Click on pictures for larger views.
September 4, 2004
Well, I have finally arrived home with my new
RCA. (Thanks, Maggie!) It's complete with great-looking grille cloth and knobs
and a nice layer of vintage dust on the chassis, but years of attic storage have
taken their toll on the finish and veneer. Even on the car ride home, a few pieces fell
off. The veneer on the left side is very wavy both front and back with one piece
broken out, the big piece on the front fell off and broke in half (I still have
these) and we've lost a bit on the right that broke into little pieces during
the car ride. I'm not sure if I still have all those little toothpick-sized
pieces.
Click here to learn more about the T8-14.
September 6
Pulled the tubes out for testing. They all tested good.
Four are not original to the set. A 6K7G has replaced the original metal 6K7 in
the RF stage, a glass 6F6G has replaced the original 6F6, and the 5Z3 and 6L7
have also been replaced. The other four tubes are 1936 originals with their
engraved logos. They're lined up along the back - 6F5, 6H6, 6K7, 6J7.
I
would have liked to hang the radio on the dim-bulb tester tonight, but
the power cord is too scary-looking with insulation missing everywhere. It'll
have to be replaced first.
September 7
I pulled the chassis out of the cabinet (the tubes were
still uninstalled), replaced the power cord, cut the old filter caps out of
circuit and installed new ones. So far so good, but then tragedy struck. I set
the dim-bulb tester on 30W and hooked the radio up to it. The bulb lit up - with
30W of brightness. Uh oh.
I pressed on anyway, reinstalling the 5Z3 and
turning the tester up to the 100W setting. Again the bulb lit with all 100W of
brightness, the 5Z3's filament didn't light, and there was sizzling coming from
the transformer. So I pulled the 5Z3 and checked the resistance across the plate
pins.
10 ohms. Bad news - shorted HV secondary winding in the power transformer. I don't have an acceptable replacement at hand, so the radio is on the shelf for the foreseeable future.
Anyway, this is the chassis, in all its damaged, dusty glory (?) I installed metal tubes to replace the two glass ones, as it was originally sold. I pulled the 6L7 to give you a good idea of just how dirty this thing is - you can see the clean ring around the empty socket where the tube sat for fifty years. Also see the nice clean underside. Some of the wire has deterioriating rubber insulation.
September 16
Posted a request to rec.antiques.radio+phono asking
what the specifications for a replacement power transformer for this set would
be. Got an answer back by e-mail - the Thordarsen replacement is T-13R12:
350-0-350 at 70ma, 5 at 3A, 6.3 at 2.5A. Thanks, Ed. That helped. A quick scan
of the radio boneyards on the Internet shows that a used power transformer
meeting those specs would be around $20 or so - not unreasonable. I'm going to
have to order and install one when time permits.
September 27
Browsing eBay, I found a chassis for an RCA C9-4. This
is the chassis that replaced the T8-14, identical except for the addition of a
tuning eye. Perhaps it has a good power transformer. I'm going to attempt to
acquire this. Stay tuned.....
September 28
Well, I had some free time tonight so I thought I'd try taking the finish off the top and front
of the cabinet, and clean up the sides to see how they look. So I mixed some acetone and lacquer thinner in a bowl and scrubbed with 000 steel wool.
Here's the results so far.
I'm not thrilled about having to have taken the finish off the front, because most of it was in acceptable condition. But with the
finish totally gone around the tuning knob, I knew I was going to have to refinish the bottom half to make that
circle disappear - and then would have had
color matching problems with the top half, and that wouldn't look good at all. So I punted, and took all the finish off the face.
On the other hand, now we can see the grain underneath. Look at that. It's just too cool. It's not going to stay this light, of course. It will be
toned to match the rest of the cabinet, but getting the old finish off will allow us to lay down a good new colored finish that
will really show this face off.
The finish on the right side and the bottom of the left side was wiped down with lacquer thinner and some paint and dirt removed. It's in nice shape and can stay. It'll be toned over and more lacquer applied,
but it didn't have to be removed.
The top had all its finish removed (it was so thin, it just wiped right off) and is just nice and clean now. A few little veneer repairs and some toner, and it'll look great.
Also, as you can see, I decided to completely remove the veneer on the top halves of the pillars at the
sides of the face. Too broken up, and it's just straight-grained walnut that's easily replaced. None was glued
down tightly and it peeled off easily with a putty knife. Oddly (and fortunately), the fancier veneer squares below them and the straight-grained
walnut below that on both sides were still glued down tight and look good, so all that stays, but everything above is gone. I also removed the big piece of wavy veneer on the top half of left side (as seen in the third picture at the top of this page.) I glued and clamped a new piece of walnut veneer down here. Finally, I glued and clamped the bottom pieces on the left side and a few other small areas where veneer is starting to come loose. That's enough for tonight, I'll let that dry and get back to it when I have time.
September 29
I won the C9-4 chassis on eBay (well, maybe "won" isn't the right term; I was the only bidder.) Now I just have to wait for it to arrive.
I worked on a problem with the chassis today. Until now I haven't been able to tune the radio - the vernier drive slipped terribly. There's no belt or string; the knob and gears spin a little ball bearing, which turns a big metal disc attached to the tuning cap. All of this was so gummed up and dusty that turning the knob just wouldn't turn the tuning capacitor. So I gave that whole area of the chassis a good dusting with compressed air, then sprayed WD-40 onto the moving parts. Working this in for awhile, I finally got it operating perfectly. So I finished off by putting a bit of 3-in-1 oil on the same moving parts (WD-40 doesn't last long) and it's working great.
Also, I took the clamps off the big piece of veneer I replaced. I wish I had sanded the underlayment a bit before installing the new veneer; it's a bit bumpy in one area where I had to steam off the old veneer. Oh well, a little sanding and finishing and it will be better.
October 6
Veneer patching and sanding is done. I decided to use contact cement to glue down the new veneer on either side of the front panel instead of yellow glue. The cabinet has a slight
horizontal curve here and the area is difficult to clamp, so I wanted a glue that would stick without clamping. The
contact cement worked great. I'll probably use it from now on for all veneer gluing jobs.
I'm not sure why my veneer patches don't look evenly cut in these pictures. They're perfectly straight. Probably some picture-size-shrinkage artifacts.
Anyway, I've also ordered a new sheet of "RCA Victor" decals from Mike Tobin of Rock-Sea Enterprises. Mike produces and sells water-slide decals of outstanding quality for a reasonable price. After I've toned the front of the cabinet, the name decal goes right below the tuning knob, then this is covered with the clear lacquer coats.
Now I just have to find a few hours of free time to apply the finish, and the cabinet should be all set.
October 10
It's a start.
Today I used canned toner lacquer to color the cabinet, and this is how it turned out so far. Sometimes I mix
my own toner, but it kept coming out too red and I didn't like the way it looked, so I went to Woodcraft for
the canned stuff. It's Medium Brown Walnut on the lighter areas and Van Dyke Brown on the darker areas.
Now, this cabinet is not yet done. There are no finish coats. I still have to apply the name decal, then apply and rub out the clear coats.
This is done with clear lacquer, which is what was used when the radio was made. When radios are refinished, it's nice to use
the same finish as was original, and for almost all radios that means lacquer. So stay tuned - if the weather holds I'll get the cabinet
done soon.
October 11
The DHL truck dropped off my new C9-4 chassis this morning. It was a dirty mess, somebody had cut out and removed
the tuning-eye socket and speaker plug, and the dial was cracked; but at least everything I needed was there. In other words, a parts chassis, and it even had a full set of tubes yet.
I brought it down to the shop and tested the tubes - the 6L7
was stone dead, the others were good - a nice bonus. Then I checked out the transformer. Good news! 315 ohms resistance,
just like the schematic says. We should have a good one here.
Now I just have to get the old transformer out of my good chassis, the good transformer out of the C9-4 chassis, and install
the good transformer in my chassis. This will be a pain, because they're riveted in place and I've never had to drill out
rivets this long before. A contributor to rec.antiques.radio+phono told me how, but I'm still not looking forward to doing it.
Also I looked over the cabinet today for blotchy areas, bad spots and other miscellaneous problems. Unsurprisingly there were
many to be found. A little spritz of toner here...a little rub-and-buff with steel wool there...(oops, too much rubbing....another little spritz of toner there.....),
and the cabinet looks good - better than in the picture above. Maybe tomorrow if all goes well I'll get some clear coats on. Weather is
going to turn bad around here very soon, so if it's going to get done before winter I'd better get at it.
October 12
It's almost done. You like it?
I sprayed the cabinet with six heavy coats of clear gloss lacquer after work. I waited for it to dry, then rubbed it out
by soaking a 0000 steel wool pad with mineral spirits and rubbing the whole cabinet. Then I wiped off the lacquer dust
and then rubbed the cabinet with Old English scratch remover. And this is how it turned out. A beautiful cabinet.
I wish I had ordered my decal earlier. It's not
here yet, and I could have used it today. Since today is probably the last day until next May for serious outdoor spraying,
I had to get this done today. When the decal arrives I'll install it and then spray a light coat of lacquer over it to protect it. Also I need to hide some of the white spots along the edges of the veneer pieces where the lacquer dust is stuck - coloring over them with a magic marker will work. Then I just have to reassemble the cabinet, then go to work on the works......
October 13
It figures. My decals arrived today.
Well, I affixed one and spritzed over it with a little lacquer (took out the grille cloth first.) This is how it turned out. Blurry picture aside, the cabinet is starting to shape up.
With that done, I decided to try to drill out the rivets holding the transformers in the chassis. This turned
out to be quite a bit easier than I expected. All I did was drill sideways into the rivets from the bottom, which broke
off the flange, then I just pushed the rivets out with a hammer and nail. This separated the transformer from the end bells (the covers on the top and bottom). I clipped the leads of the bad transformer
right at its body, took the top end bell off, pulled the transformer out of the bottom end bell which stayed in the chassis, and threw it aside. The good transformer I was more careful with, clipping the
leads at their terminals and marking them so I know which winding they belong to. Otherwise, reinstalling it correctly
will be unnecessarily difficult. The insulation on the wire leads is in bad shape - the colors are fading, which makes it hard to tell the leads apart, and it's all very crispy and brittle. I don't trust it. So I'm going to reinsulate the leads. More soon, I hope......
October 28, 2004
IT SPEAKS!
Had a little free time today, so I thought I'd try to see if I could get the new transformer installed. Looking at it, I saw there was no way I was going to be able to keep the old cloth insulation - it was literally falling apart. It crumbled between my fingers as I twisted it. This is not acceptable for future reliability - the probability of shorting something would be about 100%.
So I pulled all the old insulation off the transformer's wires and resleeved with my new colored tubing. I tried as best I could to match the original colors. The originals were red for the primary, brown for the HV secondary, brown and black for the HV secondary center tap, blue for the 6V winding and yellow for the 5V winding. I had black, red, white, blue and clear. So red and blue went on the primary and 6V respectively, clear on the 5V, black on the HV and white on the CT. The new plastic colors are a bit garish under the chassis compared to the original faded cloth, but it'll have to do. Better to be reliable and too bright than original and short out the new transformer.
So I mounted the transformer into the old end bell using long bolts and nuts instead of the original rivets, and started soldering. One at a time, I unsoldered each old transformer lead from its terminal and soldered the new lead in place. The whole job took about an hour and a half, faster than I expected. It's nice having an exact original replacement transformer instead of a universal or third-party one - all the leads are already the correct length and in the right place.
The results (I haven't reinstalled the chassis brace yet):
Anyway, with the work done I checked resistances to make sure I didn't make any mistakes - all matched the schematic. So I hung it on the dim bulb tester - and it did exactly the right things. Whew. Now, crossing my fingers, I inserted the tubes, plugged it into the wall, attached an antenna and speaker, and turned it on. Tuned to 1130, a strong local.....and there it was, coming in loud and clear (if somewhat buzzy, as the speaker cone is torn in several places. I'll have to patch it.) Tuned around the dial. More stations. Not as many as there should have been, but the strongest were there. That's okay for now; after recap, alignment and attachment of a proper antenna, it should work much better. Over to C band shortwave. Stations. Back to B band shortwave. More stations. Wahoo!
All that's left is to finish cleaning the chassis, fix the speaker, replace the remaining old capacitors and align, and this should be a great radio.
October 30
Gave the chassis the once-over with the wirebrush today. This is how it turned out. Compare to the earlier picture. Much nicer looking.
So I fired it up again, to make sure it still worked after my ministrations.
Wow.
It's amazing what happens after a good cleaning when all of a sudden all your electrical contacts are good. Now I'm getting
everything out there, loud and clear.
This is the moment when you start to see why RCA radios are
so highly regarded for their receiving quality - this set is really sensitive. Switched over to the C band shortwave
and I'm getting stations up in the 16 meter band. I'm getting WWV at 15 MHz - this is the first radio I've ever owned
that could get that, and on this set it sounds like it's right next door. Plus it's right at the 15 MHz line on the dial - after
all these years the alignment is still perfect. Lots of
shortwave stations everywhere else on the dial. Sweet. What a radio.
It'll still have all its paper caps replaced, along with the remaining electrolytic (a 4uF unit). And for some
reason the dial lights stopped working; I'll have to see what's wrong. But maybe I won't mess with the
alignment. It seems to be fine.
November 5
I'm not happy.
I have to redo parts of my cabinet. I noticed a big toner run in the front right below the dial, and even worse my
lacquer on top is bubbling in several areas. It looks terrible. No, I didn't bother to take pictures.
Good news is, some unseasonably nice weather is on tap for the weekend. I might have time to fix it up.
Also, I started recapping. Radios of the 1930s have capacitors ("caps" for short) made of paper and foil. Over the years the paper deteriorates, and the caps become leaky (capacitors are supposed to block DC; when they let it through they are "leaking" DC.) Result is, they have to be replaced in a
process commonly known as recapping - you remove all the old capacitors and install new ones in their place. Even if the radio operates with its original caps, it's still a good idea to do this in a unit that will be used regularly, as they are likely to fail completely and possibly damage the set. Not to mention that it will probably work better when all the parts are working properly.
The right way to do this is unsolder the old capacitors at their terminal
connections and mount the new ones directly in their place. This makes for a nice, neat looking job.
Sometimes, though, it is unreasonably difficult to access the old terminal. When that happens it is possible to
cut the old cap's lead and simply attach the new cap to the old lead. The trick is doing this neatly so that the
radio doesn't look like a hacked-up mess. I do the best I can.
Some restorers, in an attempt to maintain the
original "look" of the chassis' underside, actually take the paper wrappers off the old capacitors and hide the new
caps inside the old wrappers. The process is called restuffing. I'm not doing that. Too much work. But I will save the old caps and keep them with the set, so in case some future owner (who will have to pry the thing out of my cold,
dead hands - and I'm only 33, which means it should be many decades before that happens) wants to restuff them he can.
Anyway. This radio has 15 paper caps, plus another electrolytic cap I still need to replace.
Unfortunately, I discovered after I started that I'm completely out of some values, which means
I can only finish half the job until I order some more. Oh well. I replaced 7 caps without incident, and found myself scratching my head over two others - one was wrapped in metal, something I hadn't seen before, and the other was an odd
value which I wasn't sure should be replaced or not. A couple of queries to the radio collector groups on the Internet provided enlightenment. Suffice to say I can just replace both caps with normal ones. But the soldering iron is off now, so I'll replace those later when my parts order arrives. For now I'll set the chassis
aside. I listen to it once in awhile when I'm in the basement, but it seems to have more problems with interference than I think it should.
I'm not sure if that's because I still have half of the old leaky caps installed or because the antenna is a 3-foot
piece of cheap speaker wire. Probably both.
November 6-7
Stripped and retoned the front and top of the cabinet. They look okay - better than before, I think, because I changed
the toner I used. I bought a can of Behlen Dark Walnut Master Toner, masked off the lighter sections, sprayed two coats
of toner, then removed the mask and sprayed everything until the lighter sections were the right color. Looks pretty good. No photos yet, I'll take some when I get a round tuit. I don't know if I'm going to get the new clear coats on anymore this year yet, though. Guess we'll have to see.
November 13
Got a round tuit, at least long enough for two quick (and bad) snapshots. First picture shows off that tiger-striped face. I
think I had the coloring too dark before; the striping didn't show off as I wanted it to. It's really neat to look at it - as you
change your view of the cabinet, the light reflects differently off the lacquer and the stripes seem to change sizes and colors.
Quite an interesting effect, maybe this is what makes the woods so alluring. By the way,
the diagonal line across the bottom doesn't exist - it's a reflection of the surface the cabinet is sitting on.
In the other photo, the top isn't as orange as it looks here. It's the same color as the front, as overlit by flash and
fluorescent lighting instead of flash by itself. When the radio's done I'll take it outside some sunny day and photograph
it so the world can see how it actually looks.
November 17
Fixed the dial lamps today. I took the bulbs out of the old C9-4 chassis - turns out both of the original bulbs I had
in the T8-14 burned out. Odd. Oh well,
the dial lights up really well now. Also, I finally ordered the rest of the caps needed
to finish the electronic restoration. I'm getting really tired of looking at this
thing disassembled on my bench, and I want it to be a completed radio so I can enjoy it. With any luck I'll get a warm day to
spray the clear coats on, so I don't have to worry about the cabinet anymore.
Sometimes it's tough being a family man and
having a hobby. Both of my daughters, a 3-year-old and a 5-month-old as I write this, are ill; and it's not fair to them
or my wife to spend time on this very optional activity at a time like this. So if progress goes a little slowly at times,
well, that's life, I guess....
November 21
46 degrees outside and I'm out spraying lacquer. I must be crazy. Especially since I'm sick now too.
Actually, it's sunny and the work is going pretty well. I finished up the cabinet, or at least as much as it's going
to be done. I emptied my can of gloss lacquer on the cabinet, brought it inside, waited several hours, then rubbed it out with 0000 steel wool
soaked in mineral spirits, polished it with car polish until smooth, then finish up with Old English scratch remover.
I think it looks okay, although the photo isn't that flattering - I just took a quick snap for the page. I think I should
knock down some of the gloss in the little valleys that separate the pieces of veneer in front - it's rather glarey.
Soon it will be all done (I hope.......)
November 24
I couldn't wait any longer.....
Even though the radio's not done, I mounted the speaker and chassis back into the cabinet for a little while.
I wanted to see what the finished product would look like.
I love it. It's not perfect, but I love it.
Spinning the dial in the broadcast band looking for something to listen to, I found an oldies station coming in
clearly where I wasn't
expecting one. I listened for awhile, enjoying the music and waiting for the station to ID itself. It turned
out to be WSAI out of Cincinnati, 400 miles away. Never heard it so clearly before. Cool.
Now I wish I'd ordered my caps earlier. Darn it, I want this radio done!
November 26
Rats. (I'd like to use a stronger term, but this is a family website.....)
Was listening to the radio half the day yesterday and today with no problems. Then all of a sudden there was a pop and
it went silent. I ran toward it and noticed a smell coming from the set that didn't belong and a sizzling sound.
Oh no, please tell me the new power transformer didn't die on me now......
I yanked the chassis out of the cabinet, threw it on the bench and checked over the transformer. 315 ohms, just as it
should be. Whew.
But the radio didn't work, and there was something particularly bizarre going on -
there was flashes of light inside the 5Z3 that looked like lightning. Yipes.
My nose led me to a cap that I thought might have blown, and I replaced it (it was
one of the ones I was questioning over earlier, and I had one in stock to do the job). After this, the lightning
went away. But on the broadcast band the radio is as deaf as a stone - the
only two stations even barely audible have their transmitter only a mile away and can be received on peoples' tooth
fillings, notionally speaking. It's as though the antenna weren't connected
to the rest of the radio. Oddly, the radio seems to still work okay on the two shortwave bands.
I checked it over, looking for problems in the bandswitch and coils - but this turned up nothing.
Every place I should have had continuity, I did. Every connection that should have been open, was.
Every coil and transformer had the correct resistance. How strange - why can't I find this problem?
Whatever. I don't have much time to play with it, so I put it aside. I hope I get my caps soon. When I replace the caps I'll
check it again and hope that the problem solves itself, though I'm not particularly hopeful. Wish they'd get here though.
Sigh. It's always something.....
December 2
Well, the caps finally arrived today. I certainly can't fault the dealer, who packed and
mailed them back on November 18 and has great customer service. But going through customs really stinks.....
Oh well, at least they're here so when I get the chance I can install them. Who knows when that's going to be,
since now that the Christmas season is upon us I'm often minding the kids alone while my wife goes shopping.
Not an environment conducive to concentrating on soldering. Oh well, I replaced three of them anyway, and
should have it done soon. There are four paper caps and an electrolytic left. Then, assuming the
radio still doesn't work on the broadcast band, I can start to figure out why. Stay tuned....
December 3
Good news. I installed the five remaining caps, and the broadcast band came back. Lots of stations again.
But it was a little out of alignment - I had to set the dial to 650 to get 620. So I adjusted a padder slightly to bring it
back where it belongs, and now all the stations seem to be right again on the broadcast band. Shortwave seems okay
too.
We're getting close. Guess I'll put the radio back in the cabinet and listen for awhile,
and see how it behaves (the "burn-in" process.)
December 4
Three months to the day after I first brought this baby home. It wouldn't take nearly this long to do a restoration
if I would put some real effort into getting it done, but as this is a hobby project I don't have to do that. Still,
the end is in sight and I'm looking forward to finishing this one up and moving onto other things.
Tonight I was listening to it, and I wasn't happy with the radio's selectivity. Strong stations were
listenable along a range I felt was too wide (620 was coming in on 610 and 630 too.)
So I took it down and fully aligned the broadcast band. Soon enough the radio
was performing better than ever. I put it back together.
Incidentally, if you've been wondering what "alignment" is, it's simply a process for adjusting the tuned circuits
to provide best reception and sound. Each stage of the radio (RF, converter, IF) has lots of little coils and "trimmers",
which are small adjustable capacitors, to help make sure that when the dial says 600 it really is receiving at 600kHz,
and when it says 1600 it really is receiving 1600. Radios are aligned at the factory, but the process of replacing
components (such as when recapping is done) can upset the alignment; besides, it can drift in some sets over the long
years. Many radios can benefit from a well-done realignment. This one did.
December 7
Brought the radio to the office today so I can spend more time playing it - it doesn't get much play time sitting in the
basement. It's played all day long and has performed very well, and AM is actually listenable - an office is
not generally a great place for AM radio, with lots of interference-creating computers and lights and whatnot all
over, but this one operates with much less interference than the radio I had here previously. I'm very pleased.
However, I'm seriously considering bringing an AM transmitter here to broadcast
CDs or MP3s or something to the radio. AM radio is boring during the day. :-(
While it's been here today I brought the contact cement and glued down a couple of bubbles where my new
veneer has lifted on the left side. It looks better.
December 8
I brought my little AM transmitter to the office. It's a Wild Planet Radio DJ Studio (removed from its plastic case and remounted
in a box so it doesn't look like a toy.) It's connected to my computer, which is getting streaming audio from WMKV-FM out of Cincinnati. That
station is run by a senior center and plays '30s and '40s music all day long. Sounds great coming out of this radio. Just too cool.
It's nice to be able to enjoy this radio, and it's getting lots of comments from my co-workers too.
December 14, 2004.
My RCA T8-14 has been operating 8 hours a day every day for the last week. It performs beautifully. Therefore, I am calling it COMPLETE.
There are a few things I wish I'd done better; specifically, my veneer work in the front corners. It's attractive but I could have done a bit better job. Maybe someday if I really get tired of looking at it I'll redo it. I could have restained the exposed wood in the back too and gotten rid of the drip marks. But right now I'm pleased to display this radio exactly as it is. It's been an enjoyable project.
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