Radio Tube Box Restoration

[Sk8Crash69]

Hi Guys, Just wanted to share a little radio tube box restoration I did for my dad, it was his father's day gift. He has always been a fan of antique radios and electronics. My girlfriend and I picked it up for $10 bucks at a flea market. I completely stripped all of the old paint off of the outside and as much as I could off of the inside using a 90 deg. Die Grinder and some 3m discs. I then gave it a coat of eastwood's rust encapsulator inside and out. I then finished with 2 coats of a rustoleum hammer gray paint. I also took an old name plate he had lying around, gave it a coat of clear and mounted it to the top of the box. For my first tool box resto I am happy with the way it turned out.

 

[MN4x4]

I would be proud to have that! Could you adopt me?

 

[Steinmetz]

A "tube caddy".

 

[Sk8Crash69]

Haha Thanks MN4x4. Steinmetz, I was wondering what this type of box was called. Besides the writing on the front I don't know much about it.

 

[southalabama]

Good job

 

[LEVE]

When as a wee-lad I was a TV/Radio repairman I used to have one just like that in the van. It was carried into the customers home with an assortment of the most used tubes. It helped to avoid trips back to the truck for parts. Mine never looked that good....

 

[volleyball]

I've never seen a tube caddy that looks like that. And I have a very old one.
I am thinking it is a electronics repair mans tool box.

 

[motoretro]

Great job on the Resto, I've also not seen a version like this one before, very unique. My Dad owned a Radio/TV shop in the early 1950's in Dayton, OH. I have his old Ray-Vac? tube caddy, this gives me a few ideas. Thanks for sharing.
Motoretro

 

[Steinmetz]

Great job on the Resto, I've also not seen a version like this one before, very unique. My Dad owned a Radio/TV shop in the early 1950's in Dayton, OH. I have his old Ray-Vac? tube caddy, this gives me a few ideas. Thanks for sharing.
Motoretro

I didn't think Ray-O-Vac made tubes. Only the "A" and "B" batteries for old portable tube radios.

 

[motoretro]

I wasn't sure of the brand, just remember the navy blue case unfolding with all the doors & compartments for tubes. Could it be Raytheon or something like that? The name was printed within a gold oval. It's over at my brothers in storage, I'll have to check. I have another one at my place although no name is shown, blue and orange with fabric covering.
Motoretro

I didn't think Ray-O-Vac made tubes. Only the "A" and "B" batteries for old portable tube radios.

 

[treimers]

Now ya need to find him some of the old tube radios
so he can work on them!

Just DON"T turn them on to 'test' them when you find them at an estate sale....

 

[Mechanical Noise]

I wasn't sure of the brand, just remember the navy blue case unfolding with all the doors & compartments for tubes. Could it be Raytheon or something like that? The name was printed within a gold oval.

Something like this?

 

[WWIIjeep]

I wasn't sure of the brand, just remember the navy blue case unfolding with all the doors & compartments for tubes. Could it be Raytheon or something like that? The name was printed within a gold oval.

Yes, Raytheon used an oval logo, with the letters following the size of the oval (smaller at the ends, larger in the middle).

I have another one at my place although no name is shown, blue and orange with fabric covering.

Blue and orange would mostly likely be a 1950s or older RCA tube caddy, before they went to red and black.

Now ya need to find him some of the old tube radios
so he can work on them!

Just DON"T turn them on to 'test' them when you find them at an estate sale....

Absolutely on the "DON'T," unless you want to see bright flashing lights and smoke.

Trouble is, when you find them at estate sales, all too often somebody has already done that.

 

[motoretro]

Yeah, that's the ticket.

"WWII Jeep";
thanks for the info on RCA.
I just opened the caddy, first time since 2005 when Dad passed unexpectedly and it's full of tubes, some bare although plenty of what appears to be "new still in boxes", lot's of RCA, Westinghouse, Raytheon, Dumont, Sylvania, etc.
Motoretro

Something like this?

 

[Alan Douglas]

Wooden tube caddies are common but I've never seen a metal one. It could have been a promotional item for a dealer who bought a certain number of Sylvania tubes.

 

[willy3486]

I have seen these pop up from time to time on ebay. I collect old TV shop stuff. I think this was used to hold tools like screwdrivers and such while the tube caddy most are familiar with held the tools. I have a few of the old caddys at least 5 or 6 maybe more. I have bought them for as little as 3 bucks and as high as 30. I usually buy them for the tubes. Only thing is I may get a caddy full of tubes but only 3 or 4 if I am lucky are useable to me.

 

[hackwelder]

Now ya need to find him some of the old tube radios
so he can work on them!

Just DON"T turn them on to 'test' them when you find them at an estate sale....

good advice!....a variac can be used to slowly bring the voltage up on old tube gear and this will sometimes successfully reform the power supply capacitors and variacs are inexpensive these days.
Another method sometimes used is to wire an incandescent light bulb in series with the AC supply, this will limit current....i.e. a 120W bulb would only conduct about an amp (and glow brightly) if there is a shorted cap in the tube gear and this could prevent frying power or output transformers, etc.

Another thing to DEFINITELY avoid is powering up old amps without a speaker connected, this can easily fry a valuable and expensive to replace output tranformer.

 

[treimers]

HackWelder wrote: "a variac can be used to slowly bring the voltage up on old tube gear and this will sometimes successfully reform the power supply capacitors and variacs are inexpensive these days.
Another method sometimes used is to wire an incandescent light bulb in series with the AC supply, this will limit current....i.e. a 120W bulb would only conduct about an amp (and glow brightly) if there is a shorted cap in the tube gear and this could prevent frying power or output transformers, etc.
"


Yes, I use a dim bulb tester as well.

There's really no such thing as "re-forming" a capacitor though.
Almost any cap that has dried out may work a little bit after slow voltage raising over a period of DAYS, but I always just perform a radical capacitorectomy on most anything.

I've restored quite a few old radios, and to date, I have always been able to find a replacement cap that is of equal or better value, and I doubt I've spent more than $100 so far on ALL of the capacitors combined I've bought.

Most caps are in the range of a dollar or so, many are just pennies, and it's just NOT worth leaving an old one in there - even a multisectional can be replaced.
If you're into asthetics, you can cut up the shell of the old cap and usually fit the new one inside it since newer are almost always smaller.
I rebuilt one multisection cap that way and fairly easily fit all four of the new caps inside the shell of the old one bolted to the deck of the radio.

One warning for folks that use variacs -- it takes DAYS to re-form a cap, not "minutes"
Avoid the temptation to just start sliding up the voltage as soon as you don't see smoke.

 

[wild cowboy]

Tubes get a bad rap. For years my business was buying and selling old tubes, tube amplifiers and tube testers on ebay. I ran a tube amp & old radio restoration business out of the house. Although folks think that bad tubes are the common issue with an old radio or amp, surprisingly, the tubes are often just fine. It's the capacitors that are what has failed (the electrolytic caps mostly)

While tubes were a "good riddance" in certain electronics such as televisions, radio, and computers, keep in mind that the finest high end stereos in the world still use vacuum tubes, because of the sweeter, more pleasing sound that is produced, so if you were worth millions, and price of your new stereo was no object, it's funny to think about it, but that stereo you would put together for a six figure sum would actually be utilizing the same old tubes that might have ridden in that old tube caddy!

Another area where tubes reign supreme 'til this day is in guitar amplifiers - you can argue who are the best guitarists in the world and who are the best bands, but one thing is consistent, they all insist on amplifiers utilizing the old vacuum tubes!

Some artists have even given a signature sound to various tube amps, such as Angus Young and Marshall tube amps or Carlos Santana and Mesa Boogie tube amps, etc. Fender tube amps pretty much formed the backbone of rock & roll and country music, and together with Marshall and a few others, still do to this day.

Even "Stairway to heaven" was close mic-ed and recorded via a small 3 tube amp.

 

[wild cowboy]

If you are going to let your day work on the radios, the first two things to buy are an isolation transformer, as some of these old radios had a live chassis and can be dangerous! - and as far as the Variac (autotransformer), keep in mind that these old amps and radios ran on 110V, NOT the 120-125V that is common these days, and some of the old equipment doesn't like the higher voltages, so that is another use of the Variac, to cut down your main household line voltage to the 110V that was standard back then.

 

[Banjorear]

I've never seen a tube caddy that looks like that. And I have a very old one.
I am thinking it is a electronics repair mans tool box.

Me neither. I have an RCA tube caddy that has four different compartments to keep a ton of tubes in it. I would agree that looks like a tool box v. a tool caddy. I would think you'd want as many tubes as you can fit so you weren't running back and forth to get the right one.

I was not a TV repair man so I don't know, just seems logical to me.

Cool as heck box, though.

 

[treimers]

If you are going to let your day work on the radios, the first two things to buy are an isolation transformer, as some of these old radios had a live chassis and can be dangerous! - and as far as the Variac (autotransformer), keep in mind that these old amps and radios ran on 110V, NOT the 120-125V that is common these days, and some of the old equipment doesn't like the higher voltages, so that is another use of the Variac, to cut down your main household line voltage to the 110V that was standard back then.

Yup - the good old DC-DC power supplies.
Many many old 5-tube American classic radios are that way.
It's one reason they have WOOD cases and polyboard backs on them.

Safe enough to work on if you KNOW that, and yes, an isolation transformer is your friend on the bench.

Agreed about the 110v.
The 10-15 volts higher does not often matter, except in the transmitters where that incoming 110 voltage is stepped up to 800-900 volts.
Then you can be 100-200 volts higher.
Most of the rest of the time, it's that the original capacitors _might_ not have been rated highly enough, though it's rare. Most engineers back in that day were allowed to rate the caps at 200v.
Nowadays, the beancounter/stock price/profit managers would stop an engineer from 'overbuilding' like that, and the caps would be rated for just a few volts more than might be anticipated.


Changing topic from tube to modern, but sticking with capacitor issues - read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

That's a widely known phenomenon-
I have seen more than 100 Dell GX-270 systems from the mid 2000s get that issue and had to have Dell swap all the motherboards.

I just bought a Samsung 40" from 2009, at Good Will for all of $40, with that very issue, and fixed it for $6.50 in just four capacitors on the power supply board.
Took me 30 minutes to fix it.

I have a 55" Visio TV in the car right now that I paid $10 for, and am hoping it has the _exact_ same problem and can be fixed just as cheaply!

There's a TON of electronics that was hit with those bad caps from Taiwan...