I have been wanting to get an AE 80E but most I come across have stained or otherwise damaged faceplates which has prevented me from buying an otherwise nice phone. Is there any sources for replacements for these?
Seems like Oldphoneworks had those.
D/P
that's also one of my problems because the faceplate is made or cardboard
my faceplate has peeling because of moisture accumulation and then it sticked on the acrylic cover
If all fails, use my method.
Make one on your computer, print it, and install it.
D/P
Ramil, yours is the first I've ever seen with a rural faceplate - I like it.
Dan/Panther, I looked on OPW last night and couldn't find them listed. What type of material would someone use to make a plate?
Foots, just a note, but sometimes at OPW when one doesn't see something listed (and the site can be a bit perplexing trying to find stuff anyway) you can email them, and they might find it for you.
You might try e-mailing Ron at phonecoinc.com and see if he has any. He seems to have just about everything.
Also keep an eye out on ebay. I've seen people selling NOS multi-colored packages of them in the past.
Thanks guys. I still need to get an 80E but I'll start checking around ahead of time. I like these phones, they are some of the latest original designs of rotary dial phones made. I have seen an AE/GTE rotary dial phone that was made in the early 80's with cool 80's style graphics on it, but I can't recall the model nor where I saw the picture.
Foots;
I do the artwork in photoshop type program, then print on cardstock. You can then laminate to thicker stock if needed. I then cover with clear film. and cut out and install uinder the faceplate.
D/P
Quote from: foots on August 21, 2009, 12:42:28 PM
Ramil, yours is the first I've ever seen with a rural faceplate - I like it.
Dan/Panther, I looked on OPW last night and couldn't find them listed. What type of material would someone use to make a plate?
Most of my AE phones has a rural faceplate, very much common here in the Philippines
When you get a clean AE cardboard facemat, the thing to do is laminate it in thin plastic on both sides, and then very very carefully cut out the hole(s) for the dial or touchtone keys. This will prevent it going bad over the years. Frankly I wish AE had stuck with proper faceplates painted on the reverse side.
A laminated facemat is just a tiny bit thicker and will cause the faceplate to not be as easily clipped in place. However it will also tend to prevent the dial from wobbling, which is a problem with the real 80-E sets, where the dial was mounted on a fiddly plastic bracket. (There are type 80 base units that were "converted" to 80-E by changing the housing, and the dials on those are solidly mounted to the usual metal AE bracket.)
The first generation AE plates that were clear plastic painted on the back of the ribbed plastic. They had two different colors to them. I think they put gold or silver paint on the back and then wiped it off so that it remained in the grooves and then they painted the entire back with the final color. They were very nice looking.
I have some extra paper mats here somewhere for 80E's and I have seen them on ebaY as well.
Terry
I also found some spares and listed them in the classifieds. Still have a few.
Does somebody have a file they can attach that I can print out? I started out detesting these phones for their "boxy" look, but after spending a lot of time and effort getting a yellowed one white again using retro-brite, I've gotten to like the one I have, even though it doesn't ring (frequency ringer).
I want to add to the "snow white" look by just printing out the faceplate on regular printer paper and putting it under the plastic cover over the existing faceplate.
I'm pretty good with computer graphics, and am always up for a challenge. Can you scan an existing faceplate? If so, note the DPI resolution used, and I can try to duplicate the faceplate at its exact size at a much higher resolution for printing.
Why not just get some original sets? I still have a few...
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3307.0
PM or email for details.
What about this:(http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3033.0;attach=25034;image)
Its in this thread: http://tinyurl.com/6xsathc (http://tinyurl.com/6xsathc)
A possible solution for folks who don't have color printers:
Scan a white one or a light ivory one, using a darker background material behind it that translates to a light gray when rendered in black and white (this enables you to see the exact outline of the facemat against the background). Photoshop the result so it's a black and white picture, and turn the background gray into a half-tone gray.
Ideally do one version with the subtle horizontal lines, and one version without, since some printers can't handle them. Ideally include a full-size ruler on the page so the actual printout can be adjusted to match precisely.
Now this can be printed on a laser printer or other black-and-white printer, on your choice of colored paper. The halftone background will enable you to cut it out exactly correctly. Then you can laminate if you choose; or if not, print another one any time you need it.
The same process can be done with a black or dark gray one, but since computer printers don't do "white," all you can do is print in black or halftone gray on white paper stock.
IMHO the 80-Es are going to become classics at some point, so we should be thinking about preservation and restoration issues now while there are still stocks of parts such as facemats available.
It would be a fairly easy task for a professional printer to produce these things in their original colors and in other interesting colors, even potentially on paper-thin plastic stock that could be laminated front-side only for permanence. I have a professional printing shop in my client list so I'll ask them next time I talk with them.
I have scanned my black plate, filtered it and got a plain black background, and white letter/numbers.
Turning this to a negative, black letters on whit background. Colored paper may give a nice background.
For fun I made it with numbers only, and even reverse dial for NZ or Oslo.
If you want other backgrounds you could print out a picture, and print the letters in black on the top.
No need for advanced software. I have a color laserjet, its good enough to be better than the old one, but not original.
You may take a look at my labels at http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v480/dsk/Telephone/labels%20and%20signs/ (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v480/dsk/Telephone/labels%20and%20signs/)
Use them if you want, if you want to copy or distribute, please tell about where you got them.
dsk
An original scan would be nice, and the ruler is a very good idea. Typically, JPG and PNG photos contain DPI (dots per inch) information which tell the print resolution. If it was scanned at 300 dpi and printed at 300 dpi, in theory, it should be identical in size. Unfortunately, Flickr and Photobucket will resize photos, paying no attention to the DPI info. The scan of the original in the post above will print out very small if printed at its marked resolution, and there's no real way to tell what its original resolution was.
What I'd like to do is recreate something in vector format that is clean and very high resolution that can be recreated in any color or negative. Retaining the original DPI is important, Flickr and Photobucket are not ideal for this.
This is, of course, if you are cheap, and not willing to buy an original from Paul!
Quote from: MDK on May 12, 2011, 08:18:12 AM
An original scan would be nice, and the ruler is a very good idea. Typically, JPG and PNG photos contain DPI (dots per inch) information which tell the print resolution. If it was scanned at 300 dpi and printed at 300 dpi, in theory, it should be identical in size. Unfortunately, Flickr and Photobucket will resize photos, paying no attention to the DPI info. The scan of the original in the post above will print out very small if printed at its marked resolution, and there's no real way to tell what its original resolution was.
What I'd like to do is recreate something in vector format that is clean and very high resolution that can be recreated in any color or negative. Retaining the original DPI is important, Flickr and Photobucket are not ideal for this.
This is, of course, if you are cheap, and not willing to buy an original from Paul!
In this case, I actually are really cheap, my AE80E are definitely no good one, and had a hard life before it came to retirement at my home.
I have these scans in original as JPG files, not the best, but reasonably size for email. I have had some joy of being able to make those not to bad copies.
I would like to get hints about how to store and make share those as other may use them temporary or just as a cheap solution.
dsk
I completely understand. I am just a cheap as anyone! Send me a PM, and I'll give you an email address to which you can send the original scan. If possible, I'd prefer a scan that has not been "photoshopped" in any way.
If I need to share files bigger than allowed by forums or email, I sometimes use 4shared.com and post a link to download it.
:D Thank you MDK
I have done a new experiment. The file you made from my scan, printed on the stiffest paper I could get through the printer, baked in plastic, and put on my phone ;D
Frankenphone?? maybe, but I had been fooled to believe this was the right one if this was the first AE80E i ever had seen. (actually it is, but with the original faceplate, full of scratches, and the paper behind had been almost wet.
The scan and your brilliant photoshop work made it very good!
Thank you!
dsk
No problem, amigo. Looks good!
No telephone design has made me more frustrated, I "don't like it" but .... 8)???8)
It makes me some kind of creative.
dsk
I wanted it a little bit more glossy, so I laminated it:
dsk
Light colors in the picture is not that easy for a black phone.
Probably OK for a lighter colored phone.
dsk
Just spotted a seller on ebay with a bunch of AE 80 faceplatyes if anyone is still interested:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Rotary-Dial-Telephone-Number-Paper-Plate-Tan-Stripes-Print-/350496042429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519b312dbd
I have a dugout ;) and found my old AE80E and an old Glow-In-the-Dark Sign with some fields not filled with printing.
So I did cut out the shape of the plastic front.
Then I printed out an oldfashioned overhead sheet and cut out the text.
Her is the result, taking some photos in the bathroom because it is dark with the lights off. I had to leave the door partly open to catch the contour of the phone:
Nice!
Jury rig, yes. But, It has a neat Mexican look. I kind of like it. Is it lit?
Bill Cahill
That is kinda of material charging up in light, and glowing for some hours after it gets dark. I guess we could by some lumicent sheets and cut it as I did now, and supply it with power like the old starlites, or use more modern high frequency adapters.
dsk
Quote from: Bill Cahill on June 13, 2018, 08:17:05 AM
Jury rig, yes. But, It has a neat Mexican look. I kind of like it. Is it lit?
Bill Cahill
Bill !!
We've missed you here lately. How are things, hopefully all is well. Good to see you here online.
Terry