Just posted to PayPal...glad to do it! Without your help I'm sure I'd have ended up drilling it out. Unless I did some damage to the cabinet in the process, the result would have been the same...replacement locks. But there's just something cool about retaining the original locks.
Now, for your radio restoration questions...I love talking radios
I started restoring about 2 1/2 years ago and was immediately surprised at how available, and affordable, vacuum tubes are. I have to believe that at some point the supply will start dwindling, but for now most tubes are very reasonable, most in the $4 - $10 range. Tubes do go bad but they are surprisingly durable. I have several tube testers that I use for testing tubes, but at times will also just swap in a different tube if I don't believe the tester results.
As for what usually goes bad, that's an easy one. Capacitors. Back in the day they used what they called paper capacitors...paper was used for the dielectric and they were encased in cardboard sleeves and sealed with wax. But over time moisture will get in and they become leaky (electrically). Electrolytic capacitors used in the power supply are also a common source of failure. So when I restore a radio, I always replace all paper and electrolytic capacitors. I even go so far as to 'restuff' them whenever possible. What this means is I take out the guts, clean them up, and put in new capacitors. For the paper caps I then re-seal them using bees wax. If the electrolytics are in metal cans I will cut the cans open, clean them out, put in new capacitors, then reseal the can. This process retains the original look. Check out this thread I created on the antique radio forum...in my first post I show before and after shots of the chassis. All paper caps were restuffed except one...it had been replaced previously with a different type and couldn't be restuffed. Since then I've learned how to make them from scratch using my 3D printer and some colored paper
https://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewto ... 6&t=355114Of course resistors need to be replaced quite often as well, and they don't look original, but I still think it's cool to make the capacitors look like original. Resistors are quite often high in value, but usually the radio will still play ok unless they are way off. That being said, I will usually replace anything that's more than 10% out of tolerance.
Documentation is available for most radios and many times the documentation will include alignment procedures. After you've done a few you learn the general process for doing an alignment and can usually do one without the documentation, but some are different so it's best to use the documentation if available. Alignment can be done by ear, but it's best to use a signal generator and some sort of analog meter to find the peaks. Most of these old radios are just AM, but quite a few also have one or more shortwave bands, and a few have FM.
Just for some background, I started restoring radios because I had a Philco 47-1230 that my grandparents on my Mom's side bought new in 1947. I fixed it when I was in my teens, in 1971 or 1972. After that it just sat around and quit working again. In February 2017 I decided I wanted to make it work again. I replaced the caps (this was before I knew I could restuff them) and many resistors and the AM sort of worked but not well. I decided that this radio was way too complex for a first restoration project so I set it aside and did several others and didn't get back to the Philco until last fall. I quickly got the AM to work, but struggled with the FM for a few months before finally getting that working. My Mom knew I was working on it but didn't know I was going to give it to her. I surprised her with it on April 5th of this year. This was perfect timing because it was her dad's birthday
She says she plays it almost daily and loves it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KK36bz ... sp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1xEIzcY ... sp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tmj0IH ... sp=sharingNow, aren't you sorry you asked?
Rich
