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Decotel Candlestick Oddities

Started by RotoTech99, May 05, 2021, 06:51:27 PM

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RotoTech99

Dear Forum:

I've noticed a couple interesting "oddities" in a couple of my Decotel Candlesticks I wanted to share...

One of my Candlesticks, an AA4102 Candlestick has a red shaft with the white stripes screen printed on,and my other Candestick,a BS4102 has a white shaft with the red stripes silkscreened on....

I figure it is due to the plastics supplied, and how Decotel choose to do those, more than any kind of mixup/error, etc.

I've attached the photos below. The top photo is the BS4102, the bottom one is the AA4102.

I also had a question regarding a Decotel AA4104 Woodgrain Candlestick that came from a GTE Phone-Mart with an AE rotary dial... What color should the dial center disc be; Would it be black or brown? At present, it has an off-white dial center disc...

Please, can someone knowledgeable of GTE Phone-Mart phones enlighten me on that?

BTW: Thank you for all the previous help, it was highly useful.

RotoTech99


probably

Key2871

#1
I wonder if perhaps it was supply of colored parts available. If they had extras of Red shaft tubes and they needed to do a star's and stripes they printed white stripes. Or a Red stripe on a White shaft, that way they could keep a balance of colored parts.
KEN

Jack Ryan

I see the receiver cap is different too.

I would be interested to learn the reason as well.

Who made the plastics? Perhaps it was a contractor issue.

Regards
Jack

RotoTech99

Dear Forum:

I think on my AA4102 the white cap was added when the original red cap was either lost or damaged; I know the kind of cap it should be, it's the one that's used with the red Candlestick sets and Stars & Stripes sets.

I'm thinking about getting the red cap to replace the white one... It's pretty tight on, so I'll probably need my strap wrench to free it.

As to my Woodgrain AA4104, I'm still curious about what color the dial center was originally; the accent color is black, so I'm guessing it was either black or brown.

Frankly, I wouldn'tve guessed there were variations of the ones offered in the catalogs or ads.

RotoTech99

Jack Ryan

I need to stop looking at them - the number plates are different too.

Jack

RotoTech99

Dear Jack:

The dial in my BS4102 is a NE-6QD with a NE black letters/number plate. The network and rimger are Stromberg.

The full code for my BS4102 is "BSI-4102".

The dial in my Woodgrain & AA4102 are both AS 51 dials.

RotoTech99

RotoTech99

Dear Forum:

I experienced one minor problem with the BS4102 Candlestick... Unbeknownst to me it had a couple loose internal screws and a rusted ringer mount post, so I had to take the rusted one out, and insert/cold weld a new threaded post in.

It's setting up and drying now, but I think it will go well.... the ringer screw had rusted into the threaded post, so both it and the screw came out, to my surprise.

I found another threaded post that I was able to add, and cold weld in.

The ringer was also loose on the 165B adaptor, so I replaced the loose screw, and made sure the other screws were snug.

It was a bit of a effort fitting the replacement post, but I think it will work ok.

RotoTech99

RotoTech99

Dear Forum:

Unfortunately, the ringer post fix didn't work, but since I also had a ITT ringer with the ATC brackets to mount the ringer, I went that way as to resolving the ringer post issue.

RB

Glad you got it workin.
I think the differences in the parts, may be factory differences.
Or as was stated, used what they had for reserve.
I see a lot of suttle differences in how things are made now.
It is quite common for a company to receive parts from a few factories.
And then have someone assemble them.
The end result is claimed to be the same, but unless you buy 2 of them, you don't see the differences.

MMikeJBenN27

One, probably the BS4102, has a Western Electric dial and probably all WE parts, the other, probably the AA4102, has an Automatic Electric dial and probably all AE parts.  These were sold "empty".  You brought it to your phone company business office, and they had the proper components installed.

Mike