1946 philco amp, tuner, record player

[tryonziess]

I found this nice 1946 Philco tube amp at a yard sale for 15.00. I would like to restore it and use it. Any suggestions as to where I should start would be appreciated. I have the chassis out of the wooden cabinet and have started to clean the unit.
I would guess the capacitors are probably dried out by now. Should I try to replicate the originals or replace with updated items? Most of the insulation on the wire is cloth and dry rotted.

Tad

[bob91343]

You have a lot to do, depending on a few things. First, if you want to restore it, you will have to try to maintain original appearance and performance. This will require some hard to get stuff, such as the wire you mention. Capacitors, well modern units will be smaller so you can cheat by hollowing out the old ones and stuffing a small modern one in.

Having said that, I would guess you just want to get it running, so you don't have to go to such lengths. Replace any seriously defective wire and the filter capacitors and at least the audio output grid coupling capacitor(s). There's a good chance the tubes are still good. If it has a radio, see if the dial string needs replacing. Spray the volume control and any switches.

Then fire it up and stand back. Or better yet, stand back and fire it up.

[Eli Duttman]

If the cloth insulation has not fallen apart, you can consolidate it with clear nail lacquer. Some flexibility gets lost, but that's (IMO) not much of a price. Heat shrink tubing is another option for saving the OEM wire.