The 'Sleeper' Philco
This radio is a personal favorite of mine. It is a 1941 Philco AM radio. It has a larger than normal speaker for its size and is highly sensitive with its internal antenna. There were many versions based on the five tube Philco Model 38-12CB chassie but this model seemed to be the winning package with its' highly popular case style, larger speaker for better sound, and it's ability to run on AC or DC. This is such a great little radio that I look for this particular model at swap meets and have one for my own in my personal collection.
I actually had two of these radios that were both restored at the same time. This one looked like it had been put away somewhere dry and forgotten about. I cleaned and hand polished the case. It still has a great finishing gloss to its bakelite finish and a has a definite marblization finish to it. I tried to save the original speaker carpet but it was just to dried out to salvage. Besides, I had some really nice new speaker carpet which I believe looks a lot better than original. It did not have it's cardboard back so I made one(actually three, one for both sets and mine) by hand as close as possible to the original from pictures I found online. I also made a new plastic dial cover for the dial since the original badly 'yellowed' from age.
Once the case was looking sharp I got to work on the chassi. I found to my astonishment the original dialectric capacitors that came with the set. You rarely see these because they would go bad over time and they would get swapped out over the years by repair shops. Evidently this radio was never touched. SO I set out to keep the original look of electronics and gutted out all the old caps and stuffed them with new caps. I then used a hot glue gun and sealed them up. Painted the ends brown again and it looks untouched. This set deserved the extra work especially because of it having the original casings throughout. Check out the bottom pictures on the right. THAT IS A RECAPPED RADIO! All new caps but with the original casings. Only thing not original is the fuse. Had to have that to protect the radio.
This particular radio came out real nice. It just seemed to want to go back together. It worked first try and looks sharp. I retuned it with no problems and it is highly sensitive with its original internal antenna. The new speaker cloth works better than the kite string original and it is highly sensitive. Was thinking of keeping it for myself but have one already. I have this radio FOR SALE right now in my FOR SALE section. CLICK HERE for more information on buying this radio.
info@thirdbayradios.com
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |