tube radio restoration tips?

[funkymatt]

My wife's grandmother died over thanksgiving, and we're just now getting to cleaning stuff out. I found 3 vintage tube radios. I'm not sure of their condition but they have been in the garage for what looks like 50 years. Can any of you recommend how to restore the electronics and outer wood casing? The power cords look to be in bad condition as well. I will try to take pics in a bit...

 

[AlienCraft]

We'll need pics of nameplates, as there are a few people who specialize in antique radio restoration.
<--- owns a Radio-OLA from The Edison Company, that is restored up to Refurbishing the radio. The Tuning capacitor is frozen and there are no subsitutes. But the Victrola rocks the '78s daddy-oh.

 

[ScottMac]

Sure. I used to restore old radios when I was in school.

Expect that the electrolytic capacitors are all dried out and will need replacing. They are primarily filters in the power supply so if / when you turn them on, they will hum like a mofo, the caps may blow out ... messy, probably not dangerous outside of some possible toxins...

Any foggy tube you see is "gassy" and will need to be replaced.

Find a component electronic store and buy a spool of "dial cord" to replace the string that connects the knob to the variable capacitor(s) used to tune the radio.

Get a substantial soldering iron ... 45 watt++ so you can touch-up / redo the solder connections at the terminal strips and tube sockets.

You might want to get a copy of "Nuts Volts" or similar (for classified ads) and try to get schematics for your radios.

Be very, very careful. Especially if you're not used to tube electronics. The voltage to most of those tubes is 150 - 250 VDC. They didn't care much about making the chassis safe either. If you plug it in "backwards" you could have 120VAC to the bare metal chassis ... make sure you have a good meter and know how to use it.

Be careful

Congrats on your new stuff

Good Luck

Scott