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Soft Plastic vs ABS

Started by podor, June 21, 2015, 10:14:21 PM

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podor

I just bought a 564 dated 6/63. At first I was thinking it was ABS, but now I'm having second thoughts. I have a black soft plastic 565 and a newer ABS 565. Those two have a completely different feel. They even sound different when you hang up the reciever or tap them with your fingernail. At first, I was thinking that it was hard plastic, but now I'm leaning more to it being soft plastic. It's right on the cutoff date wise. Is there any way to tell which material it's made of?

WesternElectricBen

I actually think the soft plastic 'cut off date' was during 1959.

Ben

LarryInMichigan

Black phones were still made in soft plastic for several years after the colored ones had switched to ABS.  It would not be surprising to find a soft plastic black phone from 1963.

Larry

WEBellSystemChristian

Tenite in colored 500s was cut off around May and June and 1959, but black sets were still being made of it until around 1963 or '64. I think the 'standardization' process for 500s took place in 1965 and ended around 1966 or so, which made ABS standard on all 500s (replacing Bakelite in handsets on black sets), and which I would guess included all of the following on both colored and black 500 sets:

Clear closed-center fingerwheels (replacing black metal ones on black sets and open-centers on colored ones), #9 dials (replacing #7s), all-ABS plastics (same for colored 500s, replacing Tenite on black sets), anodized-steel bases (replacing painted steel, which further prevented rusting), and some other things that I can't name off the top of my head.
Christian Petterson

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