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Swirled telephones

Started by Jim Stettler, December 20, 2009, 02:10:24 PM

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AE_Collector

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on November 09, 2013, 12:44:17 PM
That is one cool phone! I wonder is WE made swirled sets to use up scrap plastic?

I think that the consensus is with some of them at least that when they changed colors in the molds they would wind up with a bunch of cases like these. I am not certain that I buy that as one would think that they could wind up with 100 cases before all traces of a previous color were gone. But, what is 100 cases when you are making 10's of thousands.

Maybe just the best examples were put to the side as obviously an all oronge case with a tiny bit of white on one corner of a handset cradle wouldn't be overly exciting. I could see then using them for awards and milestone gifts or maybe a few employees hiding them to get them home and build a phone from them but I can't imagine WECo just letting people walk out the door at the end of a shift with what ever they wanted to build phones for family and friends.

Terry


TelePlay

It had to be intentional, intentional mixing of two plastics, because each swirlee I've seen is unique in one way or the other.

I can't imagine it was a line or mold flushing problem because of the way plastic is injecting in molding. Those swirlees remind me of marble cake and how those are made so I think that is what the people doing the molding did, when WECo front office wasn't looking. To get that nice swirl had to be intentional. No two swirls would ever be the same, not even taking color into consideration, and the results of the mix of plastic colors would only be known after the molding process ended, IMHO.

Maybe we should start keeping track of the shell dates to see when this began. Any mouse hole swirlees out there? Or just end of WECo era "management didn't really care anymore" DM's? Would be nice if a member had first hand knowledge of doing these or seeing them done.

Doug Rose

Quote from: Dave F on November 09, 2013, 02:35:46 PM
Quote from: Doug Rose on November 09, 2013, 09:06:41 AM
Dave....what a great find. I never knew WE made orange 500 sets, although I do remember a Howard Johnson's legend from the past. This is just so cool. Wonderful find....Doug

Thanks Doug,

I'm so lucky -- This has to be one of the coolest phones I have ever seen, and I've certainly seen plenty of nifty phones!

W.E. never made orange 500s for general release.  The orange sets that occasionally turn up usually come from ITT or SC.  Almost all the Howard Johnson orange 500s were ITT.  However, W.E. did do a custom orange run for Howard Johnson.  The W.E. specimens are made from a special type of plastic called "Unobtanium" (this is the same material that AUTOVON Card Dialer cards are apparently made from!).  I have one of those W.E. rarities, and you can see it here:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3831.msg50804#msg50804

DF
Dave ...I would love to see some pictures of your collection. You have some wonderful rarities. I'm sure the rest of the Forum would like to see them as well....many thanks....Doug
Kidphone

Jim Stettler

Very cool swirlee 500 Dave.  An Orange swirl WE 500 is exceptionally unique.
I am pretty sure they made orange plastic phones for Howard Johnson's. The stories make sense and  I have an orange back painted WE dial, The dial makes me believe in the HJ phones, Special order colored plastic would make sense on a large run. This phone makes me think that orange plastic was close by to the 500 molding line.

Most swirl phones seem to be 2 colors mixed, however my swirled princess is multiple colors which makes me think it was cast from "Transmitter cup" plastic.


My opinion on the swirled sets is that most WE  were from a color change on 3rd shift. Some were made from Transmitter cup plastic (seems to be mainly on princess style, I know of 3, all princess). The SC slenderettes seem the most prevalant. There are 4 official swirls, but many more sample and/or backdoor examples. Official runs seem to have matching dial centers and screw covers (slenderettes) and unofficial ones don't. This is just my observation and guess.
JMO,
Jim

You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Jim Stettler

I just noticed that Dave also has a WE F# orange plastic 500. It makes me wonder if he assembles his collection to just make me jealous. We like the same phone items, he just seems to find them to  taunt me.
Great stuff Dave.
Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

twocvbloke

My red NE2500 w/AT&T branded shell has some slight swirling in the plastic, nothing too obvious, but I can see it, it looks as though they used the machinery to make grey or black shells prior to making red, either that or there was a contaminant (such as a stray pellet of the wrong colour, or plastic dust that got chipped off the hopper and fell in the mixer) in the batch of plastic pellets they were using, but obviously not such a strong and obvious difference in colour to make it a worthy candidate for a swirled phone.... :D

Jim Stettler

It counts as a slightly swirled.
Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

twocvbloke

Quote from: Jim S. on November 11, 2013, 02:26:40 PM
It counts as a slightly swirled.
Jim

Took a little colour fiddling but I managed to highlight the swirling in my 2500's shell on the back, I did take another couple of pictures of the right side & top, but they were just not picking up the swirling as it's so faint... :D

Contempra

Hey twocvbloke, you're a litlle bit joker you know :D... for just a little piec, you have swirled phone . I can do the samething on one of my phones. :D

However, the color of your phone is my prefered color for a phone desk....may be a day....

twocvbloke

It's just not as impressive as some of the phones in this thread, it's just an accidental swirl, rather than intentional and boldly coloured swirl... :D

Contempra

No probs twocvbloke  I was joking :D...It must rather be rare to have the modular Jack of the same color as the phone. in any case I only saw black modular Jack.. ;)

Jim Stettler

#26
I am on a roll buying phones today.
First a mushroom
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=24258.msg241250#new
Now a swirl. It was more than I wanted to pay, but I have an extra $300.00 from overtime this month.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264846879919

Jim
edit> I even asked my wife's permission before I bought it at full price< edit
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Scott

You really had a good day. Congratulations.

Scott K.

.....

Congrats that's an awesome phone.

Jim Stettler

#29
Quote from: Jim Stettler on August 28, 2020, 07:59:21 PM
I am on a roll buying phones today.
First a mushroom
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=24258.msg241250#new
Now a swirl. It was more than I wanted to pay, but I have an extra $300.00 from overtime this month.


Jim
edit> I even asked my wife's permission before I bought it at full price< edit
Here is the same or very similar set.
Phone number appears to match. My phone# is 317-529-7782.
I think this is the first swirl set I ever saw, I didn't buy it , but it sold for 500.00 a long time ago.
I am not able to post the photo from the thread to this thread.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon, I bought this from Jay F.
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=18340.msg190700#msg190700
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

the color is actually a pastel yellow/red swirl that makes pink,, it is a really nice color.
I have a similar sc slenderette with a red core, I had already decided it would look better with a pink  core.
They look mighty nice together. photo will be coming soon.
JMO,
Jim

>edit< Note: this phone has matching handset caps and a matching grip, hese are very big bonus features on  a swirl 500 set.
I have seen 1 set that has a swirl dial face, however , it seems like a back-paint dial ring (these have small Operator font). It sold for close to to 1,500.00 he caps and grip do not match. http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=18340.msg188758#msg188758<edit>

I added a photo Dave F.'s howard Johnson orange swirl set. it doesn't have matching caps or grip. It is a very cool set.

>>EDIt<< I added another photo of Dave F.'s swirled handset caps and swirl/clear handset handle, and Duffy's Nt swirled handset handle>>EDIt<<<

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
another side note is I missed this  pink swirl at a show @ 500.00. I missed the matching sc slenderette on ebay it went less  less than 300.00.

I ended up with both as second chances (over 20ish years) for less than 500 for the pair . I will post a photo showing both together.
I am a happy collector,
Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.