I think the cabinet is vintage which has been poorly refinished in recent years. In order to strip the cabinet, the lid hinge needs to be removed and many time that results in the stripping or damaging of the hinge screws. Those screws were usually cheaply made with shallow groves for the screw driver to grab hold. I think, in the case of this cabinet, so many of the original screws were damaged upon removal of the lid that the refinisher simply settled on Philips style screws as replacements. He probably couldn't find exact flathead screws at the local hardware store but these Phillips screws were a good enough match.

I was debating myself whether the cabinet is modern. There's something about the way the feet are tacked on, they look a little ungainly. In that sense the styling doesn't seem very 1920s to me. (But then look at the exaggerated foot molding on the cabinet shown in the build article... It looks a little ungainly too!) Also, the cabinet is unfinished on the bottom, so I stuck my nose up against it because I love the smell of walnut. No particular odor. It's a dark wood, but it doesn't smell like walnut. Maybe wenge or something like that.

I want to know what that transparent red insulator material is, too, Steve. It looks and feels like plastic, but what kind? Yes the lug on the stator is broken, but worse than that, the stator and the rotor are rubbing on that cap. The other one is fine, but the broken one seems to be warped a bit out of shape.

Clear red plastic could be Celluloid or Catalin. The Kadette Clockette was available in clear blue Catalin.

I was wondering if the plastic could be "Victron" or whatever the spelling is of that clear plastic was that was often used in the 1930s for HF and VHF work.

I seem to recall The National Co. or James Millen selling parts made of it.

-Steve

My guess, red translucent celluloid acetate.

I have a radio with those same tuning capacitors (St James). I think they are Bremer Tully capacitors.

Edit: Sorry, I now see on the documentation that it indicates Bremer Tully.

Today I picked up three 20's superhets. They all have issues but I think they will all be worth the effort to restore them. This Victoreen has an engraved but no cabinet.

Dave, that's an very sharp looking Victoreen. Interesting match up of 360 degree Remler tuning dials to 180 degree tuning capacitors but those Remler dials do look nice. If you totally restore that chassis, I'm guessing you won't want to house it in a cabinet.

Nice Victoreen! I really like the graphics on the front panel, that's very cool.

The Bremmer Tully cap should be a fairly easy find to replace. Just put a WTB add in classifieds. I'm sure one will turn up. i have extras but they are packed away and buried.. It will be a long time until i get to those boxes. Would be quicker to just run and ad.

I purchased a Victoreen superhet a few years ago from AuroraOldRadios.

It has a front panel engraved by A&M Radio Mfg Co, Denver, Colorado. It's almost "built in the box"... the chassis doesn't seem to slide out, at least not easily... Gotta get way down in the back and pull a few screws out (as though removing the battery and antenna terminal strips) to get the breadboard out. All the wiring is above the breadboard... Looking at the bottom, the cabinet is open on the bottom, and what you see is the bottom of the breadboard.

Nice Vicky! The interior looks like it is new. Here is a similar one that was on eBay in 2013:

It's interesting the differences. I mean, the component changes are pretty obvious. But the way the 1st-stage jack and power switch are swapped catches my attention.

It's also the case on the Rauland super I posted a few days ago. The 1st-stage jack and power switch are swapped from the plans.

Curious.

In the Estes auction in January, I bought another superhet. It was listed in the auction simply as "Ware Superhet." From the pictures, it clearly uses Samson transformers and is laid out nearly identically to the Cotton Superhet shown on Duane's website.

http://www.duanesradios.info/html/cotto ... odyne.html

I have looked at every mention of Ware superhet or Ware Radio I could locate at AmericanRadioHistory.com, and I have simply found nothing from the 1923 - 1925 time period that indicates Ware Radio Corp. had any connection to a superhet of the Cotton design.

Does anyone else know any connection between Ware Radio and this superhet? Why would this radio have been sold as a "Ware Superhet" at the Estes auction?

The radio's cabinet is WHD: 30 × 9.25 x 10.5 inches, and the front panel is 28 × 7 inches.

More photos...

The IF transformers are the Samson HW-R1, the audio interstage transformer is the Samson HW-A2, and the output transformer is the Samson HW-A3.

Someone at Estes must have mis-labeled the radio. Your set, except for the meter, uses the basic Cotton design. Nice looking superhet!

Thanks Duane!

It seems like an odd mistake to make. However, there were some other Ware radios in the auction, so maybe Cledis thought it "looked the same" for some reason.

I like the trapezoidal layout of the 4 rheostats around the meter, it has a nice look to it.

-Rodney

That wasn't the only misidentified super in the auction. I think the mistakes benefitted the buyers.

David

I rarely have supers to show. Today I finished assembly of a Best super of (I guess) 1925 vintage... Has been waiting in my house attic for 15 or 20 years for attention.
No engraving on the panel. Kind-of bummed that the IF transformers are positioned so you can't see the nifty Blue and Silver Remler tags.

This set is a pain to solder together with a 1920s vintage iron because there are a bunch of plain T-type buss wire intersections. If I had built it way back when, I would have bent a little L in the base of the T and tied a strand of wire to the long bus to hold stuff in position for soldering.

The cabinet is a Signal brand made of solid walnut. It appeared to have a single coat of clear lacquer with no grain filling and never stripped. I deviated by giving it three coats of lacquer and rubbing-down to satin finish...

The Remler tuning condensers were improperly assembled. And could never work that way. It is tricky to line them up. Fortunately I had a junk box unit to set me straight.

I'm sure there must have been a construction article.... Anyone know what mag and issue?

Robert

There's some plans for the Remler Best on eBay right now:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1924-BESTS-45- ... Sw5-ZgFEq5