[Jayce]

Asking for a bit of advice on a Philco 70 Lowboy I am going to look at Friday. I've seen this unit before, and even tried to deal on it in the past with no luck. Now the guy is starting to clear out his collection, but sadly, most of the stuff he is parting out as it's worth more and easier to ship that way due to the audiofools out there and people not wanting complete radios. He called me late this afternoon about it, giving me first go at this little console before he turns it into eBay parts fodder.
I know it still has a decent, solid cabinet and is mostly complete except for the power switch knob and the dial esce.. eske... fark.. thingy! Looks like the ball is in my court and I will have to make an offer on the radio. What would be a fair offer to make? Note, this guy is very eBay savvy and knows that the parts would be desirable for someone with a 70 cathedral cabinet. I'll be sure to give it a good look-over, but want to know at least a starting point for an offer. I think it would  be better for it to survive as a complete set instead of parted out and the cabinet tossed into the dumpster.

[Ron Ramirez]

If it really is a lowboy - as shown here - then yes, it should be preserved. If the guy ends up parting it out, get the cabinet at least! I've never seen a 70 lowboy and would really like to see one.

On the other hand, if it's actually a 70 highboy, then those are plentiful and no great loss if the guy parts it out.

[morzh]

It is not worth more than 90 bucks in our state and even less in yours.
70 console is not that desirable. So if he stands to make some extra bucks, let him. Unless it is your mission to save the radio at any cost. Then get the cabinet ftom the curb.

[Jayce]

It might be the highboy. I called it a lowboy because it is rather short and is like my model 60L console. If it's cheap enough, it would look good with my 90 lowboy.

[Jayce]

It is the model 70 lowboy! Thank goodness I decided to take another look instead of calling and just telling the guy to part it out!  

   

   

After seeing what it actually was, I went from mildly interested (was also considering a really nice Zenith Allegro component stereo with all the options), to a man on a mission. I did my little power transformer test before doing the purchase and that checked ok. I guess he had two really nice 70 cathedrals at one point and the dial esc.. (still can't spell it), went on one of those. He still has one, but sold the other and is getting ready to clear out his whole collection in the next year or so.

[Jayce]

I brought this radio up slowly on the bulbs and while it didn't pick up anything, I got steady response from the speaker by switching and wiggling the tone control back and forth. Means I have audio at least. I noticed some oddities about the speaker, like the paper looking the wrong color (what I could see) and the rivets around the rim had been drilled out. So, after pulling the speaker out and removing the filthy, moldy piece of couch someone had glued to the board for a grill cloth, I have come to find this speaker has been re-coned! Initially the gently pressing on the spider made bad scratching sounds from the voice coil, indicating it was rubbing. Well, I tried my 'Spank the Speaker' trick that worked on my 38-116 and a bunch of dried glue and crap fell out of the speaker. The voice coil seems to move smoothly now with no bad sounds that I can detect when I gently move it with my fingers.

   

Next step: Test all tubes and clean the sockets. This radio is looking like a very good restoration candidate... Might move it to the front of the cue...

[Radioroslyn]

Looks like a dandy!!! If you need parts I have a spare chassis w/o PT and filter caps.

GL

[Jayce]

Thanks for the offer! Well, tested all the tubes and all but one 24 and the 47 tested good. The 24 had somehow gotten a hairline crack and lost its vacuum, so I replaced that. The 47 was just wore out. Barely any emission left to it. So, I had to borrow a 47 from another project radio for now. Brought it back up slowly again and got more response this time around. It finally took both my indoor and outdoor antennas, but I finally picked up a couple weak stations. The radio is weak and way out of alignment, but someone is home and I was able to tell both the volume and tone controls were working. This is very good news for the future of this little console. Now, if only I could find a tube shield for my 90 Lowboy so I could test it out..

[Radioroslyn]

Now, if only I could find a tube shield for my 90 Lowboy so I could test it out..

There's lots of way to skin that cat. Soda pop cans with the top cut out and a large hole in the bottom to clear the grid cap, soup can with the top and bottom cut out, or even tin foil is fine. Just two things, ground to the chassis and make sure that there good clearance for the grid cap. If you short the grid cap nothing bad will happen it just kills the signal. I'm pretty sure there are repros made for the 20,70,&90.

[Jayce]

Hmm, the gallery says the cabinet on my 70 basically belongs to the 50 lowboy, yet I just found a page with the picture of another 70 lowboy like mine. Was Philco just chucking in whatever chassis someone ordered in this cabinet?
http://members.tripod.com/iggyd_2/cons.html
You have to look close, the 70 lowboy is about the smallest picture on the page!

[Ron Ramirez]

Jayce

The 70 lowboy like you have isn't documented as a 70 cabinet.

I'm wondering now whether Philco ever actually made any of the 70 lowboy cabinets as pictured in the Gallery? I've never seen one, never seen an actual photo of one, never heard of anyone bragging about owning one.

Yet there are examples now of a Model 70 in what was thought to be only a 50 lowboy cabinet.

Given Philco's penchant for pinching pennies, it would make sense that the 70 and 50 both shared this cabinet. There were some 50 cathedrals made using 70 cabinets (with the holes in the front panel drilled for a model 50 instead of a 70). This, too, is undocumented.

???

[Jayce]

Ron,

Radiomuseum.org has an actual picture of a surviving 70 in the cabinet pictured in the gallery. I don't have the link right now, but I found it by doing a Google image search for 'Philco 70 lowboy'.
What got me investigating mine is I noticed two sets of chassis mount holes on the chassis board. I have a 50 cathedral and the board on my 70 is not only drilled for both chassis, but I can make out the faint outlines of the washers used for the mounting bolts on the 50 chassis holes. It almost looks like they mounted a 50 chassis briefly, then went 'Oops! We need that to be a 70!' and suddenly re-drilled the board and put the 70 chassis in instead! I realized this couldn't be a swap done by someone outside the factory, due to the shaft spacing between the 50 and 70 being different. The controls on a 50 are more spread out. Hmmm...

[Ron Ramirez]

So I see. Well, good for them.  

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philco_70_lowboy.html

When I get home, I'll look up the 70 and 50 lowboy cabinets again in Philco Furniture History, but I don't think that I will find anything different.

[Jayce]

Well, at least I know mine isn't some sort of home built Phranken Philco. Since I have one and at least one other appears to exist, I would maybe count this type as a Phactory Phranken. If I ever see a true 70 lowboy, I'll either get pictures of it or make sure it comes home with me.

[Arran]

Jayce:
  With regard to the type #47, or any other early AC tube with a low heater voltage, make sure that you check the actual voltage that the tube tester is putting out, under load, with a digital volt meter. I've had some problems with at least one tester of mine, yes it puts out 1.5 volts but not 1.5 volts at 1.05 amps for a type 26, the same is true of tubes like #45 at 2.5 volts at 1.4 amps and #47s at 2.5 volts at 1.75 amps. Another thing to watch for is that sometimes the solder joints in the tube pins break down building up a high resistance, or sometimes an open connection, I've fixed a few tubes with this problem either on the grid or the filament pins.
Regards
Arran