New Project: Restoring a Philco Radio

So I picked up a really neat Philco console radio the other day. Thought I'd have a go at restoring it. Give me a new project now that the Falcon is about done also. Dig this momma:

As you can see, I've already popped out the console. Dig those vacuum tubes.

Here's the specs on the thing. I immediately got to work doing my homework. First thing they tell you, DO NOT PLUG IT IN. Seems the capacitors (or "caps") tend to be badly in need of replacement, at least the paper ones do. The ceramics are generally OK.

Next up, a little internetting brings up the spec sheets and schematics for the radio:

First thing I'm gonna do is test the tubes. Now, I don't have a proper tube tester, btu I do have my trusty multimeter, so I can at least make sure it's not burnt out.

What you do is, you pull the spec sheet for the tube and get the pinouts. A tube is usually set to only go in one way. This is either by use of a "key" (the bump in the middle post seen in the photo below) or by two of the pins being larger than the others. The pins are then numbered clockwise, starting with the first pin after the key (or the leftmost large pin). In the case of the one in the photo, the two hot pins are the ones closest to the camera, on either side of the key as you see. The one on the left is pin 1, and they number all the way around to pin 8.

Now, when meter testing a vacuum tube, you want the two "hot" pins--about 99% of the time they will be the first and last pins, or the two large pins. This is not always the case, though, so when lookign at a spec sheet, look for two pins that are connected together via a carat (__^__) symbol. Those are the ones we want to test.

Fetch forth your handy-dandy multimeter, and switch it to continuity mode. This mode should have the diagram shown in green, and usually has a light. If you touch your two leads together, the light should light up (and sometimes you get a sound as well) to indicate the circuit is complete.

Now, here I am touch the two leads to two random pins. As you can see, the continuity light is off, and the display shows "1", which means infinite resistance--that is, an open circuit. This is expected.

Now, I touch the leads to the two "hot" pins, and the continuity indicator lights up. Hot diggity.

Sadly, after testing them, ti seems one of the tubes is kaput. Also, another seems to have gone missing. Fortunately, both are readily available via eBay, so I'll be fixing that in short order.

Anyway, off to a start. This will be a rather sporadic blog as I work to get this thing up. It will be interesting to see how far I go.