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NE payphone info (N233H)

Started by sebbel, February 26, 2012, 12:35:32 PM

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dpaynter1066

Seb

If you want to fix the hole in your phone you might also try fiberglass cloth for a big hole or JB weld for a small hole  and sand it smooth and paint over the fix.  Welding is more or less permanent wheras you can futz considerably and try again with the "bondo"  type of filler repair.

The edges of the hole need to be flat and not peeled back in any event, might could hammer them straight and flat on an anvil. I should think the case is made of steel and would take a weld readily.

If fiberglassing,  strip everything out of the particular shell you are fixing and mask off the inside  and out with blue painters tape.  use blue tape around the patch to protect from stray epoxy. need to leave a bare edge margin around the hole inside for the epoxy to anchor to.
Cover the floor and the table. Wear nitrile not latex gloves.  Do this at room temperature with good ventalation.  large bottles of 30 min epoxy and fiberglass available at big hobby stores or online.  Dont need much but need more than a regular tube. 5 min epoxy is no good, sets too fast.  Rubbing alcohol to clean unwanted wet epoxy off things.  no skin contact with epoxy.

clamp a sheet of wax paper and a thin plywood or sheet metal backer board to the outside over the hole.  needs to be smooth and flush all around the hole with no open areas.  this is what you will build up the fiberglass patch on from the inside.   Dont forget the wax paper or youll never get the backer board off again. 

  Build up a patch by thinly painting 30 min epoxy with a disposable brush on the wax paper and pressing a pre cut sheet  of glass cloth into that, wetting them and smoothing flat and then pressing more layers and wetting again with the brush. cloth is transparent when wet enough.  3 or four layers should be plenty,  not too thin and not too thick.    dont try to pre wet the cloth and lay it, dosent work. just smooth out a dry piece and wet it down with the brush.   dont pull loose threads or get epoxy on bare fingers.  once it cures to a firm flexible state, you can trim off unwanted edge fringe with a razor blade. IF you wait till it fully cures its harder to trim but still possible.  once fully cured the next day, unclamp the backer board, pull off the wax paper and fill in the weave and any voids with hobby shop putty made for that or bondo and sand it smooth and flush before painting. careful when razoring off any flashing to avoid scratching the outside paint.   

maybe a better way is to buy a lower housing shell for a little more expense but less shop time futzing with it.  I know phonco has them and likely oldphoneworks should too  but the prices are 70 to 80 ish us dollars. then all you have to do is unscrew and move the inner parts over to the new shell. 

There are threads in the forum about painting you should look up in any case. 

On the other hand, repairing the case leaves the phone arguably an original phone, depending on where you hold your hand when you show it to people.


DavePEI

#16
Quote from: dpaynter1066 on February 29, 2012, 01:03:27 AM
maybe a better way is to buy a lower housing shell for a little more expense but less shop time futzing with it.  I know phonco has them and likely oldphoneworks should too  but the prices are 70 to 80 ish us dollars. then all you have to do is unscrew and move the inner parts over to the new shell.  
Remember these NE lower housings show up on eBay every so often - there was one a few weeks ago which went for very little.

My advice would be to try repairing yours, whether you get it welded, of try the fibreglass/bondo method. If you aren't pleased with the end result, then you can watch eBay for a good NE one...

Not having seen the hole it is hard to say for certain, but I would think you have nothing to lose in trying to repair it.

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

sebbel

Yeah. I've done a bit of both fibreglass and welding. And would much rather get it welded. I think it's a better fix plus looks like the welding will be done in the true spirit of the Maritimes. An afternoon chat and a 12 pack of Moosehead.

I managed to take everything apart without much addition damage. By not much I mean I had to drill trough a bunch of screws but I figured the were cheaper than the vault door. Luckily all but one screw actually unscrewed as I tried to drill trough.

I paid 150$ for the phone with the board and subset locally so there was no shipping. Assuming I drop another 100$ fixing it. It'll still be a decent price for what it is. So for Now I only need to order the bottom lock, 1 screw and trasnmitter for the G3 handset.

The handset look like it doesn't belong. Is that the right kind of hand set for that phone?

Last question. I went trough a layer of red and greenish paint. What color is that supposed to be?


Seb.

DavePEI

#18
Quote from: sebbel on February 29, 2012, 05:34:31 PM
The handset look like it doesn't belong. Is that the right kind of hand set for that phone?

Last question. I went trough a layer of red and greenish paint. What color is that supposed to be?

Hi Seb:

First of all, the handset....

The original handset would be a "G" type handset. Originally, of course, the handset would have been Northern Electric. However as a payphone got abused over and over in its active life, these were replaced with aftermarket handsets, often when the cord was changed over to an armoured cord.

The armoured cord was installed there to prevent people from getting free calls by shorting one of the conductors to ground and getting a free call. Eventually, they also began gluing the handset caps on to discourage the theft of handset elements. It was amazing how much customers abused these things!

So, you can consider your handset as being "normal" for these phones as long as the cord on there now is armoured, or is the original black un-armoured cable. I can't tell for sure from your photo if it is. However, new armoured G style payphone handsets often may be found on eBay for very little.

Paint Colour?

I guess the only way to say, is the original colour is the first layer. However, during repairs and/or refurbishment over the years, it was likely changed

Given your choices (without changing to another color of handset and daisy wheel), I would suggest leaving it black, as you would need to change both of the above, too if you change the colour (see my QSD3A page to see one I did change colour on).

http://www.islandregister.com/phones/qsd3a.html

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

sebbel

I started working on it here are a few pictures
Seb.

sebbel

Now Fixing the hole. I was luck enough to get a complete phone with all bits working and where the should be aside from this hole in the side.

Seb.

dpaynter1066

It's very handy being able to weld, what sort of welder did you use?  That should be pretty much invisible once its painted.

DavePEI

Quote from: sebbel on March 06, 2012, 07:50:38 PM
Now Fixing the hole. I was luck enough to get a complete phone with all bits working and where the should be aside from this hole in the side.

I knew there had to be another good use for electrical boxes :-)

D
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

sebbel

Quote from: dpaynter1066 on March 07, 2012, 05:52:45 AM
It's very handy being able to weld, what sort of welder did you use?  That should be pretty much invisible once its painted.


While I can weld I have not welded that. I only trimmed the halfway into the steel body body of the phone and epoxy glued the metal plate into the hole. I didn't want to pay the 50$ to get it welded as I don't have the equipment. A mig welder would have done a great job albeit with a different metal since galvanized metal does not weld well. You have to burn trough the Zinc.

Also I didn't have the patience to do a multi layer fiberglass resin job. This cost me 4$ to do and took less than an hour. Quite happy with how it turned out.
Seb.

DavePEI

#24
Quote from: sebbel on February 28, 2012, 06:37:04 PM
A few question about the coin. 0.25 make a kind of springy noise. 0.10 2 clear bells and 0.05 doesn't get accepted.  What sounds is it actually supposed to do? and has the nickel change in the past 50 years?
Your phone is likely set up for a 10 cent initial rate. Therefore due to the nickel gate, it will need to have 2 nickles deposited to make them drop. One will sit at the gate until the second is deposited, then both will fall.

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001