This phone came to me as a shed find. Destined methinks to be broken down and used as spares I took pity on it and it has become my first phone renovation.
Many of you guys know much more than me so if I have gone wrong or can improve on my technique do please tell me.
So. Here we go:
The packing box arrived smelling of the shed the phones had been found in - of oil, of rusty metal, and that damp musty smell that occurs over time. It was one of two phones (I have them both) discovered during a clean out of said shed. I was told they must have been in there for a VERY long time (the other phone will be my next project). Their cardboard box for travelling had been placed inside another box and the phones were bubble wrapped really well. They survived the journey. Yay!
Taking a closer look:
Black Bakelite 332 Table Telephone
Baseplate: 4509D
The circuit diagram inside says 332 Mark 1.
Although the dial centre says Siemens, the model number is for an STC phone:
http://www.britishtelephones.com/stc/stc4509.htm
Inside the case it has a '3' in a circle (March?) then the letters 'PL' over 'LR' and to the right of that 'T/CL'.
(At the time of writing this I can't find anywhere that tells me what those codes mean).
Handset: GPO PL44 No.164.
A look around the phone:
Dirty/Paint/Signs of discolouring to body
Missing front to directory tray area
Damage to spitcup (as found)
Dial N/W (turned but upon release started to turn then jumped back)
Damage to body - hairline crack to right side (as found)
Wall line cord not original, plastic and gloss painted
Inner case housed dead spiders, webs, grease, dust
Twisted wire instead of a strap
I dealt with the inside first, and cleaned out the layers of dust and spiders etc. A few blasts of air helped enormously.
A small amount of WD40 sorted the dial. It is still a teeny bit on the sluggish side but I can't think what to do to sort that - at least it no longer jumps - and I don't expect perfection from this poor old abandoned phone.
The hairline crack was more visible from inside, maybe 3cm ish, so I carefully applied an epoxy resin to strengthen the area from within.
A piece of wire was a common enough thing to do back in the day I know, but I changed it for a proper strap, then swapped out the line cord to a UK plugin style.
The exterior:
I have choices with the spitcup. A: Swap it out. B: Repair it. *C: Do the 'tidy up' that I used to see on these phones as a child (these old phones were often handed to us to play with). I have opted for 'A', a replacement is on order (I have some Milliput on order too so may experiment with that on the broken spitcup).
I sourced an original Bakelite blanking plate for the front of the phone, this model would not have had the pull out directory tray.
The original handset cord is in amazing condition and does not need replacing. As far as my research so far tells me, the first issue handset cord was plaited, and was replaced by this Rayon covered version.
The card to centre dial, although tatty, is original, so that stays too.
*'C' involves smoothing off the broken area of the spitcup so in effect it looks like it was made that way. This option keeps the original spitcup on the phone, and costs nothing. It must date back as a fairly old engineer 'repair' as I saw countless phones like this when a kid.
The Bakelite clean up:
Day 1: I cleaned the exterior with wet wipes. Then applied Brasso using 000 wire wool. This was thoroughly wiped off, and was followed by its first oiling. For this I used pure Mineral Oil. It's quite a nice thick oil, and it doesn't take much to coat it thoroughly. I brushed it on and left this for ½ - 1 hour, then wiped off the residue (you won't believe how brown the cloth was afterwards) and rubbed in a new thin application of oil, leaving it on overnight.
Day 2: A quick rub down with a clean soft cloth and then a 2nd oiling was done in the morning, this was again gently rubbed in and left overnight.
Day 3: The phone was rubbed over thoroughly with a soft towelling cloth (I have no buffing tools).
The number plate of the dial was cleaned using a slightly damp cotton bud. Polishing paste No. 5 (as originally used by BT engineers) was used to bring up the shine on both the metal finger plate and the Bakelite. The centre card was tidied up by adding a paper disc behind (of a similar colour to the original) to support the now brittle disc and disguise the holes.
I placed a thick clear plastic cover over the dialcard to protect it from future dust etc. and that was it. Finished.
It's home is no longer a damp old shed in the UK, it now resides proudly on a bedside cabinet in France.
(Edited to add additional photo).
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Can't beat that musty shed smell on things like this, my Planphone had that same smell, so it probably as a shed or garage find too... ;D
Nice cleanup, looks great! Congrats on your first restoration.
Quote from: HarrySmith on April 08, 2018, 11:54:51 AM
Nice cleanup, looks great! Congrats on your first restoration.
Thanks. That means a lot.
I really enjoyed doing it, not as difficult as I thought it would be (have never opened up a phone before). I actually could do this all day every day. Very calming and satisfying.
Must find more wrecked Bakelite phones!
:)
Quote from: FabPhones on April 08, 2018, 12:10:41 PM
Thanks. That means a lot.
I really enjoyed doing it, not as difficult as I thought it would be (have never opened up a phone before). I actually could do this all day every day. Very calming and satisfying.
Must find more wrecked Bakelite phones!
:)
Agreed. There is a certain satisfaction to taking a nasty, junk phone and returning it to like new condition.
Tres bon.
I have a yellow WE 554 that was a literal barn find. Won't say exactly how it smelled, but it was worse than "shed smell". ;D
I just reread your description of the restoration process. The only thing I see that may be a problem is WD-40 on the dial. That is not the right thing to use. It may have worked for now to loosen things up but it will attract more contaminants and cause future dial issues. If you want it to continue to work properly in the future it would be best to take it out and clean it properly. There are many threads on here about dial cleanup & lubrication. Depending on how far you want to take it. The easiest and fastest thing would be to find some electronic parts cleaner that leaves no residue. Thoroughly clean everything inside and on the rear. Blow dry with compressed air. Use a needle tip oiler with watch or clock oil and carefully apply to the ends of rotating parts and gears, apply sparingly! Hope this helps. I am sure others will add to this, your mileage may vary!
That helps a lot, thanks for taking the time to reply with the info. I did have in the back of my mind something about WD40 not being ideal, but I didn't know what else to use.
I've looked them up, I've found (online) an electronic parts cleaner product called K2 Pro (no mention on it's info re residue unfortunately), and will order the needle tip oiler today too.
They may be just what the dial needs to remove that last bit of resistance. Will let you know.
I'll look up some of the dial cleaning threads on here too.
Thanks again, much appreciated. :)
For my dials I've just used a sparing amount of 3-in-1 oil (cheaper stuff though in the green & red bottle here in the UK, forget its' brand as the labels fell off!) after using the same to clean off any old oil & accumulated dirt in the bearings, works a treat and my dials I've lubricated are still happy... :)
I also made an oiler tip for one of the 3-in-1 bottles by putting some small heatshrink tubing on the spout, shrinking it down, then heating the rest of the tube and pulling it to stretch it out thinly, then cut off the excess at an angle, and it makes for a reasonable oiling tip... :)
~
I use a tube of clock oil that I bought on EBAY many years to oil some old clocks I have. It was not expensive and lasts me a long time.
Benny
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EDIT 1/29/22: A list of oils and their qualities or properties can be found here"
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=7899.0
A experimental analysis was conducted on Marvel Mystery Oil and it was found that about 30% of the oil applied evaporated over about 2 weeks leaving a lubricant thicker than applied - which might collect dust and turn it into hard crud over time. Seems there is a solvent or carrier used to thin the oil so it penetrates better and then becomes thicker so use on a dial may see the dial speed slowing after a few weeks due to the increased viscosity.
This list of submitted oils at the above link follows (read the topic linked above for comments from members on each oil):
3 in 1 Oil
3M 08897 Silicone Lubricant (Dry Type) ( not recommended )
CRC 2-26 Contact Cleaner ( not recommended )
Hoppes No 9 Lubricating Oil
Kroon Sewing Machine Oil
Light Weight Sewing Machine Oil
Marvel Mystery Oil
Mobil 1 synthetic oil
Moebius 941 / 2 (ml) Synthetic Watch Oil (for gear teeth and gear axle bearing points)
Moebius 8300 Watch/Clock Grease (for main spring shaft raceway lubrication)
Radio Shack's "Precision Oiler with Teflon
Silicone Lubricant (Spray Types) ( not recommended )
Synthetic CLP Gun Oil
Tri-Flow with PTFE -- not good, dries out in a few months ( not recommended )
Wahl Hair Clipper Oil
WD-40 Penetrating Oil ( not recommended )
White Mineral Oil (Huile Blanche sewing machine oil)
Marvel Mystery Oil is all I have ever used....Doug
I'm in the Uk and simply use any light oil. That is all most clock oil really is, they just put it in smaller bottles, call it clock oil and sell it for 2 or 3 times the price it should be. 3 in 1 oil, as twocvbloke mentioned, is a suitable light oil, but I use Wilko's own brand, which is in a similar size and shape bottle but a lot cheaper.
Assuming that's a dial 12 or similar, the way to speed it up or slow it down is to carefully bend the wings of the governor (the two metal strips with little weights on the end) either inwards (to speed it up or outwards to slow it down. try to bend at the opposite end to the weights so the whole wing is moved rather than putting a kink in the middle of it. You only need to move them a tiny ammount to make a big difference. It's a case of trial and error I'm afraid, adjust, test and adjust again as necessary.
The way to check the dial sped is put your finger in 0 and pull it round to the stop. Then as you let it go as "one thousand one hunderd and one" at a normal to fast-ish pace. The dial should return to it's normal rest position at the exact moment you stop speaking, which will equate to 10 pulses per second (aprox).
If the phone is to be used with a pulse dialling equipped ATA then there is another contact in the dial you may also need to adjust if it doesn't dial out. But get mack to me if that proves to be a problem as I don't want to confuse you with too much info all at once.
Finally, That might not be a GPO phone at all. Siemens made them for businesses to have on their own private PAX exchanges, often using bits and pieces from the factory marked for GPO phones.However all the privete ones I've seen have a black finger wheel on the dial, not a stainless steel one.
I'd recommend against simply adding lubrication of any sort without first cleaning the mechanism. More oil will probably free things up but it will mix with the remains of the old stuff, along with dirt, and make a pretty effective grinding paste causing excess wear.
I use Windles Clock Oil on mine, chiefly because I'd already got it. I've had the same bottle for well over twenty years and the reduction in level is still only slight. Unless I spill it I expect it to literally last me for the rest of my life.
As for the markings, PL44 means that the handset was made by Plessey in 1944. LR is Thomas De La Rue Ltd.
With both Siemens and Plessey being named on the phone I'm wondering of this is a 'bitsa', made up of parts found in a shed to make up a complete phone? I don't think it matters though. It's still a nice phone with all original components. As Eric Morcambe said, it's "playing all the right notes... not necessarily in the right order" :D
I particularly like the cleanup. What are you doing about the crack in the bakelite?
Once you've fixed up this phone a plastic cased one will seem really easy by comparison.
I got the impression that wherever this was installed it was mostly Siemens, which was why a Siemens ext dial card got put on this phone all those years ago, but I take it all with a pinch of salt ;) . This wasn't the phone I was after in this multi-box purchase, but it turned out to be a good learning curve and I'm pleased to have it. It has a special place as my first restoration. :)
The crack info is on my post above. Thanks for liking the cleanup. Came up much glossier than I thought it would. 8)
I need more of these 'seen better days' Bakelite phones, I just love working on them. Missed my vocation by about 70 years... ;D