News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

233G payphone arrived today

Started by KeithB, August 30, 2010, 08:09:16 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Wallphone

I'm glad that my posting helped you out. I have heard nothing but good things about Rod. What is the correct coin box for this phone? The coin box that I purchased is also too large for my Northern payphone.
Dougpav

KeithB

I was fortunate there was an original rusty coinbox in the phone when I received it.  There was no lid on the box, but the new lid I purchased from G-tel fit the old box perfectly.  Unfortunately, that meant I had to strip, wire-brush, and re-paint the original coinbox, when I really wanted to just replace it with a new/good one. :(

And I promise everyone, if I can find my digital camera tomorrow, I'll start posting better photographs.  ;)

AE_Collector

Quote from: Wallphone on September 05, 2010, 09:59:06 PM
What is the correct coin box for this phone? The coin box that I purchased is also too large for my Northern payphone.
Dougpav

Doug:
The newer boxes for the single slot type payphones are the same width and depth but are quite a bit higher, at least 50% higher. The same lids fit though.

IS your Northern phone a single or triple slot?

Terry 

KeithB

<This page> has a picture of the shorter coin box used in the 1xx and 2xx series of Western/Northern Electric three-coin payphones.


Wallphone

Terry, my Northern is a 3 slot. It was originally beige or pink & someone slopped some black paint on it.
Seeing that I will probably only own one payphone I was going to convert it to the old type with the separate receiver. I already have the transmitter for it and just missed out on the switch hook by 42 cents the other day. I know that Phoneco has the switch hooks but I heard that they are not top quality.
Keith, thanks for the picture of the coin box.
Dougpav

KeithB

#35
I'm bummed today is a holiday. :(  Why?  Because it's Monday, but none of the parts I ordered last week will be delivered today.  Darn it.  ;)

KeithB

Saturday the two back panels were painted and baked dry, but today I dug out the camera and took some decent pictures.  I put two coats of satin black on the coin box, and two coats of gloss black lacquer on the coin vault/bottom and body/top of the phone.  There are a few minor drips/runs in the lacquer, so I'll have to sand them out and put one more coat on both pieces.  The coin vault is still too hot to handle, and the body is in the oven right now.  Pictures of them will come Monday evening, after they've cooled down.

Dennis Markham


KeithB

Thanks for the encouragement, Dennis.  :)  I was disappointed after not being able to get a good finish on my North/Galion phone, and this payphone presented the perfect opportunity to work with something (metal) I knew I could successfully re-finish.  ;D  Seriously, most payphones took so much abuse for so many years, it's nearly impossible to do any serious harm to them.

I found the answer to my payphone handset concern in this post which described the G3AR handset in BSP 501-210-102 Issue 7 from January 1975 (about the same time my pay phone was refurbished):

Quote from: BSPThe G3-type handsets equipped with armored cords for use with coin collectors (G3AH, G3AJ, G3AK, G3AD, GBAE, and GBAG) are sealed units. Receiver and transmitter caps are cemented to the handle to prevent loss of units. If the sealed handset or cord require replacing, handset and cord shall be replaced as a unit.

So it seems the G3A6 should be the correct handset for this phone.  I'm not terribly worried about someone stealing the elements out of it, so I'll exercise a bit of artistic license with this decision.  At least the G-style handset I have coming this week is from 1962, so it's closely-matched to when this phone was new.

KeithB

Well, at least the coin box was cool enough to handle.  Here's a photo, with the new lid/top from G-tel attached.  I still need to obtain a white grease pencil or make a VERY fine-tipped paint brush to fill in the numbers.

KeithB

For others' benefit, <Stan Schreier's ATCA webpage> has a good illustration of the miscellaneous parts needed to restore the coin hopper / mechanism in these old Western Electric payphones.

All three of these miscellaneous parts can be purchased from <Triad-Online> very inexpensively.


McHeath

Wow, you are doing great restoration work!  I really know nothing about payphones, except that a few years ago they all vanished as the phone companies pulled them. 

However, they are back in a big way.  Payphones have been reinstalled at most locations that once had them, at least in my area, and are now privately run.  They get used as well, it's common to see people on them.  Many of them list deals to call Mexico, 5 minutes for a dollar is one such deal I noticed on one Sunday.  Lots of them now have bright yellow G series handsets, not sure what that means.

KeithB

Thanks!!  :)  I wouldn't go so far as calling it great ;)  To this point, it's involved disassembly, paint stripping and re-painting.  My hope is for it to come out looking brand new, even though it's 48 years old.  Getting it re-wired with a proper subset and ringer will be an exercise in itself.

KeithB

#43
I'm taking the night off from sanding and painting.  :-\  My vintage subset arrived from Paul Vaverchak today, and I've been reviewing what it will take to connect it to this phone. (Apologies to Shovelhead.  If I get any of this wrong, feel free to correct me here. ;) )

Stan Schreier wrote <a fantastic article> at the ATCA website regarding Western and Northern Electric 2xx series payphones.  His article describes connecting ITT mini-networks inside these payphones, and the connection points are the same connecting a 425 network from a WE500 set.  A summary of his article related to this WE233 payphone follows:

The phone must:

A) be modified for coinless operation: Remove the yellow ground wire going to terminal G (hopper trigger contact) in the phone.  This disables the coin relay allowing it to be locked in one position, to return all coins inserted.

B) have dial shorting removed:
(b1) on the coin relay, remove the wire connected to terminal 1
(b2) on the three-position terminal strip atop the phone, install a jumper from L to T.

C) have a network connected:
(c1) from subset point B to terminal strip point T
(c2) from subset point R to terminal strip point TR
(c3) from subset point C to terminal strip point L
(c4) from subset point RR to switch stack point R
(c5) from subset point GN to switch stack point W

D) have a line cord connected:
(d1) on the three-position terminal strip, TIP to point L
(d2) on the switch stack, RING to point Y

** Thanks to Bingster for depicting 102/202 deskset connections to the 425 subset in <this thread> particularly the diagram shown below.

*** Thanks to <Stan Schreier> for his graphic of the payphone connections, shown below.