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How much work is too much to save an old woody?

Boater Sam · 2019-05-04T13:09:55Z

Just have much work and expenditure are you prepared for to preserve a radio set?If its something unusual, valuable or rare it is probably worth a few pounds and a lot of time to save it.I am not talking round Ekcos here, just run of the mill domestic radios of the 1940s and 1950s.As an example, a Pye 19A woody, from 1948, A mains set with MW, LW, and 3 bandspread SW.Nice blue Pye chassis, no rust, a shapely wood cabinet, no worm but top marked and the weird composition cream trim distorted. 2 outer large knobs missing, dents in the expanded ally speaker grill and a bit of damage to the screen print on the tuning scale glass where the retaining bar at the back presses on it. No back board but the fittings are there.Switches work, volume control is intact, may be scratchy but likely to be OK as the on/off switch (working) is part of the tone switch, it won't of been turned so often.Its been worked on, 7 new yellow 1000v capacitors, new 3 core mains lead, some raggedy soldering but seen worse. ( apologies if you did the work, but I speak as I find )Mains transformer checks out OK, dial lamps have filaments. Loudspeaker is intact and works well. Tuning mechanism all working. No damage apparent to the aerial or oscillator coils and the IF cans look un-twiddled, whether the cores are still attached is another matter.New looking EBL31 but its a base only conversion from an EBL1 side contact so its a tall one, the top cap connection is short and its the wrong size for the valve cap, A CCH35 instead of ECH35 so a bit out on the heater volts, and an equivalent ARP34 instead of EF39. AZ31 rectifier is serviceable.Delving a bit deeper I find 2 output transformers! The original on top is lacking a primary, not unusual, but the other underneath is OK back feeding the tone network via the original which has a feedback winding, most odd, very creative solution if it worked.So cosmetically not too horrible, making a back is a bit of work.Finding 2 suitable knobs should be simple. The cream trim is another matter, it may need a constructive solution.Electrically, one valve, an output transformer to rewind, a few bits to tidy up.Its potentially a good set considering its a 3 + rectifier short superhet, with 3 short waves if you like that sort of thing, I haven't seen too many of these around either.Now I will ask your opinion, How much time is it worth? Would you restore it, just fix it, or break it for spares?Advice and comment please, Sam.__________________

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Radio

Last Post by crustytv 6 years ago

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crustytv

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Posts: 12218

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You've worked wonders with that cabinet Sam, great stuff ?

Have you thought about making a jig to clamp the trim and then gently heating it with a heat gun, to remove the kinks?

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Posted : 26/05/2019 8:53 pm

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