What to do with broken Motorola 5T-1 chassis?

[Tubejunke]

I have a post in the classifieds looking for a replacement case for this really nice radio. Such a shame that USPS creamed the front of what seems to be a fairly rare unit. I say that as I am having no luck finding another one either parts or as a whole.

I yanked the super clean chassis last night to replace the bad power cord and found that the radio had been recapped by someone. WOW! A recap job and no power cord replacement. Oh well, that ball is still in my court. I was wondering why the old thing played so beautifully. Now I know.

Anyway, without a cabinet I don't know what to do. Make a see through out of Lexan maybe? REally not a bad idea, but if I want to show the word the beauty of a warmed up tube radio chassis I may just as well leave the bare chassis sitting on a table with some provision to hold the speaker up. I have comprimised safety with nothing around the chassis, but at least it's a transformer type and not a hot chassis. No big worries as far as getting zapped with one of those.

Last, I could have one of the local retirees build me a home brew cabinet. So there's a few ideas. The best would be finding a darned replacement......

[Electronic M]

Shame that got smashed.

I don't always change cords during restorations either. If the original is in fair to good shape and it is not a set I plan to have plugged in 24/7 or run fairly often I leave the original. Really good cloth cords I tend not to worry about (the bad ones I can replace with repro cloth cord from the semi-local ACE), and non-cracked/melted rubber or plastic cords in good shape I tend to leave be too.

I had a Moto a few years older than that where the dial scale changed with the band selection. The cabinet was rougher than my lousy wood skills could fix to my satisfaction so I sold it....With how cool the dial was I kind of regret that decision...

[Tubejunke]

Oh, I don't even think about changing a cord if there is no reason. I just mentioned that because the recap looked fairly fresh to have the brittle rubber cord on board. Now I knew that you could get reproduction cloth cord, but do you mean from ACE as in Ace Hardware?

If I knew they had it, then I have several old sets that I would replace what I believe to be second generation rubber replacements done somewhere along their life longer than mine. I just like cloth cord. I try to rob it anywhere I find it like old toasters and such. I had a few laying around from parted radios through the years.

Anyway, I'm not sure what year my Motorola is from. Certainly the 30s. And the dial scale lighting changes with band selection if that's what you were referring to. I have seen somewhere that the chassis came in sets like mine (which I don't know the name of) as well as a "tombstone" model. I sorta like the elongated jobs like mine. Seems like "tombstones" and "cathedrals" are everywhere.

I could keep it out of case like I mentioned for playing with the O scope, signal generator and signal tracer that I have. I have to restore the old Heathkit tracer I purchased. Gotta fix the fixin' stuff!

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Tubejunke

Oh, I don't even think about changing a cord if there is no reason. I just mentioned that because the recap looked fairly fresh to have the brittle rubber cord on board. Now I knew that you could get reproduction cloth cord, but do you mean from ACE as in Ace Hardware?

Anyway, I'm not sure what year my Motorola is from. Certainly the 30s. And the dial scale lighting changes with band selection if that's what you were referring to. I have seen somewhere that the chassis came in sets like mine (which I don't know the name of) as well as a "tombstone" model. I sorta like the elongated jobs like mine. Seems like "tombstones" and "cathedrals" are everywhere.

Yes ACE hardware. The closest one don't have the cloth cord but a somewhat farther local one does carry it.

My Moto had the 3 band dial scale set up with a band on each rotational third of the scale disc....Only 1/3 would be in the in the curved slide rule window at a time. When you changed bands the dial scale would switch out by rotating so a different section would be in the window. The band switch had a separate lighted selection indicator that it's pointer knob pointed to.....It was sort of like a Jukebox.