If you buy enough old radios you will meet some satisfaction and disappointment here on e-bay. There is  a lot of good stuff here in the guides, but I thought it might be nice for a few "extra" pointers. If your planning on putting a radio on display only just to look at it you can quit reading now.

If you plan on restoration heres a few pointers I havent seen much on.

1. Does the power transformer work? These old beasts are hard and expensive to get, so if the seller states hes plugged it in and it hums and perhaps gets one station with distortion its probably good. That means you are dealing with the old capacitor change isue which you already expect. Yes, I know its NOT a good idea to plug the old radios in before the usual checks are done , but people do it anyway so why not learn from what they have experimentally already done. Not everyone is a subject expert (on radios) so make the best of a bad situation. If it only gets one station that tells you something as well. Its probably a very restorable radio. If its a superhet  with a large old power transformer you must deal with high voltages so be carefull! If its a battery operated DC TRF set you need to know that as well. Know the basic type of radio you are buying.

2.Can I get a schematic? Try Nostalgia Air first. Fast and simple. If you cant get technical guides dont buy it.

3. Are you paying a premium for a already restored antique tube radio? Maybe its a baby grand for display and operation. How was the restoration done? Did they change ALL the old foil caps? Or did they just change the easy ones to get to? Power supply filter caps are easy sometimes compared to some others, but everything except the mica caps should be replaced. Are the values of capacitor and voltage rating correct, not just what they had on hand? Did they use proper safety capacitors across the AC line and to ground from it? There are X and Y types. If you dont understand safety capacitors go to justradios.com and learn. Ceramic caps are NOT for analog circuits and may cause distortion. Although they may be available at Radio Shack with high voltage ratings avoid the temptation to use them except to replace a ceramic cap. Buy good metal film capacitors with proper voltage ratings. They WILL BE SMALLER and they work well. Most are NOT polarized. Learn to convert cap values to modern equivalents. Example: .00011 MFD is 110 picofarad.

4. When restored was a fuse added? It should have been placed inline and of a reasonable value for your protection. I usually use a 1 amp on my old Philcos but if in doubt measure the radios normal amperage and choose a fuse above the normal draw, but not too high. Buy a in line under chassis fuse holder at Radio Shack and get a couple of spare 1 amp fuses. The fuse holder will mount in a spare open spot on the side of the chassis underneath. Drill one hole and mount the holder making sure you have no shorts with one mounting screw and nut. Remember to put your fuse in the "hot side" of the 110 volt AC line input. This will connect to the smaller of the wall plug inputs. It will read 110 to ground on your voltmeter. If you want to build a good piece of test gear buy /build a ammeter and volmeter in a box with a outlet. You can then instantly read the current draw and line voltage AT ALL TIMES on the bench of anything plugged in the outlet box. ALWAYS work behind a good GFI and keep your paws out of the radio when powered. That means unplug it.....dont depend on the onboard switch. Install your safety capacitors where necessary and that MAY be in a bakelite can in a old Philco.

5. Was the new power cord installed properly? Use your voltmeter to measure chassis to chassis on your bench to simulate touching two metal chassis at a time. If you read 110 volts double check the power plug. Reverse the wiring to make it safer if you can or install a ac plug that CANNOT be reversed when plugged in the wall. Make the thing as safe as you can. You and your families lives may depend upon it!

6. I personally DO NOT leave the old radios plugged in when not in use for a lot of reasons. Use a simple on-off power strip with a switch and you also save wear and tear  on the aging onboard power switch AFTER ITS REPAIRED. WARNING: WHILE SERVICEING YOU SHOULD UNPLUG THE SET TOTALLY NOT JUST FLIP A SWITCH ANYWHERE!  IF YOU CANT SEE THE CLEARLY UNPLUGGED POWER PLUG KEEP YOUR PAWS OUT OF THE RADIO!!Fix that old volume control with de-oxit from Radio Shack. Dont complain about the $14.95 price for the small tubes because de-oxit works folks. Use it as directed exactly and sparingly.

7. Get it to arrive in one piece. Baby grands have light wooden cases. They dont ship well. When your shipper uses newspaper have it shredded heavily in the outer layer with styro peanuts and a final bubble wrap around the radio. Fill the tube area with more heavily shredded newspaper and ask shipper to mark in RED on ALL SIDES FRAGILE THIS SIDE UP. The shipper may ignore the markings but its worth a shot.Take a digital photo if you wish during packing if you wish. It may prove you attempted proper packing later. The truth is however , that you want this thing in one piece, not a insurance hassle. WAIT ITS TOO LATE you already received a baby grand Philco and as you picked it up off the front porch all you could hear was broken glass and wood chips sliding around inside! Ok dont give up. Put the pieces together for a pattern as best you can. Use a digital photo and the jigsaw puzzle as a guide and then go to your nearest hardware store and buy a good jigsaw and some blades. Oh and dont forget some good wood as well. Using the best pattern you can put together cut out a new piece with your new jigsaw. It WILL take a lot of patience (and some new tubes of course!) but you CAN re-do the case! You will also find many uses for the jig saw in the future as they are usefull tools to have around with a antique radio hobby. If you need further info on safe tube radio shipping there are two other guides here on e-bay that are excellent guides. Be sure to read them and save yourself a lot of time and trouble!

8. Did I pay too much for the radio? Have Slussers Collectors Guide to antique radios by your computer. Your always free to pay more but at least have an idea what things are worth. See item 11 below.

9. Have some fun and rebuild a really big humongous console for the living room. If you dont buy these locally you will pay more shipping than its worth, but let your wallet be your guide! Please dont insult your seller with a $5.00 price and a $100.00 packing situation. Leave the seller some incentive to spend the time for quality shipping/packing and a few dollars to profit from the deal and pay e-bay. Sales have to have somthing for EVERYBODY involved.  Yes its the buyers job to get the best price possible, but if the seller gets basicly nothing in the deal it probably wont be as smooth as it could be especially if it involves a cross country shipping of a difficult to ship item.

10. If you have tears in the old speaker dont panic. You can buy another  one but you may can repair it by using Kleenex tissue paper of two ply and several coats of clear varnish. It wont be pretty but it will work and most speakers arent visible at a casual glance anyway! Dont forget to replace the old speaker wires from the chassis as well if they need it. Its a hobby so take your time and do it right!

11. Philco Bakelite Block capacitors......what the heck???  Yes those black bakelite things under the chassis are cans of capacitors. The guy who replaces them must remove them and replace then with modern equivalents. Its very do-able but it involves using heat from a hair dryer and a piece of wire to hopefully push the old tar sealed capacitors out the back. It probably wont come out clean so you can freeze the remainder in your freezer in a ziplock bag and chip the rest out while frozen. Its sometimes a dirty tar chip mess all over the work bench. You can then remove the old foil caps and replace them with some metal film modern caps. Use safety caps on the 110 input! They will fit in the can and wont show if done properly. The point is this takes some time folks. Please dont insult someone who is a real restorer and has done all this work with a cheap price offer. Any antique Philco thats had this premium restoration treatment deserves a higher price than one that only had a few easy to get to caps replaced.

12.  BEWARE OF RUST YOU CANT REMOVE. If the prospective radio exhibits lots of deep rust on the chassis be prepared for some problems removing it. You can soak removable items in JASCO, but NOT the whole chassis.  Dremel and wire brush is a good attempt to remove light rust on the surface. Be sure to coat with some clear lacquer afterward. DONT SPRAY ELECTRICAL CONTACTS WITH CLEAR LACQUER by accident while doing this of course.

13. Saving the lesser problems for last, if its a Philco for example you will sure want that little pilot lamp to work so you can see to tune the dial. You dont have to go anywhere probably other than radio shack. Try screw base lamp#45 6.3 volts 250 ma. Its a bit bright, but works ok and you dont have to order out of state.

Replacing Antique Radio dials (Philco)

Did you break your dial while changing the pilot lamp? Dont panic. Read your part number off the old one or off a schematic from Nostagiaair, and order a new one from a online source. Repro Antique Radio Dials in Plymouth MI might be a good place to start. The dials can be replaced with small screws where the old rivets existed. Use your dremel tool with a cutting wheel to score/cut the rivets in quarters and gently remove the old rivets without damaging the attached tuning capacitor. If you try to drill out the dial holding rivets they will spin. After cutting the rivets into quarters you can use a pair of needle nose vice grips to squeeze the rivet pieces down to a size for removal. DONT damage your tuning capacitor by forcing a knob to go on the capacitor shaft. Philco tuning caps are on rubber washers so expect a little play.

Replacing antique radio knobs can be expensive. Some sellers sell matched sets on e-bay and get 10 dollars or more each, so encourage your seller to include ALL the knobs. You can buy a radio for what a set of Philco rosette knobs will cost at auction!

14. Digital imaging and antique radios are a good match of  two hobbies. Put your new digital camera on MACRO and do close up photos of everything BEFORE and AFTER restoration. Use your computer to blow up the photos and you may just be surprised at the part numbers you can easily read by blowing up sections of the chassis! Underneath the chasis is particularly usefull when you get into changing all those messy confusing capacitors. Did you forget where something went? Check your digital photos!

Remember to HAVE FUN AND BE SAFE  as this is a hobby folks!

Regards, Phil Holtam/PhilTechLtd

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