[Ron Ramirez]

It only took close to five and a half years, but I have finally finished my 650B.

First, a "before" shot, as it looked when I acquired it in late 2005:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/650.jpg]

And the "after" shot:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/054.jpg]

The cabinet was refinished by Barry Jones in early 2008. The set has languished since then - until last week when I finally restored a working chassis for it.

Only today, I put the finishing touches on that chassis.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/038.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/044.jpg]

As it turns out, the original chassis in the 650B was beyond economical repair, so I used a spare 650 chassis I had - a 650RX chairside chassis, complete with side brackets to hold it front side up in the cabinet, and an upside down dial scale.

I removed the brackets, made a new dial scale, cleaned the chassis and painted it with Krylon Satin Nickel. I removed all coil and IF shields and polished them with Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish. I removed the audio interstage transformer, filter choke and the top lid of the power transformer, and painted these with Krylon Satin Black. All three electrolytic cans were cut open and rebuilt using new electrolytic capacitors. The volume control and band switch were cleaned with DeoxIT.

I used the tuning condenser and shadowmeter from the original 650 chassis, so it has something in the chassis that came from the factory with this cabinet.

I did not have the original speaker, so I improvised by using a Philco K-22 I had on hand, and replaced its original single ended output transformer with a push-pull unit.

It plays great! I plan to use this as my "daily driver" for awhile.

Here's a look at the back of the set:
[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/650B/047.jpg]