BIG Crosley tombstone

[radiotvnut]

I dug out this Crosley model 646 battery operated tombstone from a black hole in my shop. I must say that this is the biggest tombstone that I've ever owned, measuring 26" tall (it could be a console if it was a little taller). Unfortunately, someone hacked a bunch of parts out of the chassis and took the knobs. At least I have a schematic for when I get ready to put this one back together. Anyone here have one of these?

[Sandy G]

Bet it'll be a Honey when you get 'er done ! Lookin' forward to it !

[VintagePC]

That looks to be in such a sad state...
Perhaps take it out to the yard and put it out of its misery?

Seems they took more than they left behind, so all the best in fixing 'er up!

[radiotvnut]

Well, it was free; so, no big loss if I can't get it going again. However, I want to at least try. Someone brought it to a friend of mine for repair and he told them that they'd be better off to forget it. They said they were coming back to pick it up, they never did, it sat at his shop for six months, and he siad that either I was going to take it or it was going in the dumpster behind the building.

[AUdubon5425]

Looks like some coils are missing - there should be nine near the tuning shaft. I probably have an audio transformer that would work - I have a Crosley 1117 chassis doing nothing in storage. Looks like I'll be bringing something else to you my next trip up.

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Well, it was free; so, no big loss if I can't get it going again. However, I want to at least try. Someone brought it to a friend of mine for repair and he told them that they'd be better off to forget it. They said they were coming back to pick it up, they never did, it sat at his shop for six months, and he siad that either I was going to take it or it was going in the dumpster behind the building.

Well, at least that was two tubes for free It doesn't matter too much, since you end up replacing most components anyway... just that having them there to begin with makes life a little easier.


Edit: they even took a tube socket... Wonder where you're going to get a replacement for that, too!

[RitchieMars]

Wow, somebody raided that poor Crosley for everything it was worth! I've certainly never seen one like that before. For me, that would be all the more reason to try and save it.

This place has tube sockets: http://www.radiodaze.com/

The 6-pin "wafer phenolic" type is what I believe would be needed here.

[radiotvnut]

As bad as this set has been raided, I'm surprised the chassis is still there. Usually, in situations like this, the cabinet gets tossed and the chassis is thrown into the "spare parts" box.

I can also guess what brought about the demise of this set. It was probably some time in the post WWII era when some young radio experimenter found this radio in grandpa's barn. They probably said, "this old obsolete battery operated radio will never be of any use to anyone again and I can use it's parts for my radio project".

[VintagePC]

That's the biggest problem with this stuff... At some point, it had to become worthless before increasing in value again; I read another thread here about someone who had a shop with a back room full of tubes... he rented a dumpster because he figured they were worthless.

[wa2ise]

There's some info (service schematics and alignment instructions) at http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByM...8/M0003548.pdf at the page http://www.nostalgiaair.org/resources/548/M0003548.htm.
Agree that some coils are missing, according to the above docs they're the osc coils. Except maybe the higher shortwave band one. Finding or fabricating replacements is gonna be difficult, but once you get the radio going on the one band, it could be done. And it looks like the broadcast band antenna coil is also missing. Someone must have raided this set to build or fix an AM radio.