a 3NFW, 3NFWL used Loewe Opta EB100W, Opta Gotland WL of which someday I hope to glom onto because having a tube containing 3 individual "valves", resistors, and capacitors, all enclosed in their own individual envelopes all contained on one bottle I find quite interesting and is probably as close as I will ever get to a Loewe EO333.
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