[james1095]

I've wound and re-wound power transformers, it takes patience but if the core is not welded it isn't too difficult, but for something as high voltage as a tube radio that's a LOT of turns. You may have got lucky and just boiled off some of the wax, but I would keep a close eye on the transformer and not run it unattended for a while. Add a fuse to the primary too!

Did you test the tube to see if it was shorted? The continuity function on your multimeter will do that for you. It's entirely possible that the rectifier is just fine, but that something else is shorted. There are several wax paper decoupling capacitors in addition to the two electrolytic capacitors between B+ and ground, any one of these shorted can burn up your transformer.