Philco 60 restoration

[Reece]

This would be a tough one to recone ["don't try this at home"] since the voice coil is gone. You could buy a new cone and adapt it to an existing v.c. and spider but too much is gone here and it has the old style spider. This looks like one for Hank Brazeal. You don't need all that money you have, anyway.

[mbates14]

I have a pacific radio tombstone that i parted out. the cabinet was too far gone. Would that speaker work? id have to go see it again. but if it would work you can have it + shipping.

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by GuyIncognito

This article about the restoration of an Atwater Kent 206 describes (among other things!) a method for making a new voice coil/cone (look about half way down):

http://ludens.cl/Radiohis/ak206/ak206.html

(It seems implied to me that he fashioned a new spider out of card stock)

While his restoration wouldn't bear up to scrutiny of a concourse-type inspection, you certainly can't fault this guy's ingenuity. The lengths that he goes to to revive this old set are nothing short of inspirational!

Since you have all the other bits and pieces of the speaker, perhaps a similar method could be improvised...? He had access to a lathe, but maybe a somewhat less precise "former" could be attempted with a vertical fixed dowel rod and a concentric circle marked on the work table as a guide for the outer edge of the cone?

Wow, that is really cool!

Originally Posted by Reece

This would be a tough one to recone ["don't try this at home"] since the voice coil is gone. You could buy a new cone and adapt it to an existing v.c. and spider but too much is gone here and it has the old style spider. This looks like one for Hank Brazeal. You don't need all that money you have, anyway.

I think you're right about it being too tough for me right now. I've read lots of high praise for Hank, perhaps I'll give him a try if nothing else works out.

Originally Posted by mbates14

I have a pacific radio tombstone that i parted out. the cabinet was too far gone. Would that speaker work? id have to go see it again. but if it would work you can have it + shipping.

Thanks for the offer. The original is 6" in diameter with a field coil about 1,140 ohms. The output transformer has a DC resistance of 420 on the primary and less than 1 ohm on the secondary.

[mbates14]

Ill check things out on mine. and ill let you know. if it dont match up, then it dont match up. but hey it was worth a shot. i know its a field coil speaker. just cant remember the type or anything as of now.

[mbates14]

ya, this speaker field is 1850 ohms. so that probably wont work for you then. I tried. hehe

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by mbates14

ya, this speaker field is 1850 ohms. so that probably wont work for you then. I tried. hehe

That's OK, thanks for checking.

I wonder if the speaker from this beat up 37-60 would work ? I do plan on restoring it too someday, but it's way down on my list.

[leadlike]

At least superficially, that is the same speaker. Looking at the 37-60 schematic is also pretty encouraging According to Nostalgia Air, the field coil is 1140 ohms, and the primary on the audio output transformer is 400 ohms, so it looks like you'd have a good one to use to set up your 60.

[bandersen]

Cool - you saved me some time

The somewhat similar speaker for my Philco 70 is in the same condition - no VC or spider, but the FC and output tranny is good. So I'll either send them both out for repairs or try to roll my own voice coils. Money and time are both a little tight though so I hope the 37-60 speaker will do for now.

[radio63]

Whenver you can, it would be good for you to consider sending the speaker assembly out for restoration. You are doing such a fine job on this set, it would deserve a refurbished speaker as well. You can do that much later though since you have the speaker from the 37-60 to work with for now. Hope your dial scale does straighten out. I bet it will. I have also found that they don't have to be perfect. If they are slightly warped, they will work fine. Great job on that tone control! Looks like it just came out of the Philco factory!

Gilbert

[bandersen]

The 37-60 speaker is in great shape and tests fine.


Some reproduction rubber parts just arrived today from renovatedradios.com. I got chassis and tuner cap mounts for this radio. I also got mounts for a couple other Philcos I'm working on.
Good stuff

[leadlike]

I'd say go ahead and try to do a DIY resto on that speaker. Your solutions are always so elegant that I'm sure you'll have a working speaker...it just may take a while. You can always just rip out your work and send it to Harry anyway.

[bandersen]

Thanks for the kind words. I really would like to give it a try someday. I'm a bit behind in my projects so it may take a while.

I've been reading a lot about open coils in old Philcos so I've been dreading getting out the ohmmeter. Well tonight's the night.

I was pleasantly surprised that all but two of them are very close.
One that's way off is the secondary on the last 2nd IF can. The schematic calls for 85 and I get 47.
I'm going to leave it alone for now and see how it sounds. I figure it could be a mistake in the schematic.


The other problem is an open section in the antenna coil
The 10 ohm section is fine, but the lower 0.7 is open.
There's some coating (wax?) around the lower section of the coil so it's a bit hard to inspect.
I believe this is where the ground connection is made. So somewhere between here and an inch or so above is the break.
I'll try to clean off the crud with alcohol and find it.

[bandersen]

I asked around and several other also measure about 45 ohms instead of 85 on the 2nd IF coil. So I'll assume that's OK. It's also pretty common for that 0.7 ohm SW coil to be open.

[leadlike]

Those coils look pretty far gone. Given the work you have already put into the set, maybe you should replace the celluloid/coil with a new one. You'd be impressed with how easy it is to do, certainly well within your ability.

You certainly don't want to put this console all back together, only to have a coil open up on you once voltage has been applied for a few hours. I've been told that can happen.

[bandersen]

After a little hiatus, I'm back on this project. First up, repairing the open SW antenna coil.

A helpful ARF member sent me a nice diagram showing how the coils are wound.
The main coil is the tapped secondary. The coil floating inside is the BC primary and the open coil on the outside bottom is the SW primary.


I carefully unwound it and found two breaks.


I cleaned off the debris with rubbing alcohol and gave it a coat of shellac.
I've had this big spool of wire for years. The gauge is unmarked but it looks identical to the old wire. That's good enough for me.