Combining 2 Straight Line Ringers to replace 1 Frequency Ringer

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Project here was replacing a frequency ringer with a SL (straight line) ringer. The problem was the frequency ringer in a wall phone. It was removed and two straight line ringers (each with issues) were used to make one SL ringer that would fit back into the phone and work with a POTS ring signal.

For those not familiar with frequency vs straight line ringer design, the blue circle on the left ringer in the first image shows one of several similar designs that use a metal reed to move the clapper in a frequency ringer. The green circle on the center ringer shows a typical straight line ringer pivot or axle design to move the clapper.


In the 1st image, the ringer to be used is in the center. Coil #1 of that ringer had broken windings (yellow circle). Rather than take the time to unwind, fix the wires and rewind the coil, that coil was removed and coil #2 from the right ringer was used to replace this broken coil. To do that, both ringers had to be taken apart and the wire connection between the two coils cut for removal and soldered together on the center ringer. Both ringers were than put back together.

Note that the gong posts on the right ringer are too short and the posts on the center ringer are both the same height as the frequency ringer and the brass gong mounting screws matched the posts threads. that's why the center ringer frame was used for the conversion.

The two ringer angle mounting brackets were moved from the frequency ringer to the center ringer (white boxes) and the original black headed machine screws from the original ringer were used to mount the brackets (temporary new screws shown in the image). Each coil was wrapped with muslin cloth and coated twice with darkened shellac (3# cut). This was done to protect the wire winding of the replacement coil (the original protective wrapping seems to have been removed exposing the dark red varnished magnet wire windings). By wrapping both coils, they also matched in appearance.

After the gongs were mounted, the final adjustment was moving the gong posts in or out to get the best sounding ring - both posts are adjustable.


The 2nd image is a comparison of the original frequency ringer in the phone and the replacement ringer to be put into the phone (the green wire on the right side coil was changed to brown cloth after photo was taken to match the left wire).


The 3rd image shows the rebuilt, replacement ringer as completed from different angles (right green wire was changed to brown).

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This work was done last October and the topic created on November 1st. This post is to do nothing more than make it appear on the "Recent Unread Topics" list, otherwise it appears near the bottom of the second page of the Troubleshooting topic.

This is one way to take those old ringer parts and turn them into something other than junk.

[HarrySmith]

Very clever and a good way to recycle old ringer parts!

[rdelius]

I used to save AE freq ringers to use the coils to fix open SL ringers. Did similar repairs to Kellogg 925  and similar set.Just make sure that the freq coils are not real low impedance.