1946 Silvertone 6002 Midget
 

The smallest tube radio I have ever seen

I got this in a Antique/Thrift store in Humboldt, AZ where I have a modest country home.

The lady turned it on in the store and it works but it had a HUM which I expected.

In complete original condition.

I got the schematic

I pulled it apart and cleaned it up, then ordered the 8 capacitors to bring it back alive and safe

You can see in the 2nd picture that it wasn't as clean as it is now

I can get the correct cream colored knob from AES, right down the road


12SA7 - Converter
12SQ7 - 2nd Det. 1st AF
50L6GT - Power output
35Z5GT - Rectification

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...8&d=1304823951

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1304824066

Nice! :banana::music::banana:
I have a couple of these that were made a little later, perhaps 1948 or so. By that time, they dropped the Silvertone logo across the top and eliminated the back. I think my parents paid under 10$ for my Blue one in 1948. Lots of good childhood memories...still works great!
jr

Cute little radios. Betcha they were made by Arvin for Sears. If the model number has 132 in it they were. Q: how do they drop the last 12 volts in the heater string? Big resistor underneath?

Yeah, it looks like a double-first cousin to a couple of Arvins I have. Neat little sets. Won't outperform an R-390A, but they still do OK for what they are. I even have the prewar 2 & 3 tube versions.

I got it because it was tiny, tube and in great cosmetic condition

Since I usually get hugh honkin stereo consoles, the wife allowed this small purchase well...she didn't complain too much

Schematic
 

Here is the schematic

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1304872291

Having the "War Dept." approve of one's hobbies is ALWAYS a Good Thing...(grin) And it helps if the item in question you wanted is small & cute like this l'il guy is...

They definately were made by Arvin. IIRC, the heater dropper resister was a 47 ohm@ 2watt. The metal four tube Airline TRF was made by Kingston.

I have one of those little blue Silvertone radios for many years. Mine was an Ebay purchase that after a recap has performed great. I really like these metal midget sets for their simplicity and rugged construction. There is very little to go wrong once they are fixed up. That said, I am currently restoring a Model 1 that I believe has a bad antenna coil.

I got the new caps and did the recap job. The radio sounds great for a non Hi-Fi AM radio. All hum is gone. Tubes are nice and strong and the controls are now quiet

It does heat up the metal case pretty good since the tubes are like 1/2 inch from the metal cover, but hey that's tubes

PROBLEM:

There is an issue with the tuning, the radio only picks up half the dial. The upper half

When I move to the lower end of the dial scale I can hear the vanes intercept and no stations. They touch and I can hear them like grinding?

Any idea what to do?

Should I try to separate the vanes?

I will get some NON-RESIDUAL ELECTRICAL Contact cleaner and clean the vanes

Then just a potent jot of fader lube in the vane shaft

But it feels GOOD to spend 1 hour and 8 bucks to bring a HUMMING radio back to Earth in time for the end of the world on Saturday

Yes you will have to carefully bend the bent plate back into position so there not rubbing. Most of the time it's just first outside plate. Wouldn't worry with cleaning just dust off with a paint brush.
Terry

That was it
 

You were absolutely correct

I used an x-acto knife and just carefully worked the vanes until I could see separation

No more grinding and I now get reception on the full scale

I think I will still get the cleaner and use it

Thank you for increasing my knowledge base

A good electronic cleaner for blasting out dirt is CRC Electronic Cleaner, widely available at auto parts stores.

Here is a picture after I recapped the radio

I use to take the effort to pull the old caps out completely but on this radio I just clipped the leads and pig tailed the new cap onto the old lead

I also repared a small tear in the speaker

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...3&d=1305990267

One thing to note about metal cased radios of this vintage. Sometimes the case is connected to one side of the line, so can be at 120 VAC potential, depending on how it is plugged in. One of our radio club members got a good shock by standing in a pool of water(at a local festival where we were displaying radios) and touching the metal case of a radio.

Be careful! Safety rules were not as strict as now.

I got some CRC QD Electronic cleaner from an auto parts store and sprayed the tuner mechanism while manuvering the vanes. both sides nice and slow letting it evaporate

Now the tuner is nice and smooth and clean. No noise and it picks up the complete AM band with no problem

I'll get the correct cream chicken head (and maybe a red one) for the dial knob

This little radio is completely restored now and ready to sit on my shelf for twenty years

Thanks to all who listened

Oh, but BEWARE, Me Olde Sonne, for these be Scurrilous 'n' Devious creatures, these Cute Widdle Midgets...You'll decide its gettin' LONELY, so you'll scour the local Aunty-Kew Stores/Junque Shoppes til you find ANOTHER 'un...And then you'll spy a Zenith Bakelite AM/Fm that wants to go home w/you...Then, it'll be a wooden Sparton or something from thirties who wants a lovig home...B4 you know it, you'll have a Tooob Radidio starin' back atcha from every flat space in yr house...Just NEVER, EVER, EVER fall under the spell of an R-390A or one of its other boatanchor brethren...You'll be DOOMED, I tell you...DOOMED !! (grin)

Gosh Mr. Pirate sounding guy I'll be careful

uhhh what is a R-390A anyway?

I'll mention in passing on the tuning condenser most sets the outside plates will have cuts in them. That's so you can vary a small amount capacitance over a small part or the dial. On the Silvertone it doesn't matter much but if dial had a lot of divisions you would use theses split plates to adjust the tracking (set the tuning across the whole dial and all the stations in the right places.)

The R-390A is a big old BA military receiver circa 1953-early 1980's. Lots of filters, audio and IF, Mechanical digital dial, Very accurate, and sensitive. Some say it's the best of the tube type receiver ever made. They use a bunch of tubes like 20+ and weigh close to 100 pounds. I've got 2.
http://www.r-390a.net/

Terry

Sandy G., Old Cuss, you must be a hoot in person! :lmao:

I'm NOT. I'm a mean, ornery, hateful, baleful old bastard who'd HAPPILY steal flies from a blind spider. Why, I bought the Old Ladies' Home & kicked 'em all out... I HATE everybody & don't particularly much care if they hate me...I've been in a Foul Mood since at least 1971. Every morning, I get up, brush my teeth-And then Sharpen my tongue. I felt GOOD once, about 1983, but fortunately, I soon got over it. Heaven doesn't want me, & The Other Place is afraid that I'll take over...

Verry humourous posts sandy G.

BTW I think I've been radio "Doomed" for about a decade or so. Now I'm starting to get TV "doomed" (which is doomed to the power of doomed + the square root of national debt if anyone wants to know).

I'm also plagued by other small collections of electrical and electronic junk that are lower priority collections or dead/semi-dead interests from years past that I just can not bring myself to part with.

Watch out 'cause once you collect enough stuff it starts to breed!:smsex::yippy::yikes:

Tom C.

I know it breeds,

For me it started with vintage 70's solid state Pioneer, Sansui, Kenwood, Akai, Marantz whatever I could get my hands on with wood cases and VU meters

I got a complete SS set up with 250 watts, R2R, dual cassette, 8-track, turntable, CD and an iPod dock with RCA outputs

And then the tubes radio came

And the tube consoles

And the German radios

My name is Omegaman and I am an Audioholic

At least I am now able to recap them. When I started I didn't know a capacitor from a rectifying Canootten Valve

ANOTHER "Dangerous" addiction of mine are Guns, particularly handguns. Hell-O Fuzzy, they "Talk" to me as bad or worse than Radidios 'n' TVs do....And, being a German, & therefore constitutionally unable to leave Well Enough Alone, I MUST Polish ze Gunz und make zem Shinen like ze Neu Pfennigs...(grin)

I started collecting (mostly 70's) stereo equipment back in the early 2000's (I was about 12 at the time) when most units could be found at garage sales for a mere 10$. Unfortunatly I had to move and my folks made me sell much of it, but I continue to collect to this day, and now have such good stuff that my folks know they can't get rid of it without getting rid of me!

Tom C.