02-10-2015, 06:08 PM
Well H**l this is sounding suspiciously a lot like work. But from my research it seems like this really is quite a great piece of history/equipment and deserves to stay in one piece. I began the deconstruction last night and posted many new pictures on Flickr... hoping this helps with any questions I have and presumably will help me figure out how to put it all back together.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58236519@N...585628966/
I think I like Ron's idea of restoring everything and just adding and audio input for a hard wire or bluetooth input. I also have a little wireless apple device that has an audio out and allows you to play wirelessly to multiple places in the house at the same time. On one of the pictures in my set on the back of the chassis there are some screw posts "red blk gnd" and to the left of that is what looks like an audio jack. Is this original? Is it an audio input jack to the speakers? I am thinking the plan will be to refinish the cabinet and make it look pretty and then just "set" my computer speakers inside it and then I can get it out of the dusty old workshop and into the house and appreciate the beauty of it while I take the time necessary to restore the chassis.
I must say everything looks to be in not too bad shape and I am tempted to just plug it in and see what happens but I know thats not what I should do. Not much rust at all, all of the speakers look intact except for at the bottom of the big one in the center it has a corroded look, or like something dripped onto it but the paper all seems intact. Is the big one like a subwoofer and the others are different ranges? On one picture (IMG-4283-2) there is a wire sticking up that is frayed and not attached to anything, most everywhere else all of the wires are intact and look good. I have no idea what I'm looking at but it looks cool as H**l. The dial has some play in it so when you spin the handle it spins quite a bit before engaging and moving the metal dodads inside, so I suppose I can address mechanical and cleaning issues whilst I learn more about tube radio design. The dial with all the radio stations is yellowed and faded but seems pretty much intact, are they usually replaced or are they cleanable. The front metal plate looks great, lots of character but clean and all there. H**l of a lot of stacks of dust in places, spiders and cob webs galore, and a handful of some weird bean looking things... wonder if they just fell in there or is there some kind of luck/tradition thing here? When I rebuilt my sailboat I found a penny from the year she was built epoxied deep inside behind a wall.... I was careful to save it and put it back. On the back there are some numbers pressed into the wood on the top, 4 on one side and 25 on another?? One of the side speaker cloth cover things was missing but that seems pretty trivial. There were some knobs but I don't think they were the original ones.
Overall based on what I've seen others accomplish with much worse, it seems to be in pretty good shape considering the years. So I started cleaning the cabinet down with Goop last night and man that stuff is working like a charm, tons of thick back gunk coming off and she is beautiful, tempting just to rub in some oil and leave her like that but much of the finish is flaking in places so I think it will need stripped and repaired in places. i plan on working on cleaning, stripping, repairing wood and fiddling/cleaning mechanical things on the chassis until I figure out next steps on electronics. Any good recommendations on books on basic design and function of tube radios and also steps to troubleshoot and repair them?
Thanks to all for your generous help and I can't wait to see her all shined up and singing again.
Bill
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58236519@N...585628966/
I think I like Ron's idea of restoring everything and just adding and audio input for a hard wire or bluetooth input. I also have a little wireless apple device that has an audio out and allows you to play wirelessly to multiple places in the house at the same time. On one of the pictures in my set on the back of the chassis there are some screw posts "red blk gnd" and to the left of that is what looks like an audio jack. Is this original? Is it an audio input jack to the speakers? I am thinking the plan will be to refinish the cabinet and make it look pretty and then just "set" my computer speakers inside it and then I can get it out of the dusty old workshop and into the house and appreciate the beauty of it while I take the time necessary to restore the chassis.
I must say everything looks to be in not too bad shape and I am tempted to just plug it in and see what happens but I know thats not what I should do. Not much rust at all, all of the speakers look intact except for at the bottom of the big one in the center it has a corroded look, or like something dripped onto it but the paper all seems intact. Is the big one like a subwoofer and the others are different ranges? On one picture (IMG-4283-2) there is a wire sticking up that is frayed and not attached to anything, most everywhere else all of the wires are intact and look good. I have no idea what I'm looking at but it looks cool as H**l. The dial has some play in it so when you spin the handle it spins quite a bit before engaging and moving the metal dodads inside, so I suppose I can address mechanical and cleaning issues whilst I learn more about tube radio design. The dial with all the radio stations is yellowed and faded but seems pretty much intact, are they usually replaced or are they cleanable. The front metal plate looks great, lots of character but clean and all there. H**l of a lot of stacks of dust in places, spiders and cob webs galore, and a handful of some weird bean looking things... wonder if they just fell in there or is there some kind of luck/tradition thing here? When I rebuilt my sailboat I found a penny from the year she was built epoxied deep inside behind a wall.... I was careful to save it and put it back. On the back there are some numbers pressed into the wood on the top, 4 on one side and 25 on another?? One of the side speaker cloth cover things was missing but that seems pretty trivial. There were some knobs but I don't think they were the original ones.
Overall based on what I've seen others accomplish with much worse, it seems to be in pretty good shape considering the years. So I started cleaning the cabinet down with Goop last night and man that stuff is working like a charm, tons of thick back gunk coming off and she is beautiful, tempting just to rub in some oil and leave her like that but much of the finish is flaking in places so I think it will need stripped and repaired in places. i plan on working on cleaning, stripping, repairing wood and fiddling/cleaning mechanical things on the chassis until I figure out next steps on electronics. Any good recommendations on books on basic design and function of tube radios and also steps to troubleshoot and repair them?
Thanks to all for your generous help and I can't wait to see her all shined up and singing again.
Bill
