What Would It Look Like If It Had a Plastic Finger wheel ?

[Ktownphoneco]

I ended up with about a half dozen spider attachment clips and clear plastic finger wheels that will attach to the type 6 and newer dials.    I immediately thought of a couple of Northern Electric 302 desk sets I have with type 6 dials, and wondered what they would look like with a plastic finger wheel.    Yes, there are the colored 302's with 5-J dials that have clear plastic finger wheels, but I haven't seen a 5-J dial on a black thermoplastic set.    Well, I needn't wonder any longer.     I think the set looks rather nice.      See the attached pictures.    Click to enlarge.

Jeff Lamb

[poplar1]

Did you have to bend the finger stop so that it would allow the new finger wheel to have enough clearance?

[Doug Rose]

I have found you have to bend the  finger stop with the solid center clear  finger wheels and do not with the open face clear finger wheels....Doug

[Ktownphoneco]

Yes and yes.      The plastic finger wheel actually did turn from "zero" to the rest position without the finger stop touching the plastic finger wheel, but I probably couldn't have gotten anything thicker than a piece of onion paper between the two, so I bent the finger stop outward ever so slightly and that provides sufficient space.    The other solution is to place a small No. 4 flat washer between the finger stop and the body of the dial where each machine screw is positioned.    Then no bending of the finger stop is required.

Jeff

[HarrySmith]

Yes, that does look pretty good. I will have to remember that on a 302 in the future. Thanks!

[jsowers]

I have a thermoplastic 302 that came with a clear fingerwheel. I think it has the lever that has to move before the wheel comes off. I remember changing the number card to one I had just stamped. It has brown cloth cords and they look totally unused, as does the phone itself. This is a very old pic from about 17 years ago, so I'm sorry it's fuzzy. Early digital.

[oldguy]

That looks great Jeff.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Interesting look, Jeff!

I've had a few colored sets (Continentals I believe) that had replacement solid wheels installed. It doesn't surprise me too much, since a D1 is far easier to yank off a table than a 302 or 500, hence a broken fingerwheel from falling.

On one, the repairman who replaced the wheel didn't properly bend the fingerstop beforehand, and simply forced it on. By the time I got it, the wheel had a deep groove carved into it from the fingerstop pressing down while the fingerwheel spun.

[Ktownphoneco]

Thank you all for the comments.     I purchased a number telephones and related equipment last month, and in one of the boxes was 5 or 6 new old stock replacement clear plastic finger wheels, and each one came with the stainless steel spider clip.    So I figured, what the heck, it's a reversible process, put one on a 302 and see what it looks like.

Jeff

[Dan/Panther]

1000 years from now, they will dig that up in the archeological digs of Kingston, and arguments will go on for years about whether they made that phone with that clear plastic dial.

D/P

[Ktownphoneco]

A thousand years from now, the word telephone won't be in any dictionary, nor will the words dial, land line, switchboard, central office, test desk, hook switch or any other telephone term that we discuss on this forum these days.     Besides, when I die, I'm going to be cremated, and that sets coming with me in case I change my mind and need to call out to stop the process.    But with my luck, I probably won't be able to get an outside line.

Jeff

[RB]

The number you dialed, is not in service...
However, your call IS important to us...
Please refrain from croaking, until someone returns from lunch,
And decides to take your call...have a nice day

[Jim Stettler]

A thousand years from now, the word telep

Besides, when I die, I'm going to be cremated, and that sets coming with me in case I change my mind and need to call out to stop the process.   

Jeff

That statement made me think of this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Phone-Calls-Dead-investigation-incredible/dp/0136643345

BTW They say the term "Graveyard Shift" came from the practice of having a bell mounted above a grave and a pull string going to the coffin (in case someone wasn't actually dead when buried).
After the telephone, there are stories of rich folks installing a telephone in the coffin of a loved one, as a high tech version of bell and string.

I don't know how valid the stories are.

Jim S.

[Ktownphoneco]

RB & Jim S., I'm starting to get worried about you two.   

jeff

[Dan/Panther]

I decided on a cell phone with a solar panel, my luck it will be overcast until I suffocate.

D/P