[Guest]

A couple days ago my wife called me at work to tell me she was at a yard sale, and
they had an old furniture type radio, you know the kind with tubes and
did I want her to buy it?

When she told me they wanted $15 for it, I said Buy It!

Went home at lunch to see what it was. It turned out to be a Philco Model
71 Lowboy. Unfortunately, it has apparently been painted over with a
antique cream color finish, and grillcloth replaced with matching
fabric, but I suppose that can be fixed. Also, there is some wood damage where it got bumped by something, but I think I can fix it with a little bit of wood glue.

The seller claimed that it still works, but it looks
like it hasn't been fired up in quite some time. The tuning dial string has popped off, so the knob doesn't turn the tuning cap.

The speaker is torn, so I hope it's possible to re-cone it.
Here are some pictures of it.
http://mesamike.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=257

Those filter caps don't look original, so I guess the radio has been worked on before.

[Ron Ramirez]

Hi Mike

Great buy, even if that cabinet was "antiqued" years ago. But that can be corrected with stripping and relacquering.

The grille cloth you will want to use is the 70/90 pattern available from John Okolowicz' Radio Grille Cloth Headquarters.
http://www.grillecloth.com/

If you look around at swap meets and/or eBay, you will find a couple of copper Mershon caps for your 71.

You are a lucky man. Not every guy's wife/significant other would be willing to help him look for radios.

[Texasrocker]

Great find Mike!! Congrats to your Wife for finding a real bargain!! Heck. if all the tubes are still good, you got your moneys worth for $15 plus more right there!! If all tube filaments check good, you got the rest of the Radio for free!! I am a lucky husband also!! My wife loves vintage radios probably even more than I do!! I set her up a small tool kit she carrys in the trunk of her car to remove rear panels on vintage radios that have them to allow access to pull & check tube filaments. I gave her a tube-pinout chart from the RCA Tube Manual that covers all different types of tube filament diagrams, and a 1.5 volt continuity-checker so as not to damage any good filaments in early tubes that are remaining in the old chassis'. She has purchased many great vintage radios with push-pull matched #45 tubes that were still good, as were the complete condition of the radio cab, etc, complete with most all orig parts for less than the cost of 1 good tube in the set!! If she finds a defective tube filament in the set upon inspection, she offers much less than asking price for any set, and keeps our "costs" for complete restoration in line!! Awhile ago, the wife found a garage sale find with a spare Arcturus brand blue glass # 80 rectifier tube in the old chassis that tested as new!! Gotta LOVE Vintage Radio Ladies!!! Please tell the Wife she did very-well in her find!!! If you decide to try the circuitry and turn radio on, take a old extension cord, cut one side of wiring away to separate AC lines carefully without making a short. Install a 1 amp "fast blo" electronic fuse and fuse holder on 1 side of the AC line before you plug it in and turn it on to see if it works. If you have access to a variac to bring line-voltage up very slowly, that is very best!! A variac can "re-form" many old capicitors if still good. If fuse fails, unplug immediately and save your AC transformer, and seek a qualified source of total electronic restoration. The set will also need a single long-wire antenna wire attached also attached to the proper connection on rear of chassis for receiving stations.

[Guest]

Thanks, guys.

I hope to find some time this summer to start working on it.
Seems to be in pretty good shape, though I do wonder what I might find underneath the paint....

[Ron Ramirez]

Hi Mike

Good luck on the restoration...keep us posted...