10 button 1965 Northern Electric 1500

[Willytx]

Thanks for the links, I knew the round plates were there somewhere but couldn't find them when I went looking.

Once all the parts are lined up, I will put them together on a dark and stormy night. Does the Touch Tone pad mount right to the 500 fittings or is some creativeness needed?
And a possibly stupid question, will a 500 shell mount to a 2500 base?
(What was that shriek of terror I heard?)

[DavePEI]

Thanks for the links, I knew the round plates were there somewhere but couldn't find them when I went looking.

Once all the parts are lined up, I will put them together on a dark and stormy night. Does the Touch Tone pad mount right to the 500 fittings or is some creativeness needed?
And a possibly stupid question, will a 500 shell mount to a 2500 base?
(What was that shriek of terror I heard?)

The TT dial mounts right into the round plate using two little retainers that screw in (and will come with) the plate.

As GG mentioned, the plate may not line u[p perfectly with the phone cover. Mine did, but there is a chance it won't and you may have to slightly bend the metal dial mounts to make it line up perfectly. You may have to mount it further down in the slots than with the normal dial, but no modifications other than that.

As for the 500 shell on a 2500 base, I have never tried it, and wouldn't recommend it. You don't want to make it more of a frankenphone than you need to. Better to pick up a cheap 500 set to make it from.

Dave

[Willytx]

As for the 500 shell on a 2500 base, I have never tried it, and wouldn't recommend it. You don't want to make it more of a frankenphone than you need to. Better to pick up a cheap 500 set to make it from.
Dave

It probably violates the Terms and Conditions of this forum as well.

[GG]

Dave, what's this about mounting the TT dial onto the back of the round plate using retainer screws?  Have any pictures? 

Note, WE TT dials do NOT mount properly on the brackets on 500 baseplates.  The brackets are spaced too far apart on the 500 base, and the detents at the top of the brackets are too high up for TT dials.  What you end up with is a kind of kludge where the TT dial is slid all the way down to the bottom of the brackets, and then the screws tightened enough on each side to hold it more or less in place, with the round plate being used to prevent it wobbling around too much.

Compare a 2500 and 500 baseplate side-by side and see what I'm talking about.

IMHO, WE made a bigtime booboo by not making all of that stuff fully interchangeable.  It would have been trivial to design the TT dial to fit into a rotary dial mounting bracket, and use the 425-B networks with nothing more than a few wiring changes.  Sigh...

For which reason I suggest just using a 2500 base and putting a 500 housing + round dial plate on it.  Now if someone wants to ban me for saying so, fare thee well my friends!  : - )

[DavePEI]

>Dave, what's this about mounting the TT dial onto the back of the round plate using >retainer screws?  Have any pictures?  

>Not currently, the dial is on the phone now and over in the museum... However, on >the back of the plate are two screw tightened metal retainers which screw down on >the case of TT dial to retain the dial. The dial and plate become one unit which then >mounts in the phone.

>Note, WE TT dials do NOT mount properly on the brackets on 500 baseplates.  The >brackets are spaced too far apart on the 500 base, and the detents at the top of >the brackets are too high up for TT dials.  What you end up with is a kind of kludge >where the TT dial is slid all the way down to the bottom of the brackets, and then >the screws tightened enough on each side to hold it more or less in place, with the >round plate being used to prevent it wobbling around too much.

>For which reason I suggest just using a 2500 base and putting a 500 housing + >round dial plate on it.  Now if someone wants to ban me for saying so, fare thee >well my friends!  : - )

Granted - you do have to mount the TT dial lower than you would a rotary dial. However, it is only a slight handicap.

As I mentioned the dial mounts to the faceplate. Two screw mounted clips on the back of the faceplate clip over the clear plastic portion of the TT dial to fasten it to the faceplate, then the whole assembly mounts to the phone base. The phone is now in the museum, and I really don't have time to take it apart again to take a photo. I am trying to get the museum ready for spring visitors.

I'd rather have it mounted on a NE 500 base with correct dates (personal preference, plus I have more 500's than 2500's). I'd rather have to fiddle a bit with the dial and put it on a proper 1964 to 1968 500 base than put it on a 1969 or later 2500 base. And the conversion is only temporary until I find a affordable true NE 1500 for the museum (so of course, I saved the dial - there us nothing not easily reversible).

Yes, I wish, too that I could have found an NE 10 digit TT dial for it - it would have been interesting to see if there were any differences. However, the WE dial works. It would have been nice if they had uniform parts, but as you say more than the case was redesigned when they came out with the 2500.

The main reason for doing this is so people could see the 10 digit dial in operation as most have forgotten what they even looked like (if they are even old enough to remember). A lot of the younger museum visitors figure all phones had TT dials, and that they have always been wireless. Magneto, dial, wires, what are those? 

One young visitor described a dial phone as, "The phones which chase your fingers:!

Dave

[Willytx]

Those crafty East Germans were using up old parts too!

Model 580-15000
Volkseigener Betrieb (VEB) Fernmeldewerk Nordhausen
http://tinyurl.com/3nbd3b2

Rotary model 551-10306
http://tinyurl.com/3m2pep7

Photos from the Historische Telefon website:
http://www.wasser.de/telefon-alt/