Thank you Greg (BrinyBay)!
I am now the proud owner of a Toaster Phone, a.k.a. U.S. Army Signal Corps telephone TP-6-A, One each.
Made by Connecticut Telephone, this puppy wieghs in at just about 6 pounds on the bathroom scale. These were apparently used as dumbells in US Army Basic Training, or as counterweights on a large cannon to keep recoil to a minumum. You could also inflict bodily harm on the enemy by throwing one at that enemy.
It was in really nice shape when I got it from Greg, but I did replace the handset cord and I cleaned an oiled the dial prior to putting it in. This one has a WE 6A dial that probably came from another source, but it works great. It rings, it dials; it talks.
So, now I have a Toaster phone.... Yay!!!
Here is a photo. All I did was polish it with some auto polishing compound. I was not energetic enough to do a paint job. Besides this one has character.
Thank you Greg. I am pleased.
Bill,
Welcome to the toaster club.
(http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss74/LarryinMichigan/Connecticut%20TP-6-A/Front.jpg)
Mine has the original rubber handset cord which barely stretches enough to hold the handset to my ear while the phone is on the desk in front of me. Otherwise, it's a nice phone. The dial center retainer ring on mine was courtesy Jorge and Dennis.
Larry
I am also a member ;D
I picked this up at the end of the show in Shipshewanna. There were a bunch of boxes of phones & junk left by the people who purchased them. One guy bought 2 boxes of phones but only wanted 2 phones out of them. I went through the junk and pulled out a few things including this hideous toaster phone. I was going to wait until restoration was finished to post but when I saw this topic I had to post :)
I recently saw one of these in person for the first time. I have to confess that it's rather homely looking to me, but beauty is in the eye eh? It's fascinating how they took the same basic phone as the Dreyfuss designed 302 and totally changed it into these puffy phones by the simple change of the shell shape.
The one I saw they wanted 40 dollars for, it was in pretty good shape.
I missed this somehow. Now we can talk "toast" on our toaster phones. (That is, if I ever get it working again.)
I started work on this Toaster Phone today so I thought I would share the progress with the gang here :)
I have attached one picture and the rest are here: http://tinyurl.com/29azwql (dead link 4/9/2018 )
Found 4 different coats of paint, the top White which was a poor job, then Black which was a thorough coat followed by Gold which was a decent job and finally Black again which I am assuming was the original paint. I was going to spray it but I have decided to get a good paint job, I am going to give it to a friend who paints cars to do. He will use a much better paint and do a better job of applying it plus clear coat. More to come ;D
Harry:
Looking forward to see the results.
Harry:
I am excited to see how it turns out too. If it painted with a good automotive paint, it should look super. I believe these were painted with laquer, which is what cars are typically painted with. Can't wait.
Harry...I picked up one years ago that was Red with a Connecticut Red thermoplastic handset that was an exact color match to the WE thermoplastic 302. This would look very cool red. JMO....Doug
Yeah, Red probably would look cool but I have Black handsets ;D
Paint the handset. Especially if you have a beater WE F1. Give it a try to see how it accepts the paint. They look almost identical to the plastic Conn handsets. I found out the hard way that they are plastic. I tried to strip paint off one and it melted!....Doug
I'm not finished painting yet but this will give you some idea as to how it will look.
Dougpav
Doug, that looks very nice! I like the black handset with the red body. Did you paint it yourself? What did you use to get that beautiful result?
OK, that two tone looks really good :D
I may do that ;D
Thanks ;D
Thanks Dennis, that is one of my paint test phones. I started on it last year. I plastic bead blasted it then gave it a couple of coats with a spray can. As I was moving it into a sunny spot to dry, I dropped it on the cement. Can I say $&!* on the Forum? After sanding the scrapes out of it a couple of weeks ago I used a different paint in my air brush and put it under a halogen light to bake it. I'll probably give it a few more coats and then finish it off with some clear coat. I'll post more pics when finished.
Dougpav
A favor please :)
If you can would someone here with a better computer & picture editor plus more talent than I posess change the color of Doug's phone? I am thinking about painting mine in some wild color like Lime Green or Yellow or Purple or something unusual. I figure a preview would help me decide but I do not posess any of the things to do it digitally.
Much Thanks ;D
Quote from: Wallphone on August 30, 2010, 01:07:36 PM
As I was moving it into a sunny spot to dry, I dropped it on the cement.
Don't you just hate when that happens?!
It would have been much better if I dropped it before I bead blasted it, but noooo. It's like dropping your toast butter side down. Or when you wire a three phase motor you should have a 50/50 chance of getting the rotation right. I have a lot of catching up to do on those odds. Murphy is alive and well.
Dougpav
Quote from: HarrySmith on August 30, 2010, 08:00:36 PM
A favor please ... change the color of Doug's phone?
Something like these? They're certainly colorful!
Thanks Bingster ;D
Very Cool ;D
Looks like a paint job by photoshop. Nicely done.
Yes, very nicely done :)
Just what I was looking for ;D
Thanks Again!!
Bingster:
I like the Mediterranean Blue toaster phone! Very pretty.
cool colorful phone
I'll also join you guys in the toaster club
Yours is very nice.
thanks, I have to look for a fitting dial card for that I can print, any suggestion?
The Number Card Archive has many AE number cards that you can print out that will fit this dial:
http://www.telephonearchive.com/numbercards/ae/ae_blanks_forms.html
http://www.telephonearchive.com/numbercards/ae/ae_black.html
http://www.telephonearchive.com/numbercards/ae/ae_white.html
thanks!
Well, I've decided to join the Toaster Club also. This phone is so ugly, it's almost pretty. I recently acquired this one - all I need to do now is decide what color to paint it. I think I'm partial to the red.
Nice! Looks better than mine did ;D
I might be getting mine back from the painter today! After only 3 weeks! Only drawback to asking friends to do a favor, can't really rush them >:(
Here's the finished product. I really like the look of black on these old phones, so I stayed with the original color. Mfd 1949, but other than the scratches, the inside of the phone was very clean, and even the cords seemed original. The dial plate didn't have a mark on it. The Conn. handset was very light and flimsy. Seems like the military would have specified a better handset. The dial center says it belongs to "BLDG S-249" - wonder if there is any way to find out which government site this phone belonged to.
Quote from: wds2185 on September 23, 2010, 02:20:59 PM
Here's the finished product. I really like the look of black on these old phones, so I stayed with the original color. Mfd 1949, but other than the scratches, the inside of the phone was very clean, and even the cords seemed original. The dial plate didn't have a mark on it. The Conn. handset was very light and flimsy. Seems like the military would have specified a better handset. The dial center says it belongs to "BLDG S-249" - wonder if there is any way to find out which government site this phone belonged to.
Really nice paint job. I had to go back in the thread to see if you painted or it was original. Well done!....Doug
Looks good! Nice job Dave! I am still waiting to get mine back from the painter, next one I think I will do myself :o
Your "toaster" look great, Dave. Nice job.
Finally got my phone back from the painter :D
Unfortunately I am going to have to give it back to him as it is a very poor job >:(
Hopefully he can wet sand & buff out the defects :-\
Harry, is the problem drips and runs, or just an over-all "orange peel" texture to the paint? (I can't really tell from the photographs.) Also, as much as I love the lavender/purple color, I think it might look better with a darker/deeper purple (just my personal preference, honestly.)
The problem is both, couple of runs & some orange peel. I asked for a brighter purple, I did not want a dark color.
Both of those "defects" are caused by poor painting techniques. Runs, drips, sags are caused by over-application (typically a rookie mistake, ask me how I know :D ) and orange peel is caused by a number of different factors, all related to the individual doing the paint mixing and shooting. Seeing as how it was a "favor from a friend", I can understand you might be reluctant. Maybe if you offered him a few bucks to strip it down and re-do it, he *might* do a better job? It never hurts to ask, he might think you can't honestly tell the difference.
Been a while but I got my phone repainted and back together. This was my first dial, I completely disassembled it and cleaned eveerything while the case was getting painted. It works! I took a few pictures but they all came out looking blue not matter hpw I lit it. This was the only one that looked close to the actual purple color.
Cool color! Very retro! :)
For pic color problem, did you try taking the pic in daylight as opposed to using a flash?
I will try it outside this weekend when I will be home during daylight. Thanks for the tip :)