Stromberg-Carlson 500

[Mark Stevens]

Hi kids! I thought I'd drop in to ask a stupid question. I picked up a swell Stromberg-Carlson model sc500D yesterday...in a shade of orange that's so bright it's blinding! Anyhow, someone had jerry-rigged it with an external toggle switch to disable the ringer. I removed that and found that the bells were waaay out of adjustment. I'm not an expert on WE 500s, but the SC appears to have a unique ringer.  There's what appears to be a torpedo-shaped weight on the clapper arm, just back from the clapper itself by about a half inch. Once I adjusted the bells the phone rings, but it sounds kind of dull.  I suspect that the "torpedo" is just slightly making contact with the alloy "body" of the ringer...the part behind the bells.  I think that's what's making the ring sound dull.  Anyone run into this before? Maybe I should have posted photos? DUH! I'll try to take a couple in a minute. 

[Dennis Markham]

Mark, it sounds like you have a "frequency ringer".  Something in excess of 20Hz.  Is there a Hz designation somewhere on the ringer?  If it is a frequency ringer, it's not going to ring.  It may just tinkle as it vibrates back and forth.  A photo will help.

Nice to see you back on.  You must have been hearing me call your name in a post yesterday I made regarding a lack of posts in the blog portion of the site.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1245.msg15737#msg15737

[Dan]

I have the exact same phone. It had a freq. ringer like Dennis said. I changed out the housing and married it to a WE500 ($1 yard sale beige) and it rings like a champion. It comes out during halloween , along with the black 500

[mienaichizu]

hey your back Mark!

[McHeath]

Mark?  Mark Stevens?  Is that you?

I concur with everything my esteemed phone phriends say about frequency ringers and all that technical stuff as they are almost never wrong. 

Hey the forums one year anniversary is coming up, maybe we should celebrate with cake and ice cream.  You did a good thing creating this space.