Current Restorations

Pictured below is the restored case for our RCA Western Air Patrol. (tubes:- 24A,24A,24A,227,227,45,80) Not sure of the date of manufacture. Email me if you know it. Thanks.

Gene and Phyllis Lutz passed the RCA Western Air Patrol on to me. The old gal was in tough shape with:- a baseball sized hole smashed in the upper rear left (out of picture) of the case, the finish peeling away, the rear support frame missing, lotsa delamination and damaged feet; see pics below.

Bought the 1920's King-Hinners chassis at a garage sale. (has 5 tubes:- 201, 201, 201, ?, ?) It needs a case, coils and meter. If you have these parts for sale please advise.

16aug07 Pat Radio finally got a new maple veneer top to replace the badly damaged original. Next comes edge trimming with a router. Then final preparation of all surfaces for the new lacquer finish. This entails making a refinishing plan based on what can be seen of the remaining old finish. Stripping the remaining old finish. Then masking is done and the whole cabinet inside is sprayed a black/brown colour. Then a methyl hydrate rub to degrease and redistribute the "under-lacquer" colour so it is even over all the surfaces. Then several spray coats of lacquer sanding sealer. Then then solid brown "Japanning" is done on those surfaces that will not have any wood grain showing. Finally the whole thing over sprayed with several coats of specially dyed satin lacquer.

6aug07 Pat Radio got second veneer bubble re-glued. This time I just injected a bit of water under the veneer. Then heated it up with a heat gun to "steam" or re-liquefy the hide glue. Then clamped overnight.

5aug07 Pat Radio is ready for another bubble in the veneer to be glued using custom designed epoxy clamping block. Used up left over epoxy glue (from Pat's Radio clamp block making project) on all the glue up needed on the Sparton 87. Otherwise would have had to throw out the expensive epoxy after it set in the freezer. (It only keeps 4 days in freezer before it sets.... even at freezer temperature)

3aug07 Finished SX17 recap. Jim at Ham club walked me through using the tuning systems. We'll likely put a scope and signal generator on this old buggy in the fall. Jim take note of shielded wire running from add-on toggle switch under SW4. Shielding runs to RCA jack on rear. What for.... we'll see next fiddle.

29oct06 Drove through snow storm to Horse Lake with Bev's Rogers Majestic 8R822. She was thrilled. Finest radio in the Cariboo. State of the art 1938.

15sep06 Rebuilt RCA 226 radio chassis energized and it works. Ordered new grill cloth, misc parts to complete resto.

1sep06 Started restoring Pat's 1935 RCA 226 floor radio. This will be a complete resto, cabinet and chassis.

28aug06 Finished repairing the Stylophone for Josh. If you have one to sell contact me please.

21aug06 Started Tony's 1938 Rogers Majestic 6R631 floor radio. Found broken tube socket. Re+re the electrolytic capacitor cans with new electrolytic cap inside old cans to keep authentic look and make future servicing easier.

20aug06 Nearly finished Bev's radio. Added fiberglass rims to the two pulleys. This raised the pulley rims so the flat drive belt can not ride up the rim and jump off the pulley.

2aug06 New phono motor and idler wheel arrived from West Tech Services, for Ruth's Zenith Record Player. Installed 'em. They work great Gib. Thanks! Ruth is happy.

26jun06 Added pictures of Ruth's Zenith ML2608 AM/FM Radio Record Player components out of the "box". Did the usual recap and tube replacement as required. Vertical chassis mount meant the 5Y3 was under the power transformer. The 5Y3's heat went straight up to the transformer and added to its heat. The result a "hot" smelling radio after a while. Solution: move the 5Y3 to one side so its heat plume is away from transformer. Then modified the phono circuitry slightly to allow the input of stereo signals from her new CD and cassette taper player. Originally, when the PHONO selector was pressed the amp looked at the phono inputs instead of the radio AND the B-plus would only energize when you turned on the phono motor. In adding the ability to select the CD player as an input source a DPDT toggle switch was added to select the L+R audio feed from either the CD or Record Player to the amp. If you want the Record player you press the PHONO button as per normal. If you want CD player, select its audio input to amp by using the DPDT toggle switch. Then you press PHONO and a nearby push button that energizes a DPDT latching relay. One pole serves to latch the relay ON. The other pole, when ON, feeds the neutral connection to the B-plus power transformer so you don't have to turn on the record player motor to energize the amplifier's B-plus whilst playing CD's or tapes. The relay's second pole, when OFF, routes the neutral from the record player motor switch to the B-plus power supply transformer to allow the amplifier to work as per normal when you press the PHONO button and turn on the record player motor. Ppphheww! Several evenings' work there. Gib Epling's West Tech Services in West Virginia is looking after repairs to the motor and phono idler wheel.

sept05 I will add pictures of a 1938 Rogers Majestic floor radio that I am restoring for Bev Macauley who lives at Horse Lake, near 100 Mile House in British Columbia. Until she moved there she was our next door neighbour here in Chilliwack.

Don'S LAST Restorations