Accidental damage to "perfect" phones (...or, "When to commit suicide?")

[Dave F]

Have you ever tried looking in the last place first?

I tried that just once, but the union rep told me that it violated the work rules. 

[Jim Stettler]

Kinda like whenever I hear that phone it's ringing.
Jim

[Dave F]

Exactly Jim, just like that.  It reminds me of when the phone rang at 2AM, and the caller asked, "Did I wake you?".  I replied, "No, it's o.k., I was already up answering the phone".

[WEBellSystemChristian]

It's an old topic revival, but, nobody minds, right?

I was carrying a finished 1937 302 down to the living room for a photo shoot today. Other than the handset and cord (both built a couple years later) it was all original, including the paint. I casually flipped it over while carrying it to look at the bottom, when I realized that I still needed to replace the screws holding the dial blank to the housing.

If you haven't figured it out already, the dial blank fell out and landed on the floor. If this had happened 2 weeks earlier, the blank would have landed on soft carpet, not new hardwood!

I picked it up, and noticed that the two tabs holding the exterior plate to the backing plate had opened slightly, causing the two to loosen and rattle. No worries, I'll just tap the tabs back into place.

I set the blank upside down on a towel, and used a hammer and mini allen wrench to tap them back into place. Miraculously, absolutely no damage resulted from that. I noticed it was still a little loose, and that one of the tabs wasn't tapped down enough. One more tap with the hammer, and it worked! I flipped it over for another "rattle inspection", and the tab broke off and fell out!

It looks like I'll have to use epoxy to glue the two plates together. On the plus side, the two plates were already slightly loose, so the epoxy should keep them from rattling around.