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Snagged my first Mercedes Dial on an AE 21 Candlestick off of eBay

Started by TelePlay, June 27, 2016, 09:37:29 PM

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TelePlay

Just a partial, gravity held re-assembly but just had to do this to see how it would work out, and how it has changed so far from as received. It's not going to be worth selling but I sure did learn a lot so far in trying to rebuild this into a working phone, be it a bit of franken or not.

Pourme

Quote from: TelePlay on September 18, 2016, 12:26:06 PM
Just a partial, gravity held re-assembly but just had to do this to see how it would work out, and how it has changed so far from as received. It's not going to be worth selling but I sure did learn a lot so far in trying to rebuild this into a working phone, be it a bit of franken or not.
Talk about effort!... You have done more to and for that phone than I could imagine..... What a big difference!
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

TelePlay

Quote from: Pourme on September 18, 2016, 02:25:56 PM
Talk about effort!...

Ever start a project you thought would be a piece of cake and end up running head first into both a time pit and a money pit? Just finished creating the last physical item I needed to complete the phone, the insulator to keep the terminal strip metal parts from coming into contact with the phones metal mounting plate. That thin piece AE_Collector showed in this photo



Bakelite sheets are hard to find so after a bit of research, I settle on a 0.06" thick Black Paper Base Micarta Laminate Sheet, a polycarbonate material. Got it from ePlastics in 12" x 12" sheets for $2.84 a sheet plus S&H (5 sheets for $24), their part number XBLK0.060X12X12. Only place that would ship a small quantity of small sized sheets for a reasonable price.

I settled on a NEMA XX grade which I hoped would be easy to work - WRONG! Discovered trying to cut one at a time resulting in failure so glued four 3" x 5" pieces together with rubber cement and put a size matching piece of soft white plastic on the top and bottom of the stack. Using a template created from the phones mounting plate, first drilled the 3 small mounting holes, bolted the stack together and then drilled the large holes. Then cut the stack into the final shape.

In the photo, started with a 12" square sheet, the template, the stack and the terminal strip to be mounted (missing from the lamp phone purchased). The center image shows one insulating strip from the stack and place it on the back side of the terminal strip. The image on the right shows the terminal strip correctly mounted and the 3 "extra" insulating strips.

A lot of time but learned, the hard way, a few new techniques in the area of "made out of whole cloth" and I'm glad I didn't clock my time spent so far on this part and the rest of the phone. Have a rough idea of parts costs which goes to the money pit comment. But, hey, it's a hobby so it's supposed to be all that, right?

Next project is to create all of the wiring for the stick and the ringer box, and hope it works . . . 

AE_Collector

Wow, what a process! I wish I had 1/10 of the energy needed to work on a project like that to restore an old phone.

Nice work John and good luck with the wiring harness!

Terry

Pourme

I agree with Terry...thanks for sharing your  progress with this stick. I wish I had the ability to put my prized candlestick in as good condition as you are doing!

Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

TelePlay

Couldn't sleep so went into the dungeon to get a head start on Sunday's work - wait, it is Sunday, oh well.

I was surprised to get this thing back together from memory and didn't have any parts left over, or missing anything either.

It may not be catalog authentic but is does look nice, at least to me.

Pourme

Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

WEBellSystemChristian

Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

Doug Rose

Amazing job John.....it looks fantastic!! I am happy to see I am not the only one with a dungeon  ...Doug
Kidphone

AE_Collector

Ask him for some pictures of his "telephone restoration shops"!

Terry

TelePlay

Quote from: AE_Collector on September 25, 2016, 07:39:55 PM
Ask him for some pictures of his "telephone restoration shops"!

Terry,

If I don't post that photo of my dungeon I sent you earlier this year, you will, right?

This photo of my workshop was taken earlier this year, January or so, when I had just finished making the Find of the Year Trophy (center left in the photo) for presentation after the poll ended. You can see it sitting on the left side center on the bench away from the room's main path so it wouldn't get bumped, fall to the floor and break, like that's never happened in the past.

TelePlay

Every time I turn around, something else needs fixing.

Working on wiring the phone, I discovered that the "lamp builder" cut the ears off of two leaf springs, a thin one and the outer spring thick one.

Got two brass strips, about 0.04 and 0.02 inches thick each, and cut out the missing ears. Next step is connecting them. Thought of wiring the short stubs but didn't want to take the change of a short, being so close to the pile up so will extend the ears or tabs to normal positioning.

I bet it was easier to make the lamp out of the phone than it is for me to make a phone out of that lamp.

rdelius

AE switches of that vintage have some common parts.AE wall telephone switch pile ups should help

TelePlay

Quote from: rdelius on October 03, 2016, 06:48:30 PM
AE switches of that vintage have some common parts.AE wall telephone switch pile ups should help

Thanks, Robby.

That's good to know but I don't have an AE parts wall phone or a parts bin with this pile.

As such, I went forward with my thinking and it worked out well.

After cutting and filing the two new ears to a near exact match, I drilled each and matched them to the leaf. Used one strand of a power line cord, very fine copper, to string them together, to hold them in place for soldering and after being soldered, would provide some strength, more than just a soldered butt connection.

Ground off the solder, brushed it near level, fine brushed the joint and reassembled the hook switch. Thanks to Mr. Dremel and the appropriate tools, it didn't take long at all and both joints turned out to be "0" resistance joint.

Images show the steps taken to complete the repair and the final product.

Pourme

What a fine job....manufacturing parts!....Pretty cool to see what emerges from that dungeon! ^ ^ ^ ^
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service