Atwater Kent Model 37 Restoration

[Winky Dink]

Every time I thought I was close to finishing this project I found something else to do. Now I have to stop and declare it complete (But wait…I can still replace the ST tubes with globes!). Personally I don't like the esthetics Atwater Kent metal cabinets, but they sure did a good job preserving the radios, and the mechanical quality is incredible. I refurbished or replaced defective caps, coils, resistors, rheostat. Then, after a decent clean-up, I retuned the variable condensers and it sounds good. Maybe as good as new.

The set I acquired included a Utah!-brand speaker. I later found an AK model H speaker, which I'm working on now, to accompany the radio.



The cabinet was in good shape, but I did have to strip the lid to bare metal and apply a new wrinkle finish before repainting.



The exposed wiring was so brittle that any manipulation would crumble the insulation, break the fabric cover, and often snap off at the terminals. The schematics showed the original wire colors (I never could have guessed the colors from the old wires), and I managed to match the colors, patterns and, to a limited extent, the diameters. I refinished the steel cover for the power unit, but I'm leaving it out so that I can just lift the lid to display the innards to awe-struck spectators.



Details, details, details. Not for functional improvement, but it's what I do best and I need to compensate for my technical shortcomings.



I have dozens of issues to address ranging from soldering oxidized wire to replacing horn speaker drivers, but I'll pursue them in future posts.

-Winky