Buying candlesticks and rotary parts

[jarwulf]

I'm very interested in acquiring or constructing a candlestick phone for a 'modernization' project. Because I will be attempting to modify it I'm looking more for cheap and reliable than genuine. I want a selfcontained phone with all the parts integrated into the unit with a rotary dial and a real bell.  My questions are.

Are the 70s candlesticks the only available phones that fit this bill? Do they even have ringers? I haven't seen any made after except push button candlesticks which are just as expensive as older genuine rotary phones. And some reproductions from india. I'm not interested in the pushbuttons but are the indian ones junk?

How much would be a good price for 70s candlesticks? I found this one which seems very cheap and has remained unsold for some reason. All the others seem to be $40 and up including the other american flag phones which seem to be the most common candlesticks. I was wondering if there was a reason it was so much cheaper.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360782856106

How much would be a good price for a metal rotary dial? Below is kind of what I'm looking for but it would be 27 dollars with shipping so I don't know if thats expensive. Am I better of just ripping one from a whole phone?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190945504066

Do the phones have lead? Probably in the solder right but how about Parts paint etc?

Do the 70s models tend to have a common size?

[rdelius]

The plastic 1970s ATC sets such as the red-white-blue sets uasually had ringers and ind coils or networks so they would be self contained. These had more space inside conpaired to old origional sets that were wired to subsets. All these sets had lead solder old or new

[LarryInMichigan]

I looked for an inexpensive black stick a while back for a friend who asked for one.  I ended up buying a "Fold-A-Phone" brand Japanese phone at the flea market for $30.  They don't seem to sell for much less than that.  That phone is all self-contained, but the ringer only makes a rattling noise because it has no gongs. 

Larry

[jarwulf]

The plastic 1970s ATC sets such as the red-white-blue sets uasually had ringers and ind coils or networks so they would be self contained. These had more space inside conpaired to old origional sets that were wired to subsets. All these sets had lead solder old or new

Do you think the flag phone is a good deal, how about the dial? Would you know if just the solder is leaded or could the paint be as well? I can't really tell if its painted in the picture or just colored plastic.

[LarryInMichigan]

As far as I am aware, all solder contains lead.  I doubt that the paint or ink on it does though.  These red, white, and blue things were generally made in the mid 1970s in commemoration of the US bicentennial (Those of us old enough remember this).  This phone almost certainly contains genuine WE parts, so it is not a bad deal for the price. 

Larry

[Phonesrfun]

I, too, think all solder contains lead.  But it is not where someone is going to ingest it,

[jarwulf]

I, too, think all solder contains lead.  But it is not where someone is going to ingest it,

yeah I'm just mainly worried about the outside like paint.

[Sargeguy]

I do not think candlestick phones contain lead paint.  If they do, the paint does not chip easily so it does not produce chips or dust that can be ingested.  My daughter grew up around dozens of metal phones. from all eras and her lead levels have always been normal

[TelePlay]

You are absolutely correct in that, Greg.

We, and I mean everyone here on the forum over about 55, grew up in homes that were coated with thick layers of lead paint, inside and out, on walls and window sills and we "made it." Lead paint, which has been outlawed for used in the US since 1978 with most of it being eliminated from paints many years before that, is a concern for children between 0 and 7 years old. Zero to 10 micrograms per deciliter is thought to be normal. 10 to 45 elevated and over 45 usually leads to chelation. I've seen children with levels over 60 survive but with impairment. I've seen adults who worked in battery manufacturing plants with more than 120 live unaffected lives. Elevated children lived in old, poor quality housing with inner and outer walls where the paint was not tight, was friable (dusting, crumbling, flaking, pealing and chipping). Or in homes where a child sucked and chewed on a window sill without intervention. Some initial cases of lead poisoning came from drinking orange or tomato juice that was allowed to sit in poorly glazed pottery jugs. The main concern was ingestion of paint chips that were 60-70% white lead over long periods of time. That is very dangerous if not deadly and if not deadly, can result in permanent CNS damage and mental impairment. A side affect of high lead levels is anemia. Lead blocks the production of hemoglobin resulting in high levels of precursor porphyrins (prevents iron from bonding with the porphyrins in the final stages of hemoglobin production). Porphyhrins are cyclical hydrocarbons which fluoresce and allow an easy way to test for high lead levels (using a small portable analytical instrument developed by Dr. Angelo Lamola at Bell Labs in Murry Hill about 1976 that needed but a single drop of blood from a finger stick). It really was a double test in that a high prophyrin level meant either real anemia or lead poisoning. High porphyrin screening levels resulted in testing the blood in a tox lab for actual lead content. This is basic stuff I still remember from how we did it almost 40 years ago, without going into detail. So, I think what Greg said is correct.

[poplar1]

The WE dial you saw listed on Ebay is actually mostly plastic and is perhaps even newer than the one shown on the candlestick phone with WE parts. Definitely not more than a $10 dial.

I'm very interested in acquiring or constructing a candlestick phone for a 'modernization' project. Because I will be attempting to modify it I'm looking more for cheap and reliable than genuine. I want a selfcontained phone with all the parts integrated into the unit with a rotary dial and a real bell.  My questions are.

Are the 70s candlesticks the only available phones that fit this bill? Do they even have ringers? I haven't seen any made after except push button candlesticks which are just as expensive as older genuine rotary phones. And some reproductions from india. I'm not interested in the pushbuttons but are the indian ones junk?

How much would be a good price for 70s candlesticks? I found this one which seems very cheap and has remained unsold for some reason. All the others seem to be $40 and up including the other american flag phones which seem to be the most common candlesticks. I was wondering if there was a reason it was so much cheaper.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360782856106

How much would be a good price for a metal rotary dial? Below is kind of what I'm looking for but it would be 27 dollars with shipping so I don't know if thats expensive. Am I better of just ripping one from a whole phone?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190945504066

Do the phones have lead? Probably in the solder right but how about Parts paint etc?

Do the 70s models tend to have a common size?