10-28-2014, 10:37 PM
Mike;
The rubber, or gutta percha, covered wire would not really be a deal breaker for me necessarily, but it, along with the usual Tenite plastic problems, would have a great impact on what I would be willing to pay. Another factor being that Philco built a lot of 40-180s, 41-280s, 42-380s, so you can be more particular about what you buy. The rotting wire is not a feature unique to 1939-42 Philcos, Majestic radios, like the set in question, are notorious for being full of the stuff, same with their Canadian Rogers built cousins along with several Atwater Kent models from the mid 1930s, so it's a price one must pay if you want to restore any of those. One pain in the bum about those Philcos is the fact that they used the rubber wire as leads for the IF cans, even the Canadian Toronto built versions have this problem, which has B+ voltage running into one winding of course, and is a delicate operation to change. I'm not sure about the Philco set but one thing I have noticed with the Rogers built sets is that certain colours of rubber wire deteriorate a lot more then others, the blue wires break down the most, followed by the green, yellow and white hold up the best, whilst the black, brown, and red lie somewhere inbetween.
Regards
Arran
The rubber, or gutta percha, covered wire would not really be a deal breaker for me necessarily, but it, along with the usual Tenite plastic problems, would have a great impact on what I would be willing to pay. Another factor being that Philco built a lot of 40-180s, 41-280s, 42-380s, so you can be more particular about what you buy. The rotting wire is not a feature unique to 1939-42 Philcos, Majestic radios, like the set in question, are notorious for being full of the stuff, same with their Canadian Rogers built cousins along with several Atwater Kent models from the mid 1930s, so it's a price one must pay if you want to restore any of those. One pain in the bum about those Philcos is the fact that they used the rubber wire as leads for the IF cans, even the Canadian Toronto built versions have this problem, which has B+ voltage running into one winding of course, and is a delicate operation to change. I'm not sure about the Philco set but one thing I have noticed with the Rogers built sets is that certain colours of rubber wire deteriorate a lot more then others, the blue wires break down the most, followed by the green, yellow and white hold up the best, whilst the black, brown, and red lie somewhere inbetween.
Regards
Arran
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