New Guy Looking For Help With AE 80

[Jim King]

I figured out the trouble with getting the card ring back together.  A couple of things, one problem was that the little notched out tang (green arrow) was not rotating all the way into the inside of the outer ring all the way because of a small amount of rust and dirt in that slot inside the ring. The other problem was that notched out metal piece that fits in the back of the dial wasn't seated completely in. I could see that the catch on that notched piece, the female side of the connection (red arrow,) wasn't fastening to the outside clip, so I pressed on it with a screwdriver to bend it a out a bit, when I heard a crack. I thought I had cracked the clear plastic dial, but it was that the back piece was not seated all the way in. After it popped in everything went back together ok. I know now that the pieces all should have been cleaned and shined up well before trying to reassemble it, which would have saved me a lot of time and trouble in the long run.
    Now that I know the phone works, "It's a keeper", I don't put things in my "Blast From the Past" room, (stolen from the title of one of my favorite movies) unless it works, or at least has a reasonable potential of getting fixed.
So, now I'll put some more time into by fixing up the cord using the method shown in the technical section, some more work with some soft-scrub cleaner and some plastic polish should finish her up. I might get ambitious later on and try some sanding to see if I can get back some more of the turquoise color, but just on the back at first to see how deep the discoloration goes. I forgot when I had it apart last, I was going to shine a flashlight from the inside and see if the material had any translucency to it. If it is translucent at all, then I'd imagine the UV rays have discolored it deeper than as much material I'd be willing to remove; especially since the dial face would be problematic to match then, since I have the white characters on it to deal with. It wouldn't be much of a problem, except for the coiled cord looks very blue compared to the rest of the phone.

I've got to get a camera soon. I think it would be fun to have some before and after shots of some things I've worked on. And it would be helpful to future people here that are new to phones – as they say "A picture paints a thousand words" or something like that. My nephew took a picture of the almost finished product for me, but we couldn't figure out how to transfer them to my computer, but when my son gets home I'm sure he'll know, he's up on all the new junk, and doesn't need a magnifying glass to read the screen.

Peace, Jim King

[AE_Collector]

One trick to improve transmission volume is to remove the transmitter capsule and give the edge of it a couple of sharp raps on a hard surface and then put it back together. The carbon granules become tightly packed together over the years and shaking things up a bit frequently helps.

That particular number card assembly is the first one for clear fingerwheels which of course were designed for the first colored 80/90 sets. They are nice but temperamental as well. Looking at all the pieces in your picture I will have to find one to remind myself the order of the parts unless someone else chimes in with the answer. We will get it back together for you though.

Terry

[AE_Collector]

Oops, didn't notice that you had posted again while I was typing. Sometimes you have to push very hard to get the outer number card ring to snap onto the little point on the steal disk. Sounds like you've figured it out.

Just check out some of Jorge's "sanding jobs" to see what can be done with a discolored phone! No need to worry about the numbers/letters on the number ring. They are molded all the way through rather than painted onto the surface. Sand away.

Terry

[Jim King]

Sounds familiar, a good rap to the side of a television, back in the day, often straightened it up too. I guy on craigslist gave me a little 1966 (Space-Age) portable tube TV and when I plugged it the picture was all wavy. I instinctively rapped it on the side and it sprang back to life. Even though many things were moving to all solid-state during that time, this little thing has enough tubes in it that if my furnace went out, I could use it for a portable heater.
Good to know about the number ring; I never would have thought that.
Thanks again, your advice has moved me along faster than I would have on my own.
I can see why some might get attached to these things and collect them, with all the hours one could invest in them, they become worth more than you could recoup. I've got probably twenty hours in this one, give or take, and still got a way to go yet. So when I'm done it's ten bucks initial investment + forty hours labor at about $20 and hour, then I'd have to give you a percentage for a consulting fee   ,don't think I'll be selling it any time soon.

Peace, Jim King

[Jim King]

TA - DA   Got a working AE 80.
I'll check out Jorge's sanding jobs.
I've looked around a bit at some of that stuff - Sounds like it takes some time and patience, if I can stay smart enough to follow that advice, so I'll try to spend time in that project when I'm in a peaceful mood. I know from experience the things I've screwed up by trying to rush things will bug me every time I look at it.
Every time I go in my kitchen I see these five screw that I measured to be hidden behind the bottom of a cabinet door I had to replace some wood in the frame of – no one else noticed and thought it turned out great, but those stupid screws stand out like a sore thumb to me – didn't measure twice. They'll bug me 'till I move the screws up an inch where they should have gone, but then I'll still see the puttied holes because the stain won't match.
Take care, and thanks again for all the help. I really appreciate all the effort you put in to helping me with the project.

Jim King

[stub]

Jim,
       Nice phones!! You know there is no known cure for this phone sickness. With this one under your belt it's just a matter of time till you get another and another  I think it is too late for you!  Great job!!!!   stub

[Jim King]

One trick to improve transmission volume is to remove the transmitter capsule and give the edge of it a couple of sharp raps on a hard surface and then put it back together. The carbon granules become tightly packed together over the years and shaking things up a bit frequently helps.
By the way Terry, Since I'm lacking in telephone component terminology. Is the transmitter capsule, what I might call the microphone in the bottom end of the handset?

That particular number card assembly is the first one for clear fingerwheels which of course were designed for the first colored 80/90 sets. They are nice but temperamental as well. Looking at all the pieces in your picture I will have to find one to remind myself the order of the parts unless someone else chimes in with the answer. We will get it back together for you though.

Terry

By the way Terry, Since I'm lacking in telephone component terminology. Is the transmitter capsule, what I might call the microphone in the bottom end of the handset?

[HarrySmith]

Nice job Jim, great looking phone! Next will be a different color or maybe a different maker. I know, an AE 90 wall phone and a spacesaver in Torquoise to match

[AE_Collector]

By the way Terry, Since I'm lacking in telephone component terminology. Is the transmitter capsule, what I might call the microphone in the bottom end of the handset?

Yup, that's it.

Looking at the picture, I think the handset cord could be a black rubber one that is painted to match the phone color. That is how they made the very first colored cords.

Terry

[JorgeAmely]

Oops, didn't notice that you had posted again while I was typing. Sometimes you have to push very hard to get the outer number card ring to snap onto the little point on the steal disk. Sounds like you've figured it out.

Just check out some of Jorge's "sanding jobs" to see what can be done with a discolored phone! No need to worry about the numbers/letters on the number ring. They are molded all the way through rather than painted onto the surface. Sand away.

Terry

Terry, talking about this one?

http://picasaweb.google.com/Amelyenator/AE80InDawnGray#

[AE_Collector]

Terry, talking about this one?

http://picasaweb.google.com/Amelyenator/AE80InDawnGray#

That is a real good example of Jorge's work and what can be done with a discolored plastic phone. I wonder where he got that piece of junk from in the first place! Had it not been a hard to find AE Dawn Gray 80, it would have been tossed out for sure.

Terry

[JorgeAmely]

 

[Jim King]

By the way Terry, Since I'm lacking in telephone component terminology. Is the transmitter capsule, what I might call the microphone in the bottom end of the handset?

Yup, that's it.

Looking at the picture, I think the handset cord could be a black rubber one that is painted to match the phone color. That is how they made the very first colored cords.

Terry

So that's why the coiled cord didn't fade like the rest of it.
Now I know not to keep trying to scrub off the black rubber showing through. I'm glad I didn't get too crazy with the cleaning and make it worse. I was thinking about using some auto touch up paint on those spots because it comes in such a wide variety of colors.

[Jim King]

Since this AE had the original dial card with the word prefix MYrtle, I was wondering if the phone I bought at a flea market, was local or had been brought here from somewhere else.
I posted an ad in the community section of Craigslist with the heading "1950's Greater Seattle Area History" And asked if anyone remembered the prefix name. I got a couple of responses with links about the two changes that happened with prefixes, after the time when the phone was made.
But then I got a response from a nice lady, who had been a long distance switchboard operator at the time and she remembered the prefix.
So now, in addition to the production date and technical information that Terry translated for me, I know the neighborhood the phone was originally installed in, which happens to be just down the street from the flea-market where I bought it. So, it appears the telephone most likely stayed in the same place for 56 years. The phone is 57 years old but couldn't have been installed 'till 1958 because there was a change in the word prefixes usage that year.
So now it has a little "provenance", as they say on the antiques road show.

[Phonesrfun]

Jim:

If you Google "The Exchange Name Project" you will find a website dedicated to the historic information about telephone exchanges.  It is a very slow, annoying, and cumbersome database to work with, but does have a lot of great information.

I grew up in Portland, and I lived in Seattle for about 5 years, but since exchange names are rarely referred to by their name these days, I don't know about MYrtle.  It appears that Myrtle was one of the 4-digit exchanges, so it would have likely changed its name during the 50's when many exchanges were converted by then Pacific Telephone to 2 letters, a number and then 4 numbers LLN-NNNN

I think most of the conversions fom LL-NNNN occurred in both Portland and Seattle in the 1950's.

Pacific Northwest Bell split off of Pacific Telephone in the '60's and then with divestiture became US West, and is now Qwest.

Your phone, being an AE, was most likely not used in any Bell System offices of Pacific Telephone, but rather GTE.  When that phone was in service, it was most likely with the West Coast Telephone Company, headquartered in Everett, WA.  West Coast was an independant company that serviced mostly rural communities in Oregon and Washington.  I grew up not far from West Coast territory, and their service was awful, compared to Ma Bell.  West Coast, like so many other independants bought their phones from Automatic Electric, and a variety of other suppliers like Kellogg and Stromberg Carlson, to name a couple.  West Coast, being kind of cash strapped, and having a smaller customer base was slower to convert to 7 digit numbers,  but when the boomers started to expand the suburbs out to the rural areas in the 1960's they were pretty much forced to add a digit.

West Coast was bought by General Telephone Company of the Northwest sometime in the 1960's and the headquarters remained in Everett for a long time after that.  Later, it was folded into General Telephone, and they changed their name to GTE.  General Tel owned Automatic Electric, so all phones in General Tel areas eventually became Automatic Electrics.

After divestiture and the all the reshuffling, GTE was bought by Verizon.  Verizon was actually an offshoot of the Bell System in the East, so it is interesting that a former Baby Bell would then buy parts of GTE.  Verizon territories in many parts of Oregon and Washington have now been sold to Frontier, about a year ago.

Probably more information than you were looking for.