WE 1500D arrives

[Dan]

Dennis' previous post about sanding the Princess brings up a question I have been wondering about: Why do Princess phones have that indented area on the front, anyway? It doesn't seem to serve any obvious structural purpose, nor does it seem to make the phone more attractive.

Check out this phone, which has some impressive fading on top of the handset:
http://tinyurl.com/bleached-Trimline
I bet that could not be sanded out...

I actually had that very phone in my hand. !I bought a 1952 500 off of her  and picked it up to save on shipping and she showed it to me. I told her about the sun fade and even quoted her an approximate value. Nice seller.

[McHeath]

Wow, that Trimline is faded!

I've just spent about an hour on the handset on my 1500.  You all will be horrified at this, but I resorted to 220 grit.  Then 320, then 400, then 800.  And that's where it's at right now, and my hands certainly are tired.  Yet, believe it or not, the yellow is still there, faintly, but enough for me to notice right away.  It's blue on the bottom, but the top and sides have yellow in them.  Amazing.  I'll come back to it tomorrow and see what else I can do.  The 220 grit was pretty aggressive, but I managed not to mess up the shape of the handset and not to take off the edges of anything or sand the logo down.  I dunno if I'm going to be able to save this puppy.

[Dan/Panther]

McHeath;
I would contact the seller and request a partial refund for the damage.
When you pay top dollar you expect top quality. It certainly won't hurt to ask.

Keep it up, you're doing a great job !!
D/P

[McHeath]

Thanks for the encouragement D/P.  My little hands were sore this morning after sanding that handset!  I'll talk to the seller and see what happens, I knew it would need work, and even sanding, but gee not this much.

[mienaichizu]

nice work on that one Mc Heath

I'm looking forward to see the finished work

[McHeath]

Here are before and after pics of the handset:

[benhutcherson]

It looks like you made a huge improvement on it-in the first picture, it almost looks like an avocado green handset and not aqua.

If the rest of the telephone turns out as nicely as the handset, it would definitely be a telephone I would be proud to display.

I see in the upper right hand corner of your second photo that you and I share one of the same obstacles when attempting to work on a telephone.

[Dennis Markham]

Heath, it looks very nice.  By the time you finish with that phone you're going to be glad you bought it (if you aren't already).  After you finish this project you're going to have to find a 10 button in green.......and red.......and yellow..........etc....

[McHeath]

Yeah it's amazing but the durn thing looked green and not blue when it arrived.  The online pictures on e-bay showed it more blue, but in person it was pretty much like that first handset picture above, green.  I hope that I can get the body to the same basic color, I'm a little worried about that.

The cat is named Mouse.  She's the official Inspector of Everything™.    

As a side note, the buttons on this early touch tone have a very different feel than the later buttons on the Cortelco 2500s we have at work.  These early buttons have much better tactile feedback, more travel, and make a bit of a noise as well.  (Kind of a sliding swhooosh as they travel) 

[benhutcherson]

My one 2500 is a relatively late model, and I find the touchtone pad fairly unpleasant to use.

In a way, it's worst than most of the cordless phones I've used, since the keys have almost no travel.

Supposedly, Bell Labs studied keypad travel when they were researching TT telephones. My experience, using other, older 2500s, is that they are just about perfect. They have just the right amount of travel and resistance to make them pleasing to use.

I don't know why Bell made such a big step backwards on the later pads.

[McHeath]

I don't know why Bell made such a big step backwards on the later pads.

I'm guessing it must have been a cost cutting measure.  The later phones all started to cheapen the build quality. 

[JimH]

Great job, what a difference in the handset.  I tried sanding a white 1500 to get rid of the yellowing, I gave up after the case became too thin.  If yours is beyond help you could always switch out the plastics from a "blue-er" 2500.

[McHeath]

Thought about switching out the plastics from a better condition 2500, and I may come to that.  I've been sanding and using acetone on the shell for the past 2 hours, plus another 1 hour earlier this week.  It's starting to look blue again, but geesh, I've given it 5 acetone scrubs with sanding in between each scrubbing.  Unfreakingbelieveable! 

[BDM]

My one 2500 is a relatively late model, and I find the touchtone pad fairly unpleasant to use.

In a way, it's worst than most of the cordless phones I've used, since the keys have almost no travel.

Supposedly, Bell Labs studied keypad travel when they were researching TT telephones. My experience, using other, older 2500s, is that they are just about perfect. They have just the right amount of travel and resistance to make them pleasing to use.

I don't know why Bell made such a big step backwards on the later pads.

Funny, I feel the same way about the Trimline® TT phones. The earlier round button style has a nicer feel. The later square button style feels clunky loose and has a longer "push" if you will. Call it silly, but that's how I feel about it. In fact, the only Trimline® sets I have hooked up, are early round button style. I wont even use the later style any longer.

[Dan/Panther]

McHeath;
Absolutely amazing.
D/P