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  #1  
Old 12-27-2015, 02:48 AM
fsjonsey's Avatar
fsjonsey fsjonsey is offline
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Crosley Showbox and RCA 100 Speaker Score!

I was browsing a local antique mall last weekend and happened across a 1928 Crosley model 706 Showbox and RCA Radiola 100 speaker. The pair were on sale for $60. The price was right and 20 minutes later both were in my trunk heading home. The Showbox was in great shape, with no pot metal rot in the tuning capacitor tank, dial drive gear, or all the other usual places for radios of this era.
The radio was missing a 71a output tube and the Mershon filter capacitor was long gone, replaced by a 1940's era Mallory electrolytic can mounted to a custom made circular steel plate. A neatly done repair made at some point in the past, The Mallory had also shorted from age. I replaced the filter with two new 10uf 450v electrolytics, and the other metal cased 2-5uf oil filled? caps with electrolytics of similar values, leaving the original parts disconnected but still in place. With a new 71a, 2 meg resistor replacing the grid leak, and a 75ft antenna, the set plays great.

The Radiola speaker needed a couple of patches to the cone which I made with cigarette rolling papers and diluted white glue, from behind, in order to hide the repair as best I could.
One thing I learned from this project, the 71a and other early directly heated triodes are freaking expensive!
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Last edited by fsjonsey; 12-27-2015 at 02:57 AM.
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  #2  
Old 12-27-2015, 06:23 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fsjonsey View Post
I was browsing a local antique mall last weekend and happened across a 1928 Crosley model 706 Showbox and RCA Radiola 100 speaker. The pair were on sale for $60. The price was right and 20 minutes later both were in my trunk heading home. The Showbox was in great shape, with no pot metal rot in the tuning capacitor tank, dial drive gear, or all the other usual places for radios of this era.
The radio was missing a 71a output tube and the Mershon filter capacitor was long gone, replaced by a 1940's era Mallory electrolytic can mounted to a custom made circular steel plate. A neatly done repair made at some point in the past, The Mallory had also shorted from age. I replaced the filter with two new 10uf 450v electrolytics, and the other metal cased 2-5uf oil filled? caps with electrolytics of similar values, leaving the original parts disconnected but still in place. With a new 71a, 2 meg resistor replacing the grid leak, and a 75ft antenna, the set plays great.

The Radiola speaker needed a couple of patches to the cone which I made with cigarette rolling papers and diluted white glue, from behind, in order to hide the repair as best I could.
One thing I learned from this project, the 71a and other early directly heated triodes are freaking expensive!
There's one of these for sale in an antique shop near me as well (although the owner wants almost $400 for their unit which has its original crosley speaker with it) and they also have an old Philco Model 80 beehive radio for sale in the same booth as well for about $300....
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  #3  
Old 12-27-2015, 06:58 PM
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decojoe67 decojoe67 is offline
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For years I wanted one of those. I love the mottled look of the cabinet, but especially that beautiful escutcheon. It looks good with the RCA speaker, but if you can nab the original Crosley Dynacone F speaker, it makes for a really impressive combination. The one catch with those early AC sets is the pot metal and tar-filled cans. Glad yours was a straight-forward repair. Enjoy it!
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Old 12-27-2015, 07:57 PM
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Electronic M Electronic M is offline
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I grabbed a Crosley battery model like that for free at the end of a donation auction. I took the 01A out of it and later re-donated it when I realized the tuning cap was frozen, and what a rusty mess it was inside...
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  #5  
Old 12-27-2015, 10:01 PM
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Kevin Kuehn Kevin Kuehn is offline
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I really like that wild wrinkle finish. Somebody apparently took really good care of that radio over the years. So glad to see you left the escutcheon original, not polished brass like some folks think they should be.
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Old 12-30-2015, 05:32 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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I've often heard of these radios described as "breadbox" or "Casket" radios because of how they opened up and because of their design...
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Old 12-30-2015, 06:10 PM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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Thats very nice!!!

I would rather have one of those than one of those NEW Crosley radios that are meant to LOOK OLD!!!!!!!
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Old 12-30-2015, 07:24 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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I had found an old 1950s vintage Crosley AA5 painted bakelite radio at the antique shop near me recently all I had to do to it to make it work was replace the old cardboard encased power supply caps and now its up for sale at a friend of mine's flea market for $50 (I originally paid $16 for the unit and the power supply capacitor was one I had salvaged out of an old philco radio I had attempted to restore but ended up having a dead tuner that I couldn't get going so I gutted the unit took all of the brand new caps I had bought to put into it out of the radio and recycled the guts and am now trying to figure out a way to get rid of the cabinet from the old philco radio.) Anyways the Crosley I had fixed up was a baby blue colored radio that Crosley only made a handful of for promotional purposes by giving one away whenever someone bought a Crosley Refridgerator, the model number of the unit in question was 11-119U which was what Crosley referred to as "Smoke Blue" but is actually a "Baby Blue" color, and this was a promotional model only and only saw a limited run of about a couple hundred sets or so.
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