[Ron Ramirez]

About eight years ago, I found a Philco 17XS on eBay. It was in Cleveland, Ohio...but with an assist from Phorum member Ed Locker, I managed to get it moved from northeast Ohio to southern Indiana.

I found it was not exactly in the best of condition - mice had made the chassis their home, and you can imagine the condition the chassis was in as a result.

The cabinet wasn't much better. Although it retained much of its original finish, the veneer was coming loose in places; some of the decorative pieces had come off; and one decorative piece was missing altogether.

Here are some photos:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00001.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00002.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00003.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00004.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00005.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00006.jpg]

More recently, I learned about Monroe Furniture Restoration in Bloomington, Indiana. The proprietor, Tim Puro, agreed to take on the task of bringing the 17XS cabinet back from the brink of firewood.

The work is still in progress, but here are a couple of photos showing how it looks after repair work has been completed, after the cabinet has been sealed, and before toning and final coats of lacquer are applied:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00007.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00008.jpg]

Look - Tim even replicated some of the missing trim pieces!

Now, I'm not taking anything away from any of the fine folks we have mentioned in the past here who can do cabinet repair and refinishing, but I do want to make you folks aware of another choice you have if you need a cabinet to be repaired or completely redone. Tim is a professional who is also an instructor at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking.

He has done other radio cabinets, and is willing to do more.

I added his company to my site's Resources page some time ago, but if you haven't seen it, I wanted to make you aware of Tim and his fine work. Check it out:

http://www.monroefurniturerestoration.com/

Meanwhile, there is a little more to the story of this 17XS. As luck would have it, I found another one today, in Nashville. The previous owner agreed to sell the chassis, speaker and the fiberboard back to me; we sold the empty cabinet in the auction later as a donation to the club. This chassis, while dirty (i.e. "barn fresh"), has not been molested by rodents. The speaker looks to be in fine shape. The fiberboard back (yes, this model did have a back covering the speaker portion of the cabinet) is in very good condition with the original gold label.

So...sometime in the near future, I will have a complete and excellent 17XS. I suppose this 17 chassis from Nashville will be my next electronic project, once the 41-616 is complete. I suspect the 17 will be much easier to rebuild.