Back to business

Well, it's been a really long time since I've posted anything new here, but mostly that's because the radios have been pretty neglected. I have done a bit of work lately though, so here's a rundown of some of the things I've been up to.

First of all, I finally finished off the Packard Bell clock radio. I had to re-solder an antenna wire that came loose, glue the case back together, and then wet sand and polish it up. It isn't perfect, but it does look pretty good.

Then I decided I needed some more soldering practice, so I recapped the RCA clock radio. I also washed all of the nicotine and other grime off of it, and it looks good and plays well. I still need to do an alignment, and finish cleaning and polishing the case. I also need to touch up the gold paint.

I'll finish it off soon and put some pictures up.

I really want to get moving on the Philco 70 project again. I haven't been able to get ahold of the guy I was going to get my veneer from, so now I think I'll take a ride over to Rockler and see what they have. Meanwhile, I've been practicing with the scroll saw, and I think I'll be able to do a pretty good job on the front panel.

I did decide to finally test the chassis to see if it works. It doesn't. Well, at least not as far as I can tell. When I first fired it up on the dim bulb tester, nothing happened - with a 25 watt bulb (though the bulb did light up). When I bypassed the dim bulb, the transformer vibrated very loudly. I figured out that I had forgotten to put the screws back in that hold the laminations together. Tried it again, and no more vibration. I did get a loud buzz in the speaker, so I figure that's telling me that the filter capacitors are no good.

So I looked at the chassis, and it looks like someone's definitely been inside this radio. The copper caps had been disconnected, and it looks like they were replaced with a pack containing 2 caps, one an 8 mfd, and the other a 16 mfd. As best I can tell, the copper caps were originally 6 mfd each. I have to figure out what to replace these with. Right next to this box is what looks like another, similar pack, but this one is encased in metal (aluminum?). It looks like it's been disconnected too. On the chassis diagram, it looks like this is an original part, but I can't figure out what it is. I'm having a tough time reading the schematics that I downloaded. The Beitmans and Riders are equally difficult.


Since the copper caps had already been disconnected, I decided to remove them from the chassis, so that I could see if I could straighten out the one that is bent. No luck. I'm not really sure what to do with this one. As you can see though, the copper shines up nicely with some Brasso.


So that's the rundown. Slow progress, but I hope to try to sneak in more time to get this project moving again.