302 Arrived today. Step by Step Cleanup. With photos.

[benhutcherson]

All of my 302s are genuine Bell System products, and I have them both ways. I'll check, but I don't think that I've noticed any correlation between year and bell type.

Presumably, all WWII era 302s would have had steel bells, as copper(and in turn brass) was rationed for the war effort.

[benhutcherson]

Okay, here's a report after opening all of my 302s

5302 with base(and ringer) from '41-brass
302 from '49-brass
302 from '52-steel
302 from '52-steel

[Dan/Panther]

Ben;
Was there production of phones during the war for civilian use ? I know in radios they were not.
I didn't think of the War rationing.

D/P

A little trick I learned as a mechanic over the years.
Concerning screws into plastic.
The cradle assembly on my phone has one screw into a metal stud, and two directly into the Thermalplastic. 
When you get the single screw into the metal stud holding the assembly in place, put the other screws into the holes, and turn them backwards with a small screwdriver, when you feel them pop into place, then immediately turn them the correct direction to tighten them, this will start the screw back into it's proper orientaion, and not damage the threads.

D/P

[McHeath]

Dennis did an article about brass and steel gongs in the phones and how WW2 and Korea caused steel to be used at various times.  My 51' model 354 has brass gongs, but that was early in the year when it was made and early in the war as well.  Funny how we are so used to not thinking about rationing anymore when there is a war on.

[Dan/Panther]

McHeath;
Maybe he could post a link for us somewhere? Dennis ?

Next before I fasten the top to the frame, I have to clean up the feet.
Mine are the leather type, and very dirty.

Leather being nothing more than skin, I figured, WASH IT.
So I took the feet, and scrubbed them in dish soap, blew them off with high pressure air, then when thoroughly dry, I used  a small brass bristled brush like a small toothbrush, I bought from Harbor Freight, to fluff up the suede.
The picture shows the results.
Not too bad for old skin.... BTW, the one on the left is the dirty one.

And finally all four feet back on the bottom frame.
Now to connect top to bottom, and then final wiring.


D/P

[Dan/Panther]

Here is the base mounted back to the top of the phone.
All wires hooked back up, and the handset cord connected to the phone.
Notice the tie wrap, and shrink tube to protect the wires.

Next finish the handset and connect it to the handset cord.

D/P

[benhutcherson]

Dan,
Good question about telephones for civilian use during the war. Based on what I've seen, I would wager to guess that Bell got by as much as they could on refurbishing and modernizing existing equipment to meet any demand that might be present(see the thread on my 637A subset).

With that said, however, I'm sure that production didn't stop completely. After all, the communications network, as it existed in the 1940s, would have been absolutely critical to national defense, and I can't see the government putting a complete damper on any new development. The same could not be said of radios, or Lionel trains, or pretty much every other consumer product which has a hole in production during the war years.

If you look at your 302, you'll see that there's a sort of hook on the front of the hook switch. Normally, the wires that run to the dial go under this hook. This does a rather nice job of keeping them out of the way. See the below photo.

By the way, let me also complement you on how nice of a job you have done fixing this back up.

[HobieSport]

On that note, Ben, I have a '48 based 302 with components from 1943.

Go Dan Go!  Looks like you're in the home stretch.

[JimH]

Matt, be careful when opening those phones.  You never know what's going to be inside..............when you get a minute, check out this posting I made a couple of years ago on my web site. 

http://www.vintagerotaryphones.com/?p=19

Dennis

I know what you mean, Dennis.  I bought a Princess ten-button (okay, pink, guys get your jabs overwith)  and when I opened up the earpiece and removed the receiver capsule, there were condoms in there!  The expiration date on them was 1979!  I could just imagine some young girl hiding them in there so her momma wouldn't find them.  And then she had her little boyfriend over when the parents weren't home.  Funny what you find.  I call it my condom phone.  Of course, after cleaning and polishing it, I couldn't remove the condoms.  They went right back in there.  So many phones have interesting stories!

[McHeath]

Hilarious story!  The only thing I ever find in old phones is mold and dead bugs.  I never would have thought of hiding stuff in a handset, that's really clever. 

[Mark Stevens]

Here is ringer assembly back on the frame, and the next photo is the Bells, being they were not brass, it made clean up much easier.
I assume, NON Bell system phones got steel bells whereas, Bell System phones were Brass ?

The use of steel for the gongs was initiated during WWII, as brass was essential to the war effort. But it's really not that simple, as some brass gongs were made during the war, and some steel ones after.  I've never heard that non-Bell phones got the steel ones though.  My 354 (the one that Dennis restored for me) has steel gongs, and it's from 1952.  Perhaps a Korean War thing?

[Dan/Panther]

Matt was right, we're in the home stretch.
I polished up the handset, and reinstalled it onto the main body. Using the original clothe covered cord that came with the phone. I don't think it was original to the phone, as the colors were not what were designated according to the schematic. it shows Red, Black, and White, where the cord has Green, Red, and Yellow. Maybe the colors of the Company that purchased the phone from W.E.
I plan on doing more polishing on the handset, but I think it will be O.K. for the end of this thread.

First I will repost the photo of the phone as I received it, then how it looks now.
It's not showroom, and I'm not a professional photographer, but for the difference in what it cost me to refurbish it, compared to the going price for professionally refurbished phones, I'll put the money in my pocket. Or better yet, buy several more sleeper phones.
Total investment, about $40.00 including shipping etc., total time, about a 40 hour week. Or a long weekend project.

Please if I've mislead anyone with misinformation please correct it as soon as you see it. I'm new to all this, and certainly don't want to trip anyone up, or pretend to know more than I do. I learned a lot about phones with this project, and look forward to my next, a Redbar Kellogg.

Enjoy;
D/P

[BDM]

Very nice Dan What a difference!!

[bingster]

Very nice job, Dan.  Believe it or not, I think my favorite part is the cord.  It cleaned and straightened really well.

[McHeath]

Fantastic work!  Must be very satisfying to have transformed this 302.  It started out looking like something that you would give a kid to play with in their treehouse, and ended up a phone anyone would be proud to display and use.  Gotta get me a 302.