Picked up this beautiful GE e-155 at Sargent's auction, large 15 inch speaker with 2 6l6,s for power. Chromacolor tuning will look fabulous when powered up in dark room. I will post the restore with pictures as time allows, would like to finish before Halloween. I was fortunate to find out the speaker had be reconed recently and all the caps , resestors, have be replaced. Was never finished and still needs work to play properly. Cabinet is tight and the book matched veneer is absolutely great condition. This radio will be a powerful statement of General Electrics sound quality, style , one of GE,s nicest cabinet designs of 1936.
(This post was last modified: 10-25-2016, 07:36 PM by Fred Taylor.)
Few more pictures, I did get the cabinet stripped and will continue work next weekend. New grill cloth and clear dial on order, Jim Sargent found the correct knobs for me. I may enter this one in the restoration contest coming up at the annual radio convention and auction here in the Dallas area in Nov.
I certainly enjoy my two Colorama table models, the E-91 and E-101. The power of the 10 tube E-101 is amazing! The cabinet design on the E-101 is also very similar to the console cabinet on your E-155. The basic shape anyhow. Probably no accident, as the E-155 was the top of the line console that GE offered in 1936 and the E-101 was the top of the line table model.
Those are all of the consoles in the 1936 GE line-up.
Took a look at the diagram and it looks to be real honey! Has robust power supply and powerful audio output stage. On a lot of the Philco sets that have their triode connected 42's they use an 80 tube for the rectifier which in a ten tube set is pushing pretty close to it's max rating. I guess it's the dollars and cent thinking of the 1930's.
Did see something that is problematic. Across the HV winding of the power transformer there are two paper caps tied back to chassis ground. Those need to get gone! They don't do anything and if or when they short the power transformer goes with them. The National Co (National Radio) after the war did the same thing with caps across the HV secondary. It's pretty common the find these set w/ a replacement power transformer. It's just like having shorted filter caps but it just burns up the power transformer and not the rectifier and field coil.
GL should be a good loud set!
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Fred,
I love the looks of those E series GE consoles. I have a beautiful restored E-95 console, that I restored about 25 years ago and also an A-63 tombstone with a really nice original finish on it. Can't wait to see yours done!
Steve
That's going to be a cool radio when it is done. I know where there is a E-126 sitting. It was abandoned in a shop I frequent nearly 3 years ago by the owner, yet the shop owner is scared to do anything with it. It took two years of constantly contacting the owner of the radio on his part to finally get a response over the phone that the owner doesn't want it, but he wants the owner to come down in person to make sure that it's a done deal. As stubborn as the owner of the radio is, it will sit another two or three years. I keep urging the store owner to make his move as it is something abandoned on his property and I think it's past the legal limit to where he can claim it. If he ever does get things done, I am first in line to get the radio.
(10-09-2016, 12:29 PM)Radioroslyn Wrote: Took a look at the diagram and it looks to be real honey! Has robust power supply and powerful audio output stage. On a lot of the Philco sets that have their triode connected 42's they use an 80 tube for the rectifier which in a ten tube set is pushing pretty close to it's max rating. I guess it's the dollars and cent thinking of the 1930's.
Did see something that is problematic. Across the HV winding of the power transformer there are two paper caps tied back to chassis ground. Those need to get gone! They don't do anything and if or when they short the power transformer goes with them. The National Co (National Radio) after the war did the same thing with caps across the HV secondary. It's pretty common the find these set w/ a replacement power transformer. It's just like having shorted filter caps but it just burns up the power transformer and not the rectifier and field coil.
GL should be a good loud set!
Terry;
I've noticed that in the early to mid 1930s RCA and G.E didn't mess around when it came to power supply design, on the RCA 143, which only has 8 tubes, but push pull 42s, they used a 5Z3 rectifier. In a Canadian Westinghouse set I'm looking into, which is electrically similar to an RCA R 78A, they used a type 82 mercury vapor rectifier, and two filter chokes in the power supply, to power the pair of class B connected 46s as well as the other nine tubes.
But I'm not sure that Philco really did take a chance on the power supply in sets like the 18/118, if the power supply was constructed with a filter choke input that may explain how they got away with using a stand alone type 80. I know that one thing that those Philco with triode connected #42s have is a large bleeder resistor, which is needed with the class A-B power output stage for current regulation, so perhaps this adds a safety factor?
I don't know why they would add capacitors across the H.V winding, perhaps they were worried about power line transients, but it would be more normal to connect those across the primary, or rely on an electrostatic shield in the transformer itself for that.
Regards
Arran
There's a GE 10 tube E-105 available here, but the speaker is missing. Any idea how hard that speaker might be to find? And as a reminder, I'm not electronically knowledgeable, so testing things, etc isn't my area of expertise ....
Steve
(This post was last modified: 10-11-2016, 10:13 PM by SteveG.)
(10-11-2016, 10:11 PM)SteveG Wrote: There's a GE 10 tube E-105 available here, but the speaker is missing. Any idea how hard that speaker might be to find? And as a reminder, I'm not electronically knowledgeable, so testing things, etc isn't my area of expertise ....
Steve
Getting the exact speaker with the G.E logo stamped in the bell would take time, but substitutes can be found much more easily. To me the speaker in this E-115 looks like a painted and rebadged Magnavox speaker, I don't know what the E-103 had originally. The speaker being missing may be a point of concern, it's possible that some fool may have removed it thinking they could use it with their car stereo, or it could have been due to a burned out field coil from a shorted capacitor.
Regards
Arran
I have gotten some more work done on the cabinet, lookin real nice, the sealer is still wet in photo . I have to sand the sealer with 240 using my air sander, then apply the final top coats of clear lacquer. I'm having to send the broken dial to radio daze , they said its possibly to make a duplicate even when the dial is broken, I sure hope enough dial is there for them to copy off of. This weekend I should be able to finish cabinet, Dick Morgan said he did find problems with the chassis and will remove those caps causing the problems mentioned. Thank you guys for the heads up on the electrical problems that plegged this model.
I was fortunate to find out the speaker had be reconed recently and all the caps , resestors, have be replaced. Was never finished and still needs work to play properly. Cabinet is tight and the book matched veneer is absolutely great condition. This radio will be a powerful statement of General Electrics sound quality, style , one of GE,s nicest cabinet designs of 1936.
I like that big speaker also.
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