Starting to restore the Philco 41-231 (With Pics)
 

I have attached some digital photos of the Philco 41-231 front and bottom. How should I go about tackling that mess of wires and old paper caps? It still works, but I have heard that paper caps are very unreliable, and I want to be prepared for when it "caps out." The speaker has got a gaping hole in it. I am considering getting it reconed. Is this a good idea? This radio is very special to me, and I want only the best for it. Any and all info is greatly appreciated! :music: While the broadcast band of this radio sounds great, I've never heard a peep out of the shortwave band. I have cleaned and lubricated the selector switch, and it did not help.

I have been informed that old paper caps are a fire hazard. Is this true? Should I discontinue using the radio until it is recapped?

More of a fire hazard, the old caps can short out and burn out tubes, coils, or other more expensive components. If the electrolytics short, they can burn out the rectifier and blow your circuit breakers. Probably should refrain from using it until you get new caps in there. First thing would be to make a list of capacitors you need and get them ordered. It would be helpful if you could get a copy of the schematic and service data for the set. Once you get ready to start, take your time, and don't rush. Solder carefully so you don't have any cold solder joints. Double-check your work after each cap is soldered in. Take detailed digital pictures of the under-chassis before you begin, as a guide in case you get lost. As far as the speaker, my advice is if the speaker is not rattling, you can patch it with either toilet paper or used bounce dryer sheets. If it is rattling badly, or is warped, you could consdier getting it reconed. Just a few thoughts for you. If you take your time, this will be a fun radio to work on.

Gilbert

Oh yes, watch out for the rubber covered wire. The old insulation will flake off as you move the wires around. You can either re-sleeve the wires with shrink tubing, or replace the wires as you go along. You'll have to decide that as you proceed. Buy the shrink tubing or new wire beforehand.

Gilbert

I've listened to my Philco radio all day, and it's not skipped a beat. I will try to recap it in the future. This is a really stupid question, but what do capacitors do exactly? I want to make certain I will not screw something up when I try to fix it. How much would it cost to get the speaker reconed? How am I going to get the cabinet refinished? I WILL get this radio restored.

Basically, signal capacitors block DC voltages, and pass AC voltages. The voltages could be in the form of RF or audio signals. Electrolytic caps are part of the filtering circuit, and help convert the pulsating DC from the rectifier, to smooth DC. If you don't have much experience with electronics and in particular tube circuits, you might want to get a few books and study up on the subject before you start trying to restore this set. There's a lot to learn and some time spent in learning what parts do, and how circuits function, will pay off in the long run. You'll have to shop around and see what the speaker reconing will cost. Don't know myself. And there's a lot of other guys on this site who have great advice on redoing the cabinet. As I said earlier, don't be in a rush. Worry about the cabinet and speaker later. Does the speaker rattle when you play the set?

Yes, the speaker rattles terribly. It has terrible distortion on anything mildly loud. My iPhone has better bass than the Philco's speaker does.

You might be able to patch it up as I had mentioned earlier. I bet you are also getting distortion from leaky coupling capacitors as well.

Almost all speakers came in standard sizes. Mounting can
be different but often adaptable. So rob another radio !
When you start changing parts do it one at a time & test
it as you go. This way if you mess up its easier to find
what went wrong.
For the SW it probably has a separate antenna. If so just
hang 20' of wire off it. A weak converter tube may not
oscillate at the higher SW freqs but still work OK on AM.
Also remember this is a HOT chassis. In other words the
metal chassis is hooked to one side of the AC line. If
you dont have an isolation transformer be very careful
nothing including you touches ground !
Good luck with her.

73 Zeno:smoke:

For some reason, only the broadcast band works. I have tried shortwave and push button, and neither of those work. Could that be capcitor related? I have cleaned the selector with Radioshack cleaner and lubricant.

How in the FLIP am I supposed to tackle this mess?! I don't even know where to start! Would it be possible to buy a blank circuit board on ebay and just trace the wires, like on newer equipment? I am at a total loss. Somebody please help me! :tears:

You can restore the finish easily, since it looks in fine original shape now. Refinishing is only a last resort if some knucklehead stripped off the original and painted it.:(
http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1941b.htm#g

Three easy steps
1. Clean off old wax with turpentine on an old tee shirt
2. Wipe on a lighter version of Howards 'restore a finish', perhaps Oak
3. apply pastewax to keep it looking good.

Never use silicone-based pledge or endust on these old radios. They were finished with lacquer and those products will soak into and become part of the finish. You don't want that to happen because it prevents future restoration of the finish. Wax is your best friend to keep things looking sharp.

I hope you have a soldering iron (pencil type 40 watt), its about the only tool you need here.
Its time to do the capacitors one at a time to reduce the space taken up by them.

That 2-section capacitor with the blue, red and black wires can be replaced with two 250 volt 47 uf (microfarad) capacitors, each about an inch long and diameter of a penny. The black wire would then connect to the (-) side of both new caps.That blue capacitor is an OLD replacement and could suddenly short out and fry your 35Z3 tube

Thats speaker looks to be a 4 inch, very easily found at radio swap meets.
Get yourself a spare set of tubes while you're there. That set has an XXD tube for the oscillator/converter, so the shortwave should eventually work pretty darn good as you replace the caps.

In the meantime, read all your capacitor values and go to Justradios.com, you may spend about $20, get extra caps of .1, .05, .02, .005, .002, .001 if you don't meet the minimum order. trust us, you WILL use them somewhere.

I know it looks very intimidating, so t a k e i t o n e s t e p a t a t i m e , and power it up after each part is replaced. You really cant mess it up, really. Read something like this to understand things better.
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-...AM-tube-radio/

And this guy is demonstrating the ultimate resourcefulness in obtaining parts to repair a radio from a crappy CFL lamp. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhoSqx8eCdM George Westinghouse would be proud.

This article has a lot of information about replacing capacitors:

http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm

It explains how to identify the old caps, choose replacements, and so on.

Unfortunately, you chose a radio that is extremely cramped and crowded under the chassis. Most consumer radios (except for auto radios) are much easier to work on. Anyway, it is what it is . . . .

Testing the radio after each replacement is a great idea. That way, if you make a wiring mistake (common in beginning projects), you will not have to wonder where the mistake was made.

Have fun!

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

I didn't CHOOSE this radio. It was given to me only because I showed interest in it at a friend's house. I do very much appreciate it. I am not aware of any swap meets in my area.

I've had enough of this thing. I've worked hard all morning getting the new capacitors in, and all I get in return in an explosion in the face. I confirmed that my 1960's GE circuit breaker system works. :mad:

You must have a dead short across the power line, to trip the branch circuit breaker. Make sure that the insulation didn't crumble off the wires leading to the line switch.
This is a great radio for restoration and a great performer, but due to the wire insulation, not a good project for a beginning restorer.
I've done many radio restorations in 50+ years and that one, I would have to be real careful doing, because of this issue. :scratch2:

I don't mean to sound flip, but I would recommend some time studying electronics if for nothing else a safety standpoint. The thing that I love about the "old school" equipment is that you get to deal with hundreds or thousands of volts as opposed to boring modern stuff that works off of 5 volts just to throw out a number.

Anyway, your odds of really getting hurt with a hot chassis radio and wondering about what a capacitor does are BIG. Lucky for you there are plenty of online resources that will teach you enough to be safe and get by on parts swapping. Beats going to college for a few years like us "old school" folks! LOL!

I am glad that you have the interest and desire to save something like that old radio. A bit of learning will curb some of that frustration that I sense. Many capacitors can only be connected according to polarity (+ or -) and if you get that wrong it smokes you out or blows up. AND they can give you a jolt if charged even with the set off and unplugged. Take some time and learn about these things and you will do fine! Great restoration vids on YouTube!!

Near the end of the year, I will try to send this off to be restored by a professional. Even I do get it working, I think it deserves better than what I can currently provide.

I think that is a good decision. It seems that you care about it and just want it to work. One thing I love about electronics is there is never a point where you stop learning. Also, you can't repair what don't have the resources to repair and sometimes that resource is knowledge or for me it can be that and time. Just recently I thought about trying to find an older TV repairman to go over an old set that I wanted to have right and didn't have time and a certain amount of knowledge.

I have formal training in electronics, but that doesn't mean that I can fix just anything that comes my way. It may be lack of equipment or the knowledge of certain devices, etc. No matter how you look at it I think a good foundation in the knowledge of basic electricity, circuits and components, backed up by Ohms Law, other Laws, and Trigonometric function is essential to anyone aspiring to repair old or new electronic equipment.

I encourage you to take some time and learn a few things and you will be able to enjoy the hobby quite a bit.

Next weekend the BirmingHAMfest will be here. Since I live in Birmingham, and I like vintage electronics, I will be going. I went last year, and they had a whole section devoted to tube radios and televisions. Usually, the Alabama Historical Radio Society pays a visit, hands out pamphlets, displays their restored radios, etc. I will be asking about getting the Philco restored by them.