Ok... been running the set for a while with a CD player. Sound is good (even on the built-in speakers), but there are a few things:
1. Left channel is fainter than the right. Likely a dirty balance or volume pot.
2. There's a faint hum with no audio and the volume on max. This goes away at lower volumes, so it's not of major concern.
3. Power transformer gets hot- still touchable, but not comfortable, kind of like a fresh cup of coffee. Voltages are steady and looking good after ~2h of running.
4. Some sharp audio (e.g. guitar) had a bit of distortion to it- It went away when I fiddled with the tone pot, so I think it is again, a dirty pot.
What is the suggested approach? replace the pots or clean them?
I don't have any deOxit on hand, are there good substitutes? It already got much better just from working the controls for a bit with the set off.
Edit: Just re-probed the radio tube voltages. They start high and eventually come down and stabilize. The 6BE6 is indeed at about 88V, but the 6DC8 is at about 55... well outside a 20% tolerance, if the schematic indeed shows 35V. It's too fuzzy to make out; can someone see whether it is "36" or "56" V? on the 6DC8? This datasheet suggests the tube can handle it (
http://tubedata.itchurch.org/sheets/020/e/EBF89.pdf) but it may indicate part of the reason the AM isn't tuning.
Also did a quick check on sweeping the dial, but no stations came in. Could be that there's nothing rolling in yet, but I should at least be able to find the local AM at 1450... but it's possible that rewinding the oscillator bumped it off the top edge of the range.