Chrome bands for AE handsets?

[Greg G.]

Can chrome bands be added to AE handsets that do not have them, such as those for the AE 40s and 50s, or are the chrome-banded handsets made differently?

[LarryInMichigan]

The handsets are the same, but the caps are different.  Caps with chrome bands tend to be quite expensive.  It's usually cheaper to buy a phone with a handset with the bands, especially where the handset is incorrect for the phone.  I managed to buy one that way.

Larry

[dencins]

I have stripped the paint off many handset bands for AE phones and plated them nickel.  All the ones I have done so far are threaded on.  Since I only get the bands I can not tell what handset they came off but I assume they were put back on the original handset.  As long as the bands are either brass or steel and you can remove them from the caps, they can be plated.

I have found the painted bands were sandblasted by AE before painting giving it a rougher surface.  I found if it is sanded, polished, copper plate, polished then nickel plate, you get a finish that looks just like the chrome bands.

An example is here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/dencins/AutomaticElectricTrimParts#5641996378317711634

Plating is $5.00 each band plus return shipping.

Dennis Hallworth

[Greg G.]

Ok, the answer is you can't just slap the bands on to a handset w/o them, they need a cap designed for them.

[Doug Rose]

Ok, the answer is you can't just slap the bands on to a handset w/o them, they need a cap designed for them.

that is correct...Doug

[rdelius]

You can buy new bands designed to adapt to a bandless handset from whomever bought the Chicago Old Telephone co from
Robby

[DavePEI]

You can buy new bands designed to adapt to a bandless handset from whomever bought the Chicago Old Telephone co from
Robby

Don Woodbury, OldPhoneWorks.

[AE_Collector]

Part of the problem here is that we are talking two different types of handset. Brinybay's initial question was about the AE handsets on type 40 and 50 phones. This is the type 41 handset. As mentioned the handset is the same but the caps have a recess molded in to slide the band onto as compared to the caps that were not designed to have bands.

Dennis pictures (FANTASTIC by the way!) are of the older AE handset (type 38) that all came with metal bands although they were most commonly painted black rather than chromed. Very nice of AE to use the metal bands on all the earlier handsets. It used to be rare to find a chromed one but they could soon be more common in chrome than in black paint!

So the fianl anser for Briny is that NO, you can't just get chrome bands for the type 41 handset as they won't fit over the cap like the "after market" bands. I know someone who was able to turn the non banded caps on a lather or something to put bands onto them. Being bakelite I would think tha tquite a few caps would be broken trying to turn them in a lathe though.

Terry

[recrum]

Does the band color say anything of the age of the phone? Be it chrome or black bands.  I'm just trying different ways of approximating age of model 40's.  Like the transmiter or receivers themselves. One modal 40 I have the transmitter is silver, one I just received today is black.

[AE_Collector]

Does the band color say anything of the age of the phone? Be it chrome or black bands.  I'm just trying different ways of approximating age of model 40's.  Like the transmiter or receivers themselves. One modal 40 I have the transmitter is silver, one I just received today is black.

Black painted bands on a type 41 handset (used on 40's and 50's) are relatively rare. The very earliest type 41 handsets had the black painted brass bands as a holdover from the earlier type 38 handsets used on the 1A, 2, 34, 35 qnd other phones. Of course chromed metal bands were an option as well.

Then to save money they ditched the metal bands if it was going to just be black and they started routing the decorative grooves directly into the bakelite cap. These are pretty rare as well. Then they ditched the routing of the black caps and just left them smooth. I would guess that the type 41 handsets with black bands and routed bakelite caps were just the first year or two at the most. The type 41 handset was likely made from about 1938 or 1939 through 1959 or 1960.

As for transmitter capsules, from what I have seen the black ones are the very oldest and then they changed to brass colored. The silver (aluminum) ones are newer, I would have thought they might be newer than the type 41 handsets (from the type 81/810 handsets used on 80's and 90's) but maybe they changed to that type during the years that the type 41 was still being manufactured.

Terry

[GG]

Partial convergence here.  For type 41 handsets, yes, black transmitters are oldest, brass is approx. late 50s to mid 70s, and aluminum (silvery-looking) is mid 70s through to the end of AE. 

I'm not aware of any silver/aluminum colored transmitter capsules that were original to the type 41 handset. 

The ones for the 41 handset were labeled 41.  The ones for 80 and 80-E were labeled 810. 

All of these are mechanically interchangeable, as if WE had kept using F1 transmitters in 500 sets through their entire production run.

We all got spoiled by WE's impeccable dating of every component larger than a screw, so by comparison, figuring out dates for AE is a puzzle, and often it's difficult to get any closer than within a decade. 

[recrum]

This is all very intriguing I have to say.  I love playing detective.  I'm going to have to start a Picasa album to actually photograph and document the slight but noticeable difference of the two type 40's I have. As I have a silver (ish, with a definite texture) transmitter capsule labeled type 41 and a black (perfectly smooth) one also marked type 41.  I could go on and on, but I save it for the Picasa album.  I'm definitely learning a lot here on the forum, as I didn't think about them simply grooving the plastic on the handsets compared to using true black painted bands.

[recrum]

Picasa album up.
https://picasaweb.google.com/103615949723585341984/AEType40?authuser=0&feat=directlink ( dead link 03-11-21 )

[DavePEI]

Can chrome bands be added to AE handsets that do not have them, such as those for the AE 40s and 50s, or are the chrome-banded handsets made differently?

Two pairs of chrome caps I ordered at the same time as I ordered my AE 34. These are for my AE 40 and AE 50s. Should dress 'em up nicely!

Dave