[TheUniversalDave1]

This Philco was working great a year and a half ago, but everybody said I needed to recap it. They didn't take into consideration that I had not the foggiest idea how to go about doing so. I botched this poor radio up pretty badly.

[TheUniversalDave1]

Here's the bad part.

[TheUniversalDave1]

Here's the really disturbing part. This picture was taken on my old iPhone 4 right after I performed surgery. As soon as I turned it on, the magic smoke came out. Loudly.

[Warren]

Looks like you didn't change all the capacitors. Also, you might use a little more heat when soldering the solders look a little cold. Everyone was right when they said you should recap it, if not the magic smoke would have escaped sooner or later. I would look for shorts and make sure you put the caps in correctly and replace all the wax and paper caps. Since it worked before there must be a short for it to do this, I would think. Good Luck.

[morzh]

Yep. Sorry to tell you that, but it is a bad recapping job.
Also, this missing insulation on wires, like that one going to the Candohm resistor - was it like this before? Does not seem burnt. If it was, why did you leave it be and not replace it?

These long caps' leads that can short any moment do not help either.

When you recap a working radio, you could take pictures, many, with good detail so you could see how it was before so if you need to go back and look.

Soldering should look neat - use appropriate temperature and flux, so it flows, not smears. Looks smeared.

Old tubular capacitors had thicker leads and longer bodies so the bare wires did not run long and did not bend easily, and any longer than safe bare run lead would be insulated.

Better luck next time.

[Radioroslyn]

It's not horrible but it is kinda a mess. Any of the Philcos from 1939-42(except made in CA) use rubber wire that over time the rubber cracks and fall off. Some guys really don't like working on these vintage set because of this issue. I would put it back on the shelf till you have some more experience. Being able to read and understand a schematic will be a must on this set. It will also give you some time to save up for all the plastic covered wire you'll need to replace the rubber stuff.
Did you get the 84 working???
Terry

[TheUniversalDave1]

morzh, I know that NOW. I didn't when I dove into this not knowing anything. When I started that, I didn't even know how to spell candohm or even that it was a real word. After this happened, I joined the Alabama Historical Radio Society, and I have gotten much more experience. I now go down there every Saturday and learn that much more on radio repair.

Radioroslyn, this radio has been in the same place since the magic smoke came out on that dreadful day. What do you mean 84?

[klondike98]

You are doing the right things.... asking for help, joining the radio club and learning as you go! There's always the next radio to work on!

[morzh]

Yep, one of those 40-s philcos, rubber wiring etc.....

Q: What do you get when you mix rubber and Candohm in one place?



Well, now that Alabma HRS taught you (they have some good folks there, like Dee Haynes ) hopefully well, you could clean that mess up.

Keep in mind, though it is not true hot chassis, it is still not a transformer radio so can whack you when least expected. Do not work on it in wet basements, next to grounded devices and ONLY work on it using isolation transformer, ESPECIALLY if you need to perform alignment.

Now go put that smoke back where it belongs.

[TheUniversalDave1]

I'll do like my signature suggests and do asbestos I can!

[sam]

Not that bad. we learn  as you go then we always go back to first one and redo
Except Kirk  he has his own EE to fix his mess 8)

[Radioroslyn]

The Philco model 84  baby grand (cathedral) that had the bad osc coil. Did you rewind the coil and get it working?

Terry

[TheUniversalDave1]

No not yet. Hopefully this Saturday.

[Radioroslyn]

Kwel!!
Terry

[TheUniversalDave1]

I was given an RCA Senior Volt-Ohmyst last time, and were probe-ably going to poke around inside to make sure voltage is getting where it's supposed to. (In the 84.)