This Philco 41-280 is a local find. The guy wants $40 for it. The speaker looks to be in solid shape, and the grill cloth is completely intact. No rust that I can see, and the transformer seems OK across the primary, but the veneer is shot and the photofinish will make me try out my painting skills. Unless I try to take HD photos and make my own decals. Has anyone ever tried that? The cord looks almost new which makes me think I might be looking at someone else's repair job.
I know this is nothing fancy, but now that my oldest daughter is getting a model 19, my youngest is after me for a radio, too.
What do you think? Offer $25 and see what the guy says?
Well, I bought it for $35, so I guess that is what it was worth in San Antonio today. It looks relatively unmolested under the chassis. Any advice on those push buttons will be gratefully accepted.
Perfect replacements, and the same price at both vendors. I notice the faceplates do NOT have the nice Philco labels on them. Do you think I can salvage the strip with the labels on it and flatten it with a hot air gun?
The female speaker jack is crumbling. I guess Gary at Playthings might have one.
The output transformer measures good at all windings, so there's that, and the pushbuttons all work except the second from the left as you look at the front of the chassis.
I'm excited. For once, I seem to have just about ALL of the required capacitors on hand, so after I clean it up, I can get started right away. This will be the biggest veneer job I've ever taken on, so I'll be reading up on the cabinet technique. Is it American walnut with a light walnut toner?
(08-03-2015, 03:33 PM)ccomer1955 Wrote: Perfect replacements, and the same price at both vendors. I notice the faceplates do NOT have the nice Philco labels on them. Do you think I can salvage the strip with the labels on it and flatten it with a hot air gun?
The female speaker jack is crumbling. I guess Gary at Playthings might have one.
The output transformer measures good at all windings, so there's that, and the pushbuttons all work except the second from the left as you look at the front of the chassis.
I'm excited. For once, I seem to have just about ALL of the required capacitors on hand, so after I clean it up, I can get started right away. This will be the biggest veneer job I've ever taken on, so I'll be reading up on the cabinet technique. Is it American walnut with a light walnut toner?
No;
It is plain cut French walnut, you can find it from some veneer and hardwood outlets or off of fleabay sometimes.
Regards
Arran
I did a 42-380 a couple of years ago with a very similar cabinet. The cabinet was pretty toasty, but not as bad as the veneer on that one. I got it for 25 bucks I think. Bought it mainly as a practice set to learn cabinet re-finishing, veneer repair etc. Since it's a fairly common set (42-380) I figured no one would mind too much if I didn't put it back to 100% factory original. I hated the photo finish, so I took it off. Luckily the wood underneath was pretty decent. I like it, and it was valuable practice for later projects. I was able to remove the brass strip on the original faceplate, straightened it out by gently tapping on it with a small hammer, polished it and put it on the new faceplate. Looked really good. On mine, I had to liberally hose down the switches with contact cleaner and operate them repeatedly about 50 times each. They finally started working pretty well.
(This post was last modified: 08-04-2015, 06:11 AM by Groundhog74.)
Great job. I'm pretty much doing the same thing. The missing veneer stops before the curve on the sides, so I thought it might be a good one to learn from. Getting the ends to match up and the grains to blend in are the challenge, yeah? I also thought I might be able to try painting in the photofinish on this one, too, since it's a common set and no tragedy if I don't get it perfect.
Little did I know that the bandswitch was done in crumbly old rubber wiring. The good news is the recap job will be simple on this one, but replacing all those wires will be a task.
All of the US Philcos after 1938 til post war production share something in common with Atwater Kent and Zenith sets RUBBER WIRE. Is a bit of a pain to replace.
I'm just going to take it slow, one wire at a time, that area around the bandswitch is the worst, so I'll start there. Oddly, I was measuring things, and discovered the first candohm I've ever seen in working condition...at least all the sections are working. It doesn't match the schematic, though. The large section is about 200 ohm more than the schematic says it should be. I've always heard that candohms should always be replaced, but now I have to wonder if I should trust the part or the schematic...the one I'm looking at says to use as a guide because there will be differences on the 41-280. I'll see if Chuck's schematic explains things better when It comes in the mail.
(08-03-2015, 02:39 PM)Reproduction pushbuttons are availabe for about $30 for a set.The veneer work will be costly.This model is found everywhere.I think it was a popular model as it was very cheap to buy then.I would look for another cabinet.Good luck. ccomer1955 Wrote: Well, I bought it for $35, so I guess that is what it was worth in San Antonio today. It looks relatively unmolested under the chassis. Any advice on those push buttons will be gratefully accepted.
Before and after of a 14MX I redid. The experience I gained with the 42-380 was valuable in finishing this one which I think is relatively scarce, and one of my favorites. Yeah, veneer and other supplies ain't cheap, but experience is invaluable. I really dig the art deco look. As far as the candholms, mine smoked soon after the re-cap. May as well change it while you're in there.
That's what I figure. If I can bring back this one where the structure is sound, but the top layer of veneer is lifted off, I can do something more next time.
What wattage did you use on you candohm?
Charlie in San Antonio
(This post was last modified: 08-04-2015, 08:47 PM by ccomer1955.)
(08-04-2015, 09:47 AM)ccomer1955 Wrote: Great job. I'm pretty much doing the same thing. The missing veneer stops before the curve on the sides, so I thought it might be a good one to learn from. Getting the ends to match up and the grains to blend in are the challenge, yeah? I also thought I might be able to try painting in the photofinish on this one, too, since it's a common set and no tragedy if I don't get it perfect.
Little did I know that the bandswitch was done in crumbly old rubber wiring. The good news is the recap job will be simple on this one, but replacing all those wires will be a task.
In my opinion, since the missing chunks of veneer are fairly large, it would be best just to cut out the damaged sections of veneer and replace them with strips running from back to front around the curve, making use of the existing joints with the remaining pieces. Bob Andersen has some excellent videos on repairing veneer, such as his most recent restoration series on an early Westinghouse TV set, and replacing the faux finish on an Admiral TV with real burl veneer.
Regards
Arran
ccomer1955...Honestly I have no clue what wattage resistor I used. It was the correct value, and it looked heavy enough to hold a good load. Plus, I had it laying around.
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