what would it take to recondition this

[RetroHacker]

Wow - I've got a very similar set myself. I'm going to be working on that one as soon as I have found one very critical component, one that is vital for such a set and very hard to come by - a round tuit.

But seriously - it should be able to be fixed up fairly well without searching the ends of the earth. I do a lot better on the electronic side of things, cabinetwork, not so much. But it does appear that the original finish on yours is pretty well shot. I don't know if a set in this state can really be "touched up", it may actually need to be refinished. But refinishing is only a last resort, a lot of times the laquer finishes can be repaired, veneer replaced, and the set kept looking good without resorting to such drastic measures.

As for the electronics, that should be easy. The tubes are all still there, as are the knobs - both items somehow escaped from my radio, likely years before I found it. But, the first thing you should do is remove the chassis. Take off the knobs (they just pull off), and remove the bolts holding the chassis down onto it's shelf. Disconnect the speaker and the whole thing should just slide out. Looking underneath and inside the chassis, there are going to be lots of old, leaky wax capacitors. These all need to be replaced. justradios.com has a great selection of caps at good prices. AES (tubesandmore.com) has them too, as well as lots of other parts. You should be able to recap the radio without a schematic, but I'd reccomend getting one. You'll want the riders for it - luckily, it looks like NostalgiaAir has it. Philco model 41-295.

After recapping, power the set up with a variac or a dim bulb tester. With luck, the set will work well, most old radios normally only need a recapping and cleaning to perform quite well.

Check out antiqueradio.org - they have a beginner's section on recapping and repairing radios. Definitly a good place to start.

Stuff in old radios typically falls under three categories.

>Must replace unless really good
-Power cord.
-Wax capacitors

>Probably a good idea to replace
-carbon film resistors greater than 1meg (they like to drift)
-selenium rectifiers (modern silicon diodes are much better at not catching fire)
-electrolytic capacitors

>Replace only if old part is not serviceable
-tubes
-transformers
-speaker
-mica capacitors


Good luck on your restoration. Read up at antiqueradio.org, build a dim-bulb tester, and let us know how you're coming along.

-Ian