Westinghouse Columnette Model WR-10

[vortalexfan]

Hello Everyone, today I was given a Westinghouse Columnette Model WR-10 Tombstone radio as an extra bonus from buying an old Philharmonic TV from someone on Facebook Marketplace.

The Radio's Cabinet is completely shot (veneer missing in several spots the speaker grille molding is damaged etc.) but the chassis and the speaker are still in excellent shape yet and complete with its original tubes and original cloth cord yet.

I was wondering if this radio is worth trying to restore and trying to find another cabinet for?

Thanks for your help in this matter.

[vortalexfan]

I was looking at the schematic on this radio and I noticed it does have an RF Section which is quite unusual for a radio of this vintage.

Also being that this radio is one year older than my U. S. Gloritone Cathedral radio this thing is definitely quite a bit more advanced than my cathedral Radio it even has a tape player input on the back, which is quite unusual for a radio of this vintage.

Does anyone know anything about this radio and what I have here?

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

it even has a tape player input on the back, which is quite unusual for a radio of this vintage.

Magnetic tape was not a thing in the consumer realm in the US until after WWII. The input would have been meant for a phonograph. Best to call it a phono or audio input.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Magnetic tape was not a thing in the consumer realm in the US until after WWII. The input would have been meant for a phonograph. Best to call it a phono or audio input.

That's what I was thinking it might of been but thought it was rather bizarre that they referred to it as a "Magnetic Pickup" seeing as most of your modern magnetic pickups for your turntables didn't come out until the 1950s.
Although maybe the input could of been for a wire recorder which wire recorders were around at that time.

I've got another cabinet for this unit on the way that I bought off ebay for $50 plus shipping.

[vortalexfan]

I've got a couple more questions about this radio, first, as you can see in my pictures that I posted that this chassis has a little bit of rust on it from being exposed to moisture for 20 years from sitting in an old farmhouse that the roof had collapsed on it 20 years ago, my question is what would be the best way to get rid of that rust?

Secondly this radio has 4 electrolytic capacitors in it and all 4 of those electrolytic capacitors are of the dry type, my question is, would I be safe keeping those in the radio and running it with those in the radio?

I'm asking because I've read from various sources that the dry electrolytic capacitors don't go bad because they don't have anything inside them to dry out and fail like a traditional wet electrolytic does.

Thanks for your help.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

That's what I was thinking it might of been but thought it was rather bizarre that they referred to it as a "Magnetic Pickup" seeing as most of your modern magnetic pickups for your turntables didn't come out until the 1950s.
Although maybe the input could of been for a wire recorder which wire recorders were around at that time.

Oddly, it appears that the earliest phono cartridges were magnetic...from Wikipedia:

“The first commercially successful type of electrical phonograph pickup was introduced in 1925. Although electromagnetic, its resemblance to later magnetic cartridges is remote: it contained a bulky horseshoe magnet and employed the same imprecisely mass-produced single-use steel needles which had been standard since the first crude disc record players appeared in the 1890s. Its tracking weight was specified in ounces, not grams. This early type of magnetic pickup completely dominated the market well into the 1930s, but by the end of that decade it had been superseded by a comparatively lightweight piezoelectric crystal pickup type.”

jr

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Oddly, it appears that the earliest phono cartridges were magnetic...from Wikipedia:

“The first commercially successful type of electrical phonograph pickup was introduced in 1925. Although electromagnetic, its resemblance to later magnetic cartridges is remote: it contained a bulky horseshoe magnet and employed the same imprecisely mass-produced single-use steel needles which had been standard since the first crude disc record players appeared in the 1890s. Its tracking weight was specified in ounces, not grams. This early type of magnetic pickup completely dominated the market well into the 1930s, but by the end of that decade it had been superseded by a comparatively lightweight piezoelectric crystal pickup type.”

jr

I totally missed this. Yes the RCA R7 which others have said this set was a rebadged version of was sold both as a tombstone and as a radio Phono console with this changer with a magnetic cartridge. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=87P7xygDcs0. I own a R7 tombstone and that changer mech (mine needs a cartridge though) I have plans once I find a cart to build a wood base for the changer mech and wire it to my R7.

[Titan1a]

RCA and GE also sold them. Schematic under RCA Superette R7. 8 tubes with push-pull audio but no RF amp. Very nice looking radio when restored. Lots of audio power.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

RCA and GE also sold them. Schematic under RCA Superette R7. 8 tubes with push-pull audio but no RF amp. Very nice looking radio when restored. Lots of audio power.

Actually if you look at the Schematic carefully, this radio actually does have an RF Amp in it, that's why its an 8-tube radio because one of the tubes powers the RF Amp.

[bgadow]

I've had a few RCA/GE sets from that era and amazingly they worked as-found, without recapping. I still have a GE console that I haven't powered up in a decade (shame on me!) I really need to wake it up again.

I really like the look of a Columnaire; never seen one in person that was in really decent condition. I passed on one 20 years ago, similar condition to yours but they wanted $65.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by bgadow

I've had a few RCA/GE sets from that era and amazingly they worked as-found, without recapping. I still have a GE console that I haven't powered up in a decade (shame on me!) I really need to wake it up again.

I really like the look of a Columnaire; never seen one in person that was in really decent condition. I passed on one 20 years ago, similar condition to yours but they wanted $65.

I got mine for free from the same person that I bought my Meck TV from for $5 and surprisingly enough the chassis in this radio is actually extremely clean for as rough of shape as the cabinet was in (the person I got the TV and this radio from found both of them in an old farm house that the roof had collapsed on it 20 years ago and the TV was in extremely good shape for being in an old house with no roof for 20 years, same for the radio (except for the cabinet which was completely shot).

[Electronic M]

The wet ones were literally filled with a couple shots worth of dielectric fluid.

The dry lytics are the current design that has been in all electronics since the 30s. Sometimes the dry will miraculously survive several decades, but they usually go bad and shouldn't be trusted.

[jr_tech]

That’s incredible! Wonder how much that tone arm weighs?

jr

[Titan1a]

I stand corrected on the RF amp. The radio is from 1931 during the worst of the depression. It had no AVC and used anode bend detection (cathode plate) which would give some distortion. This radio was designed to be inexpensive but still good-sounding.

[vortalexfan]

I downloaded and printed off the beitmans manual for this Radio and it looks pretty straightforward to service. when I took the chassis out of the cabinet took a look at the underside and it only has about 7 capacitors not including the original filter caps. It looks like the radio is basically all original and never had any repairs done to it over the years.

Did this radio have the curtain burner cord on it? I'm just curious because this radio does have its original cloth cord still intact yet that's still in pretty decent shape yet with only very minor fraying of the outer cloth sheathing but the inner wire sheathing is still intact and not frayed.