Not one, but two Kennedy machinist's chests behind that Zenith. The best.

Made in Van Wert, Ohio just to the North of me where my parents grew up.
I was just there yesterday for the Van Wert hamfest!

-Steve

Yup. Actually I have 4 of those chests and anytime I see one at a garage or estate sale I will automatically get it if its priced right. They're good for storing your small tools. I use these practically every day.

Anyway... last night's project was this small Travler portable. Sometimes I just feel sorry for really crappy radios. So I "saved" this one. As seen I took a before pic. It was nasty.


It was also another one of these sets where stuff was crammed in there. Not totally fun to overhaul.


Some car wax cleaned and shined up the bizarre green fake alligator covering.

Hah, the amount of sets you have to sell exceeds the number of sets in my entire collection. I really like the GE clock radio. If it doesn't sell, do you ebay it? Would you send me a PM with a price and sell it online, or does one have to be physically at the museum?

Hello Bob,
well done and far as those sets go they are fun sometimes because they are so easy I have the Ge clock but in white Also in bakelite brown case nice easy well made radios .
Sincerely Rich
P.S. thanks for Polish tip

Hi Sky King,
I usually sell these at local antique shows and some will be at our big sale Saturday. I have sold a few online but sometimes the shipping companies concern me in that they've damaged a few of the sets. But maybe we can work something out later.

Here is with all likelihood the last set I will be able to get to before the radio day by the bay show. We've all seen this model, a common GE bakelite set. But this one is in unusually pristine condition. No scratches, fading or dulling of the case. It came from the same person who's wife donated the some 150+ wooden table sets we're about to auction. He did not have hardly any plastic sets but the ones we got were in like-new shape.

This one did need a recap and so on but now works great. A few things one should know about these sets:

1: The antenna loop on these as well as others are made of thin copper ribbon material pressed into the back cover. There is probably glue that was used but over time it degrades and the copper starts lifting. Its my experience that the copper is VERY fragile and when it breaks... too bad, the loop is ruined. So I ALWAYS dabble some glue over this to keep it stable

2: The dial paint on this model is notorious for wiping right off like chalk. Could be do to the rather big, somewhat warm burning night light used for illumination. DO NOT in any way try to clean the back of the glass or you will be very sorry...

Thank you so much! Radio is now going to be left plugged in as it was designed for

I would like to see some pictures of these radios being displayed at your Radio Day by the Bay show. It's got to be an impressive sight!

Thanks, Tom

This time I actually worked on stuff for ME.

1: a big 12 tube Zenith shutterdial console. I won this at auction for $400. Anyway its pretty much all-original including the original finish, grill cloth and stuff. It worked fine but I wanted to check out the innards anyway. It looked to have been recapped in the 80's with lots of orange drop caps. For some reason 2 of the 3 electrolytics were original and thus replaced. The pot was cleaned up and I added a line input as this already had a phono input anyway. I refreshed the finish with old English followed up with caranuba wax



2: Not a radio but a clock. This one is interesting in that while it "looks" like an LCD clock its actually a mechanical one that uses some clever masking accompanied with a bank of neon bulbs to create the illusion of LCD. I assume because back in the early 70's the tech in LCD was rather costly and so it was still cheaper to make some elaborate mechanical interpretation instead. This was making an awful grinding sound. I took it apart, cleaned and lubed the motor. The time changes via a very delicate, complicated rotary, pot like thing with small metal fingers that in turn turns certain bulbs on and off. One bulb is burnt out but otherwise its now silent and keeps good time.

Very nice post! It really sucks what photobucket has done to so many good people and all of the info that is now lost because of greed. It is great that you still have the info to re post it. Thanks

Radio No. 107:
early to mid-50's Packard Bell clock radio. Ordinarily I really don't like PB's from this era since they started getting cheap. But this one has a nice style and color to it. Plus it has an unusual feature I've never seen on any radio before: a independent switch for the dial light. The idea is that you can turn the radio off but leave the dial light on for a night light. Neat! This one was filthy and missing all of the knobs. The clock was rattling too. New caps, knobs, clock mech was cleaned and lubed, new pilot lamp and a polishing of the case with Novus.

Another one of these GE clock radios. This must have been a smash hit for GE: I now have 4-5 of these completed. This one had a big crack down the side. Recapped, clock lubricated, new cord, and crazy lime green paint because... why not?

Bob,

This radio looks very nice. It should easily sell. You've got a good eye for colors that work well together.

Tom

Thanks Tom!
We'll see. The way I look at is that with a cracked case the set is basically worthless to collectors. But the folks who buy stuff from us at the antique shows seem to not mind the cracks when they are instead painted

More radios...

Anyway, one that I haven't done before. Its a Guild "Town cryer". Boy are these dumb looking radios. But I feel like I see way too many of these so they must have been popular. Actually the engineering for the innards is decent. It seems like many came with surprisingly decent speakers and good FM. The town cryer has a large rear facing oval speaker that produces a fairly good sound quality. The whole thing is held together like a lamp. The sides and top and bottom is held together with a threaded piece of lamp rod. This one seems to be made in Japan, the chassis at least with the cabinet assembled in the US. All caps were ceramic. So the electrolytic cap was replaced and boy, it was not easy to get at underneath since the output transformer was bolted right above it.




Next is more of a cosmetic job. Another member showed up with an AM/FM GE that he had restored. FM works as well as you'd expect for the era. The case has been sanded and primed. My wife chose this color, which I think looks pretty nice.

Oh, I recognize that GE. It uses the guillotine tuning system GE developed for FM broadcast.

I have one myself.

-Steve

Another GE clock radio. Whoever was the industrial designer for this model should have gotten a big promotion because man these are SUPER common. I can't even recall how many I've done in the past 3 months. Well here's another one. Most of these have cracks in the top of the case. There's no reinforcement in the case and all it would take is someone to lift it by the top. So like the others it too was cleaned up, repaired, sanded and painted. These are super basic sets with just a handful of parts to replace. Ladies seem to like this pink color.

Radio No. 111 or something...

Small Fada AA5.
Its kind of an odd set. Initially from the case styling I figured it was from the 40's. But the chassis uses all miniature tubes. So either it was a case of an old case design being reused for a newer chassis, an older chassis being updated with miniature tubes or their designer was behind the times. Not the most impressive radio by any means and somewhat shoddily constructed. Dial cord was loose, caps of course were bad, rotten cord, really dirty case. So it was cleaned up and polished, all new caps, cord, repaired dial cord and it works fine.

Here are a few more sets.

1: late 30's RCA.
When it was donated the whole left side where the veneer comes down on a curve was detached. The bracing frame members were also loose and the bottom was dangling. But all of the pieces were there so it was glued back together. There was a lot of awful rubber wiring in this that had to be replaced along with all of the caps. Two tubes were bad. 6H6 was actually totally dead which is weird since there's not much to those. One of the replacement tubes still had a tag from 1941 on it. Nice artifact. Its now fully working and also has an installed wireless bluetooth.




2: A 6 tube Crosley. It wasn't working well. It too had lots of rotten wiring that had to be replaced. Whoever owned it before must have driven it into the ground: 4 of the 6 tubes tested VERY weak. After the replacement of the rotten wiring, new caps and better tubes it works great.


3: No, not a radio but a clock. I'm guessing its some sort of fancy desk clock because the case is rather heavy, made of silver plated brass. The silver was almost black and required a polishing. The clock worked fine but I oiled the mech anyway.


There is about 2 weeks left before our setting up at a large local antiques fair and so all of the sets done in the past 3-4 months were rounded up, given a final test, tagged and priced and then wrapped up and placed in banker boxes. There will be a few more added before then but I think we might do well at the show. Lots of variety.