Got lucky on a couple of 4H dials...

[PantherLimited]

I just received a couple of recent purchases from two different sellers and believe it or not, both 302 phones have 4H dials! I've been hoping to get one someday as a surprise (I've never even had one in my hands before), but 2 in one day is pretty exciting.

A couple of questions for the experts though:

1) One of the dials is in a Thermite bodied 1947 phone which appears to have never been opened. It is super clean inside, that "untouched" look with all matching dates, etc. The outside of the phone wasn't cleaned or restored, just looked like it had been sitting on a shelf for years. Is it possible that WE used a 4H dial as late as 1947? I'm trying to figure out why it's in there. I haven't removed the dial, so haven't seen the date, but I definitely see the 4H (and it sounds quite different from all my other 302's). It has the oddly placed terminal also.

2) The second phone is apparently a 1938ish, metal body phone with the tiny switch on the lower left side (2-line phone I believe). The 4H in there isn't as surprising, but it has all the screw terminals on the same side (like a 5H), I thought that was rather odd. I had always heard one way to ID the 4H was the W terminal on the other side of the contact assembly.

3) Lastly, can I wire the little rotary switch on that 2-line phone to be an on-off switch for the ringer instead? I have seen a phone with a ringer on-off knob just like that and thought that's what it was for, but I have a feeling I could convert it easily... anyone done it? On-off ringer is much cooler than a 2-line feature... imho.

Thanks for any input you can give

[GG]

Thermite is a high-temperature welding compound used for tasks such as welding railroad tracks and destroying hard disc drives that contain top-secret data.  I think you were thinking of "thermoplastic." 

If the phone was dated 1947 and has a 4H, then it was almost certainly a telco refurb or, if all other dates match, a field replacement with a dial from truck stock.  That dial would only have been about 15 years old at the time, with another 25 years of "normal" service life to go. 

The differences in terminal placement *might* (I am not an expert on WE dials) be indicative of a #2 dial converted to 4H at the factory.  Look on the side of the dial housing on both of those, below the fingerstop, for two screw holes or evidence of screw holes that were filled in: that's the evidence of a converted #2.

Yes you can rewire that switch for a ringer cutoff.  A 2-line switch is DPDT with six contacts, a ringer cutoff is SPST with two contacts.  Go to Radio Snack and get a volt-ohmmeter (VOM), preferably with analog meter so you can develop a visual sense of the relationships between various readings (these cost as little as $15 - $20 now).  With that you can trace out the switch connections (a closed switch contact produces zero resistance, same as a short length of wire).  There are also numerous WE 300-series schematics posted online, that will help but aren't essential if you have a VOM.

What may be easier is to wire the ringer to the output side of that switch, so in two line service it would ring on whichever line the switch is turned to.  Then wire up the phone for one line only.  Thus the switch becomes on/off for the entire phone: the line 1 position is On, the line 2 position is Off.  You have to turn the switch on to make or receive a call, and remember to turn it off when done (if you want the ringer off).  This prevents the situation where the ringer is turned off and you can use the phone for outgoing calls and wonder why you haven't received any calls in days. 

In any case, changing the function of that switch to a bell cutoff of either type, is easy easy stuff.  If you've never done it before you'll be surprised at how simple it is to do. 

[JimH]

WECO was reusing and refurbishing parts like no other company I've seen.  I have an Ivory Continental dated 1956 that has a #4 dial with a clear plastic finger wheel.  I think they used whatever they had, and whatever would work.  I also have a 1947 302 with a #4 dial.

[PantherLimited]

The differences in terminal placement *might* (I am not an expert on WE dials) be indicative of a #2 dial converted to 4H at the factory.  Look on the side of the dial housing on both of those, below the fingerstop, for two screw holes or evidence of screw holes that were filled in: that's the evidence of a converted #2.

You were exactly right, the one with all the terminals on one side (similar to a #5 dial) was a #2 conversion. It had the two plugged holes on the side, whereas the typical looking #4 (with the W terminal on the opposing side from the rest) had no plugged holes.

I've got a decent digital ohm meter from my work on old tube guitar amps, so I'll get to work on converting that switch.

Thanks much for all the info!

[Sargeguy]

#2/4H conversions turn up on late 40s 302s for some reason.  The dial candlesticks and B-1s/D-1a were being replaced by the 302s after the war, so a lot of dials must have been refurbished at that time.  Keep in mind that from the start of the Depression until 1946, getting the newest model with all brand-new parts was a challenge, and so there was a lot of pent-up demand at the time that needed to be met, so refurbushing old dials was a necessity.  Re-hashing old phones was a strategy that worked in good times and in bad.