John Vassos RCA 6K10 Radio

[cooljjay]

Originally Posted by Reece

If that were mine I'd want to restore the original chassis and keep it with the cabinet. The transformer looks fried "from my house" and it would appear that some long ago repairman soldered in a replacement electrolytic cap under the chassis, perhaps leaving the old tall caps up top in the circuit. The 'lytic cap towards the front of the chassis urped out its guts at one time leaving the white borax deposits, probably shorted. At any rate something shorted and took out the xfrmr, or the xfrmr commited suicide.

A new power transformer would be a horizontal mount like the old one, with 120 volt primary winding and the following secondary windings: 5 V @ 2 amps for the rectifier filament, 6.3 V @ 2.5 amps for the five other tube heaters, 250-300 volts center tapped (CT)@ 70 or greater ma. for the high voltage. Antique Electronic Supply has a sale on new Hammond xfrmrs., or Playthings of the Past may have a used one that would fit. A new one is going to run $50 or a bit less. Then new capacitors to replace the paper ones in the set and new electrolytics to mount under the chassis (leaving the old tall cans up top but disconnected, for looks) might be about $12 or so. There could be some bad resistors (check them with ohmmeter) but they are cheap if needed, fraction of a dollar. New line cord (Wally*World has nice ones 8 ft. long with molded plug.)

A few other tests before getting into it: continuity test with ohmmeter on audio output transformer, speaker voice coil, speaker field coil, RF coils, IF transformers. Make sure everything has continuity and registers at least a few ohms, nothing's open.

Thanks, you make it so simple. In words I know it is, but my mine is telling me oh god this seems difficult I know in all reality the hardest thing is finding the transformer. I am just concerned about connecting the wrong lead to the wrong area. I am keeping an eye out for a parts console on the bay with the same chassis figured that would be the easiest option for my mind to handle.

[RitchieMars]

That's a pretty awesome-looking radio! It's world's away from what I'm used to, but that's what I like so much about it. I don't think I've ever seen one like it. Around here in the south, most old consoles that I see are usually of the less interesting garden variety. I think my chances of ever seeing a E.H. Scott in person are pretty slim.

Personally, I'm glad this John Vassos fellow thought outside the box! It's hard to imagine seeing something like this in someone's house that long ago. There are products made today, like Crosley radios for example, that try and imitate this vintage but modern, old-fashioned but futuristic look... They ain't got nothing on this guy, though!

[Sam Cogley]

I like it! I have a pair of office chairs from a 1935 movie theatre that would match it perfectly.

[Phil Nelson]

What a wonderful set! I would hold out and watch for a correct replacement transformer. The radio's not going anywhere and you can enjoy it as a unique period piece in the meantime.

If some day in the future you put it up for sale, the people willing to pay big bucks would care whether it has the right transformer or some other thing that's jerry-rigged to work.

Connecting the replacement transformer might seem confusing, but it's not rocket science. There are plenty of armchair quarterbacks in this forum and others who will help you get it right, when that day comes.

I do this rarely, but I'd also be tempted to "restuff" all of the capacitors when you reach that stage. This article has general info about recapping and links to other articles that describe restuffing electrolytics and paper caps: http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm . That's another decision you can defer for now, though. I wouldn't replace any caps until you have installed the replacement transformer.

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

[Reece]

All good advice. Another thing I thought of: since this had a catastrophic power supply incident, I'd look at measuring the resistance between unsoldered terminals on the rectifier socket. Sometimes those sockets arc internally between pins. Might be good to replace it.

[Phil Nelson]

And once you have a new transformer in place, I would then (at least) replace the filter capacitors in the power supply before powering it up again. Bad filter caps can fry transformers.

Phil Nelson