Anyone into old radios?

[ledhedsymbols]

It hit hard and fast... One day I was discussing what to put in the living room of my mom's new house. (1923 Victorian) She doesn't want a TV in the formal living room because it wouldn't fit there. One thing led to another and I talked her into an old console radio. I found a 1947 Philco set for cheap. Did some quick troubleshooting and got the am and fm bands working. Next thing I know I'm forking over money for a beat up 1939 Zenith, skipping family time AND steelhead fishing to sniff lacquer fumes in my garage.

I think I have the beginnings of a sickness... Anyone wanna see Pictures?

The Ugly Before




After Stripping the old beater finish



Veneer Repair and sanding with my helper "The Blonde Monster"

[ledhedsymbols]

Mom's Philco 47-1230. The dial scale is some POS printed paper. I'm having the devil's own time finding a replacement. Only thing still to repair is the phonograph. Why she wants to listen to 78s is beyond me.

[pwd72s]

A home page for you...Watch out, it can become a disease. I found somebody to repair my parents old Farnsworth. His living room was stuffed full of shelving, narrow aisles between the shelf rows. Literally thousands of old tube radios...

Antique Radio Classified Home Page

Great job on that old Philco!

[herr_oberst]

Well, shoot, I'm just going to have to subscribe to this.
I have to see that cabinet finished.

[Zeke]

I have 2 consoles, a Grundig Majestic table model and 4-5 little side table radios. I also have a Wurlitzer juke box. None work. I wish I had the knowledge to test the tubes and such. All the juke box needs is 2 capacitors. I guess that's what's wrong because all it does is hum from soft to loud using the volume.

I have a very early 50's TV in a console. I've already converted a table model 50's TV to color, but I'm dumping that.

[ledhedsymbols]

Check nostalgiaair.com for your radio schematics and repair manuals, they have an incredible about of information in PDF format. Not the BEST quality, but done for the love of the hobby. Check around for a local repair shop or a real electronics store. My local shop has a tube tester I use for free. I return the favor by ordering my components through him even though he charges 15% more.

As I understand it, the normal procedure is to replace the electrolytic caps and power cord first, then power up the set and go from there. They used paper and wax capacitors throughout, I am in the process of replacing all of them in the zenith and I will do the same for my mom after I get the zenith complete.

[scottmandue]

I picked this old one up, got it working, still need the dial connected to the tuner.

But I can't figure out how to turn it on and off

[ledhedsymbols]

Do you know what model Zenith that is? there is a wealth of enthusiast info to be had. There should be a sticker somewhere in the cabinet that will have a model # such mine being a 7s363. 7 being the number of tubes and the rest being a cabinet.

[scottmandue]

I think I had it at one time... I did some reasearch when I first bought it many years ago... Like you said model # is inside somewhere.

Wife was giving it the evil eye so I fixed the cord in hopes of showing her it works.

Tuner is a easy fix.

Bookmarked those sites.

Thanks!

[Joeaksa]

I have several and one like the first one you are restoring. Love the old tube type stuff...

[GWN7]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

I picked this old one up, got it working, still need the dial connected to the tuner.

But I can't figure out how to turn it on and off

Plug it into a Clapper

[rusnak]

I've got one like Scott's, but it's lighter in color, and it has AM/FM and a built in record player. The storage space underneath holds record albums, and the vacuum tubes and everything still works!


Here's a Youtube video that my friend Thomas made with his dad Frank. Frank is a collector of all sorts, and Tom makes these as a way to spend time with his dad, which I think is very cool:

[pwd72s]

Damn..the video almost gave me the fever. When very youg, the old 5 tube in my bedroom was my "friend"...listened to baseball games, first heard Rock n' roll, etc..all on that radio.

[ramonesfreak]

skipping steelhead fishing? are you nuts? haha

thats sweet. i have some old radios, telefunkens, B/O and older stuff. i cant keep up with them. wish i could sell them.

[azasadny]

Nice work on that cabinet!!

[ledhedsymbols]

Cool radios guys! I knew there would be Pelicans with a tube radio jones!

I finished up the sanding and got my neutral stain on the body. (Don't want to do much to those beautiful veneers) The red mahogany stain I wanted to use on the trim was a non-starter, so I think I am just going to use a brown paint. It was originally a brown colored lacquer, and the wood is nothing special with some end grain showing too. After the brown on the trim, I will do the black piping and then my paint guru buddy is bringing a gun, dryer and his material and we will do a super slick glossy finish.

I will post pictures of the stained cabinet at least tomorrow.

[R K T]

Here's my oldie that my Dad bought right after WWII....
Also has a turntable and still works!




Not a radio but really old....his old Edison

[ledhedsymbols]

Nice old Philco! That edison phonograph is a real sweet piece of history too!

Here is the stained cabinet, I have to do some work on the trim and I will post those as soon as I am done with the work.

[ledhedsymbols]

That philco is about the same vintage and cabinet as my mom's. Do you know the model number?

[azasadny]

Beautiful work there!!!