Philco Transitone 53.561 (Knob Needed)
 

Hi everyone. Yet another of what seems like an endless number of Philcos' that I have accumulated through the years. As you can see in the picture, it needs one knob to be complete. IF anyone has an extra or two in better condition than what is shown, I could really use it. Nothing worse to me to have a good set with missing knobs.

I never really thought about it or targeted Philco as 'my' collection focus. It just happened somehow. I do believe that they are true survivors as they (for the most part) seem to always work as found, and for me that is with original caps and such.

I have sort of bragged on the vintage TV forums about owning sets that work fine as is and if they do I don't 'recap' them. I understand that it is almost electronically impossible for 60 year old caps to do what they were meant to do, but it does happen and I love it when it does.

If I were to use them on a daily basis, I would go for the restore. And when they (radios) start giving trouble I do the repair, look everything else over and button it up. TVs I may go for the restore quicker as it is just harder to be taking a TV apart than a radio, so ya may as well just get as much as you can while the chassis is out.

Didn't meant to get so long winded! Wow!:scratch2: Anyway, if ya have a knob please contact me. Thanks!

If you need a knob contact Julie McCall. I get all the knobs I need from her. I won't post her email info but she goes by radiopup and her email is at this page.
http://0374e15.netsolhost.com/email_...lie_mccall.htm

She also knows all kinds of folks who deals with knobs as well. She tracked down a pointer I needed and had a fada knob I looked 20 years for. If she doesn't have one she can usually point you in the right direction.

I went to the site and sent her a message and haven't heard anything back at all. That was at least a week ago. I didn't give her your screen name, but did say that I was referred to her by someone from this site. Is there a better way of getting in touch with her?

Julie is great but there are others, too. You could also try Mike Koste.
[email protected]

I think I have heard of Mike. I will shoot him an email soon and see what happens. Maybe the message I sent to Julie got caught in a spam filter. I have to go to my I.S.P. Website and look in the mailbox from time to time to see what is in spam because my father has sent me a number of messages that I never get in Outlook Express because they never made it that far.

It's probably best to use a Google, Yahoo, or whatnot mail account really. That way you don't have to worry about missing messages. I just got used to Outlook a long time ago. Anyway, thanks Reece!

You have one example of the needed knob. With that the outfit below can make you one.

http://www.antiqueradioknobs.com/index.html

Wow! Thanks for what looks like a great resource. I will have to investigate what the cost might be as the plain old Philco is nothing rare by any means. I hoped someone would have a box of old knobs with the right one for a few bucks. Most radio and TV people probably have such a box. I know I do. It just doesn't have the one I need. I often think of who may be looking for the ones I do have.

Maybe we should start a knob thread. Really! Probably a good idea. I wonder if this company making knobs is using a 3D printer. That would certainly be a good way to spit out whatever people need who have an example mainly for the dimensions and design features. Definitely a go to on a rare piece.

Because Philco radio where so common they may already have the knob in question. The way they work is they scan the knob into a CAD/CAM system. Once the data is input then they can produce this knob on demand. I am not sure what method they would use. A CAD/CAM machine can produce a mold for a plastic injection molding machine in a very short time. I was just looking $31.50 a set, which I think is reasonable for a brand new knob made with modern plastics.

The folks that sell knobs have buckets and buckets etc. full of knobs and usually have them categorized. With a good picture and dimensions of the existing knob, they should be able to find one like it.

Are you speaking of the same people as Transmaster or are there other companies that sell old knobs?