Forum Newbie Looking for a Cloth Key Telephone Mounting Cord

[TimM]

Hi All,

This is my first post in the forum, so I thought GD would be a good place to start. I have small (but growing) telephone collection: a WECo 302, a 460, several 564s, a 1A2 key system for all of it, and some Strowger and X-Y SxS gear. The switchgear isn't hooked up (missing pieces) but everything else gets dial tone from an Asterisk server and Adtran channel bank providing 12 CO circuits. Eventually, I hope to get something more period appropriate to provide dial tone and actually be able to use the SxS switch.

Anyway, my question today concerns the 460M. It is a 6-button key telephone with unlit buttons, wired for 1A systems with a hold key, three line pickup keys, and  two signalling keys. It has an 18-conductor cloth covered mounting cord which has seen better days. Does anyone know where I might get a replacement? 4-, 6-, and 8-conductor cloth mounting cords are plentiful but larger core counts seem quite elusive.

Thanks,

Tim

[Phonesrfun]

Hi Tim,

Welcome to the forum.

Your question has come up before, but unfortunately, I think there was no source found for them.  You might try calling Mike at oldphoneworks.com and see if they have either produced such a cord, or if they would make something up.  It might, however, be expensive.

[TimM]

Oh well, I figured it wouldn't be a common thing. Not much call for 18-conductor cloth mounting cords.

I could probably wire it up with an 8-conductor mounting cord and do something clever with relays at the KTU side like the 462 set in a 755 PBX arrangement, but that would some of the "correctness" of the phone and I'd like to avoid that. And the 462 used a 9-conductor cord anyway.

I will contact Mike and see what might be available.

UPDATE: I called Old Phone Works this morning and they can make an 18-conductor cloth covered mounting cord with vinyl conductors. Add in a matching handset cord and it'll be good as new in no time.

Here are some pictures:





The rest are here: 464M Key Phone

[Doug Rose]

Your phone has a date in orange vermilion. This looks like a test run of thermo plastic phones before they were changed to metal. Can you take a closeup of the orange. Looks like it is 11 12 41, November 12 1941. You might have a tough phone to get. These guys usually cracked or had pieces chip off as the thermoplastic was not perfected yet. If its in one piece, it is a keeper....Doug

[TimM]

Here's the best detail of the stamp that I could get.

It says 11 12 41 48505

[Doug Rose]

This was a test run of thermoplastic while the phones were still being made in metal. I have never seen one other than a 302 style base. This were made while the thermoplastic recipe was not perfected, which caused these to shrink and crack.

In my years of collecting I have only found one. It was not cracked, but I had to do a lot of modifications to get it to fit back on the base as it had really shrunk.....Doug


Here is the link

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=6211.0