[Groundhog74]

Bought this today at an antique shop about 45 minutes from home. Paid a little more than I usually like to pay for a radio, but I have never seen one before and understand that, while not super rare, they are uncommon. Three of the knobs are missing the rosette in the center. All tubes except one of the 24's tested good
(including both 45's). Grill cloth was pretty toasty so I replaced it with some I had on hand in order to get it past the home decor quality control department (wife) until I can find a quality substitute. It has been re-capped, but has a short somewhere. Fails dim bulb test immediately. I'll check out the previous work and hope it's not the transformer.
[Image: http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t679...7cc9ba.jpg][/URL

[URL=http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/Groundhog4906/media/imagejpg3_zps7e8a5e93.jpg.html][Image: http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t679...8a5e93.jpg]

[Image: http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t679...d13d83.jpg]

[bfrohwein]

nice unit.. too bad the original clock is missing. still nice though!

[TA Forbes]

Should the power xfrmr be bad I may have one here that will work.

[Arran]

The control panel looks like Australian walnut. Honestly I have to wonder about some people, I would never have put a cheap battery powered clock in there even if there was something wrong with the original. If I had to make it work I would adapt the mechanism from a newer electric clock, the kind Telechron used to make, at least it would look better and keep good time.
Regards
Arran

[morzh]

In all fairness, the today's battery-powered mechanisms keep better time than the electric clocks of the past. Some are noisy and some are quiet but all are pretty accurate.
Not that I advocate using them if the old mechanismus works, but "keeping good time" is not one of the advantages of electro-mechanical AC units.

[Groundhog74]

Arran, I agree it's a bit tacky to have the battery operated el cheapo clock. Giving the previous owner the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he/she installed that until they could find an original. The dial face is original and possibly the hands as well. Hammond clocks from that era seem to be available on ebay. I'll watch the antique shops as well.

[jerryhawthorne]

Groundhog, that is a very nice looking radio. As for the clock mechanism, I'm not anal about "original". What is in there will keep better time and be more reliable. Replacing it with another A/C drive clock motor from a later era, well, it is not original either. What is in there is just fine unless you have people that come over to your house and want to look behind your radios and judge them. I don't have those kind of friends. It would be nice if it had the original motor but for keeping time that will work great.
Best Jerry

[Groundhog74]

Thanks Jerry. I'd love to have it all original...or as close as possible. But, it's not the end of the world as it is now. I have seen a couple of Hammond clocks on ebay that appear to have the same mechanism. I' just have to keep my eyes peeled. The priority for me now is to get the radio operational. Still haven't found that short.

[Arran]

Actually I disagree about AC operated electric clocks, short of a power failure, all of the ones I have had seem to stay 100% accurate. I'm not speaking about the electrically wound clocks like some of these long cased clock radios used but the ones that used a Telechron type mechanism governed by power line frequency. The battery powered clock mechanisms are always having problems, the battery gets tired and the accuracy slips, plus the majority are China built now which basically means landfill bound at some point.
It's always a good thing if you can find an original style mechanism of course. You mentioned that a Hammond brand clock uses the same mechanism that this Silvertone once had?
Regards
Arran

[Groundhog74]

Yeah the clock face which appears original (from photos of others and the fact that there are 4 empty mounting holes) says Hammond on it. Plus the radiomuseum site quotes an old ad that says "Hammond electric clock movement". I'm sure I'll find one sooner or later. I'm patient and persistent.
The one photo I could find of the rear, which seems original, showed the movement with 2 knobs over a data plate. One knob larger than the other and the movement was enclosed in a round case. I've seen at least one so far on ebay that looks identical physically. I searched for 1931 Hammond electric clock.

[codefox1]

I reckon enevitable power failures or unregulated AC generators hide minute discrepancies of electric clocks. Ancient Hammond Organs depended on 60 (or 50 dependent on country) cycle power for tuning. Have one, it's always in tune.