cheap spaded to modular adapter

[kwatter04]

I just bought this phone on eBay, a pink 500 which by the looks of it is a birthday set from 11-57...

http://tinyurl.com/3twy4j3

It has the original pink wall cord with spaded ends and I need to find a cheap spade to modular adapter. I looked on Oldphoneworks, where they are $3.95 but they charge OVER $10  for shipping!! I also found them on eBay, where they are $10 + $4 shipping!! I just can't win! I'm not spending almost $15 for a cheap little plastic connector! any ideas on where to find them for cheaper???

[bigdaddylove]

I get mine from my local Ace hardware. I buy the wall jack that opens up like clam. On the opposite side of the jack is a female modular connection. Wall jack costs 2.99.

[GG]

What I do is use modular *jacks* with screw terminals.  Most of these have "mouse-hole" shaped wire entrance points, that are the right size for a telephone set line cord to fit.   These can be obtained for about $3 - $5 at almost any hardware store, electronics store (e.g. Radio Snack), etc.

I screw down the spade connectors from the phone to the appropriate terminals in the jack (Red and Green) and snap the cover back on the jack.  The strain relief from the cord usually fits inside neatly, but if it's likely to get loose and cause trouble such as shorting two contacts together, it can be screwed down to an idle screw terminal or otherwise made safe.

Then I plug a regular modular line cord into the nearest wall jack, and the other end of it into the jack that's at the end of the telephone cord, and that takes care of that. 

This method has three advantages compared to using the usual modular *plug* adaptor with screw terminals.   One, it doesn't require bending the spade lugs to fit into a tiny space, and it's more friendly to older type phone cords with large spade lugs.  Two, it's more robust than those modular *plug* adaptors there is a little press-tab on a slider that presses the actual modular tab down and often breaks.  Three, by using a regular modular cord between the *jack* that's attached to the phone, and the wall outlet, you can get longer cord lengths than if you used only the cord on the phone itself. 

There are some foreign cords that won't fit into some jacks: for example the large block ends on GPO cords (English phones e.g. 706, 746) are rather large, but they do fit some makes of jacks so it's just a question of keeping a bunch of different ones around and using what you need for any particular project.

[Greg G.]

What I do is use modular *jacks* with screw terminals.  Most of these have "mouse-hole" shaped wire entrance points, that are the right size for a telephone set line cord to fit.   These can be obtained for about $3 - $5 at almost any hardware store, electronics store (e.g. Radio Snack), etc.

I screw down the spade connectors from the phone to the appropriate terminals in the jack (Red and Green) and snap the cover back on the jack.  The strain relief from the cord usually fits inside neatly, but if it's likely to get loose and cause trouble such as shorting two contacts together, it can be screwed down to an idle screw terminal or otherwise made safe.

Then I plug a regular modular line cord into the nearest wall jack, and the other end of it into the jack that's at the end of the telephone cord, and that takes care of that. 

I think I use the same thing, only I call them "biscuits".  I found a quantity on ebay for cheap one time, I also found a bag of them at Goodwill for cheap also, might also check the local Dollar Store too.  I also found a box of short mod-to-mod line cords to use with them at Goodwill.

[GG]

YES!  Brinybay, exactly: Suttle is the best brand precisely because they way they are constructed is most conducive to handling the widest possible range of types of strain reliefs on telephone cords.  Also Suttle has been around since forever-ago making telephone materiel such as plugs & jacks, and their stuff is high quality. 

They are also widely available at Graybar for a few bucks each, in the usual dazzling rainbow of colors (white, "electrical ivory", beige; would be nice if they were also available in black but alas no such luck last time I checked). 

[kwatter04]

Thanks for the input. I think I will go this route and attach one of these to the end of the cord.  I will have to get one this weekend because the phone will be here on Monday and I'm just dying to see if it works!

[Babybearjs]

go to www.allelectronics.com and look under telephone accessories. they have 4,6, and 8 pin baseboard jacks for less then $1.50/each.  they do have quanity discounts. I just bought a dozen of each and am using them on my phones.