I finally found a WE 544 on ebay a few weeks ago, something I have been looking for for awhile. It looked like it had the original straight handset cord, and along with an 851, I thought it was a great deal. Well, I won it for $50.99, and then FedEx lost it! >:( Eight days later, the package finally showed up.
I figured the phone was well used, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The typical U -shaped wear marks normally found on 500 cradles aren't here at all--just a few single scratches running down the sides. Likewise, the bezel still has perfect, even texture, and the fingerwheel has no missing or worn paint. The big bonus here--the original line cord is still wrapped in the factory twine! :o I don't think this was ever used!
For $25.50 per phone, this was a great deal!!
www.ebay.com/itm/172998816752
Very nice! I had been looking for one too, and just also picked it up on eBay. A little polishing, and checking the multiline mechanism, and it'll be ready to use with my 551...
Jim
Quote from: compubit on December 14, 2017, 06:55:16 PM
Very nice! I had been looking for one too, and just also picked it up on eBay. A little polishing, and checking the multiline mechanism, and it'll be ready to use with my 551...
Jim
Yeah, I'm still looking for a shoebox KSU for use with my multilines. Not now though, WAYYY too many projects going on at once, and my 544 is my only multiline wired properly. I also do NOT want to get into a project involving wiring right now... ::)
I give up....what are the other 9 items that came with this package?
Terry
Quote from: AE_Collector on December 14, 2017, 08:17:36 PM
I give up....what are the other 9 items that came with this package?
Terry
I don't know what the small black pieces were originally used for, maybe gooseneck transmitters or something, but I've seen them made into salt and pepper shakers, using a brass or steel ringer bell as the foot and to keep them from tipping over. The covers are like G3 handset caps and you can put colored caps on the shakers and even have transmitter and receiver caps to make them different. Below is a picture of some I gave a phone collector friend once many years ago. They're not what I would call attractive or even functional, but you have to admit they're unusual.
Yeah, I have no clue what they are. Heck, I haven't even unwrapped them from the box yet!
Are they worth anything? I'll assume not much, but I don't think anything in this lot was ever used, including the 851.
Is it a transmitter cap screwed onto the back housing? If so, they are microphones used along CO frames to pick up the frame man talking to the Test Desk. Test Desk talked over the WECo horn speakers we've seen here before and there were microphones made from transmitters in the frame every 10 or 15 verticals. The hole in the back was where they screwed into conduit as a mount.
Terry
I've got 3 of these, the 544... took one and pulled the 588 keyset out of it and used it in a 2564, just switched out the 636 for the 588 keyset. works great, nice way to make a 3 line TT phone...
I got it all cleaned up, and it looks great! The handset cord is a little wacky from storage, and the line cord is covered in some sort of white coating (probably from outgassing in a closed box), but the plastics are pretty much perfect. What I thought were a bunch of scratches in the housing from the handset were just rub marks on the surface, and they came out easily. This is definitely NOS.
Nice clean up.... hope you put it to use....
Christian;
Could you maybe post a couple bottom photos and maybe an internal one ? What is the date ? I'll guess 1954.
D/P
I actually did get a shot of the base in the "before" pictures (dated 2-55, so you were close). I'll try getting some internal pictures sometime soon--everything looks new inside! :o