1940s? Philco Console Radio

[Captainclock]

Hey everyone I was at the antique mall today and the owner of the store is a good friend of mine (I've helped him fix some stuff that needed repaired) anyways he has an early 1970s Zenith Allegro Console Stereo with the Belt-Drive Record player in it which he said that everything in it except the turnrtable works on it, and anyways he said that if I were to get the record player going on it he said he would let me have an early 1940s vintage Philco Console Similar to the one posted in the picture below (its not the same exact one as I didn't get the model number off of the one he had) for $35 which I thought was a pretty good deal.

What do you think?

[Captainclock]

Sorry about there being no pictures the picture I tried to upload for some reason wouldn't upload because the website was thinking that it was a "GIF with the wrong file extension" even though it was actually a jpeg file...

[Electronic M]

That don't sound like a bad deal. The phono belt has probably turned to gunk on the Zenith, clean the gunk off with rubbing alcohol, install new belt and assuming the cart and stylus are good you should be home free.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

That don't sound like a bad deal. The phono belt has probably turned to gunk on the Zenith, clean the gunk off with rubbing alcohol, install new belt and assuming the cart and stylus are good you should be home free.

That's what I figured, more than likely the belt is what went bad I'll be making a trip over to the antique mall sometime this coming week to check out that old Zenith for the guy and then hopefully I can get that going for him and see if I can get that old Philco from him then. The model that looked closest to the one that I'll be getting (the Philco that is) was the 42-395 which the one I'll hopefully be getting looked to be all original including the original dry-rotted power cord and the original Philco Loctal Tubes. (at least it looked like it had Loctal tubes) anyways the cabinet and bakelite buttons and bezel were still in excellent shape and the original grill cloth was still in good shape yet.

I was given today an old Philco parts chassis complete with its original Loctal and octal tubes along with a coffee can full of old Organ and Radio Tubes including 3 RCA 6BQ5 tubes that still tested excellent yet.

[Electronic M]

That is similar to my 1942 Philco console with Beam Of Light changer....You are lucky the face and buttons are good. They are not Bakelite, but a less stable form of plastic that is VERY prone to shrink and crack....They make repros for some models, but not mine. A thought that just came to mind is that this era of Philco used rubber wiring extensively...It tends to crack apart or turn to gunk, and then short. On most sets it all will need to be changed which is a pain in the butt....Just a fair warning on that. My '42 got recapped and most wiring changed and is stalled from a tricky dead tuner condition that I need to eventually get back to.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

That is similar to my 1942 Philco console with Beam Of Light changer....You are lucky the face and buttons are good. They are not Bakelite, but a less stable form of plastic that is VERY prone to shrink and crack....They make repros for some models, but not mine. A thought that just came to mind is that this era of Philco used rubber wiring extensively...It tends to crack apart or turn to gunk, and then short. On most sets it all will need to be changed which is a pain in the butt....Just a fair warning on that. My '42 got recapped and most wiring changed and is stalled from a tricky dead tuner condition that I need to eventually get back to.

Interesting, a dead tuner issue you say? It sounds a lot like my Philco 46-1203 that I have that I pretty much gave up on, which also had a dead tuner on it and I tried replacing the suspect IF Can but apparently the replacement IF can I got was also dead. So I basically just gave up on it, like I said the one I might be getting looks like the model I specified but I don't think its the same exact one I think the one I'll be getting was a little bit fancier sort of more like the 40-180 cabinet wise but has the chassis of the 42-395 with the rectangular shaped preset buttons instead of the octagon shaped buttons of the 40-180.

[Captainclock]

Well Today i got the old Philco and its a model 42-380 and its got the notorious 6X5 Rectifier tube in it (which from what I read on here is the one that Zenith used on their radios from the same time period that were notorious for shorting out and taking out the power transformer) anyways its got 2 41 Output tubes (push-pull?) for its audio stage so I think this unit might of been a fairly high end unit when it was brand new (and probably still is a high end unit).

Any thoughts?

Also by the way I got for $25 instead of the original $30.

Pics to come later when I get a chance to look over the unit more carefully.

Also something i noticed in this radio is that the power is apparently turned on through one of the pushbuttons on the front instead of through the volume control because the volume control doesn't "click" when turned down all the way (unless the power switch is in either the bass or treble conrol.)

[Titan1a]

Replace the 6X5 with a solid state replacement. I bought mine from Ted Weber. It's a little expensive but I like the built-in inrush limiter.

[Captainclock]

OK, well in my other thread I started for this radio I was told that the 6X5GTs were fine and that it was the 6X5Gs that were the trouble ones.
Also couldn't one just replace the 6X5 with an 0Z4?

[Electronic M]

I just add a terminal strip, remove all except for the heater leads from the socket and install 1n4007 diodes....It should be MUCH cheaper than a plug-in SS replacement, and looks right until one looks under chassis.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I just add a terminal strip, remove all except for the heater leads from the socket and install 1n4007 diodes....It should be MUCH cheaper than a plug-in SS replacement, and looks right until one looks under chassis.

Well This thread I'm basically trying to get away from using because I had started another thread for this radio because now I know more about the radio and I'm in the process of currently working on it. So if you would please post comments and what not in the thread titled "1942 Philco Radio".

[DavGoodlin]

mis-post sorry