Signal Corps TP-6A, or "How would you like your toast?"

[Phonesrfun]

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.

[LarryInMichigan]

Bill,

Welcome to the toaster club.



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

[HarrySmith]

I am also a member
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

[McHeath]

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. 

[Greg G.]

I missed this somehow.  Now we can talk "toast" on our toaster phones.  (That is, if I ever get it working again.)

[HarrySmith]

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

[JorgeAmely]

Harry:

Looking forward to see the results.

[Phonesrfun]

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.

[Doug Rose]

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

[HarrySmith]

Yeah, Red probably would look cool but I have Black handsets

[Doug Rose]

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

[Wallphone]

I'm not finished painting yet but this will give you some idea as to how it will look.
Dougpav

[Dennis Markham]

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?

[HarrySmith]

OK, that two tone looks really good
I may do that
Thanks

[Wallphone]

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