Revenge of the B-Mount

[Sargeguy]

Rebounding from the disappointment of "The Mystery Phone" on eBay, I resurrected a project I had put on hold (aka made no progress whatsoever on).  I took the B-mount housing I already have and decided to get it up and running once and for all.  

The problem with the B-1 was that it had no plunger.  A D-1 plunger fits nicely and will work, but on the B-1 the brass spacer and the spring just fell out of the bottom of the plunger hole.  After breaking it down and dissecting a D-1 for comparison (D1s are actually very different), I figured out that it was missing some sort of retainer at the bottom of the plunger shaft.  A trip to the hardware store didn't yield any thing that could be used as a replacement.  I finally decided to bash the spacer with a hammer so that it was widened slightly and hammered it into the bottom of the shaft.  I then drilled it so the plunger would pass through smoothly.  Its holding pretty well, so I will leave it for now.

I next rummaged around in the handset bin and took the best E-1 handset I could find, found an original handset cord in the cord bag and slapped it together.  I took one the 4H dials that was once a #2 from the 202 in my hallway and replaced it with a 5H that sounds like a 4H.  Now I can display the patents on the side of the dial (not that anyone can see them).  

I have a subset that I made from an old 500 and a 634YDT housing.  The 634YDT has no bells, and it features a 333 vacuum tube, a 101A, a 104A and two condensers).  I was saving it for a rainy day but decided to sacrifice it to the cause.

Here is the result:


I still need to re-suede the bottom and polish it up, and get it into service.

[Dennis Markham]

Looking good, Greg.  I'd like to see a photo or two of it connected to your subset.  Or if you could just post a couple pictures of the "subset" that would work too.  I'm curious as to how that worked out for you.

[Sargeguy]

I took everything out of the subset that I could unscrew leaving the frame.  I bashed the ringer brackets flat.  I then drilled out the rivets and removed everything from the 500 except the ringer and the network.  The 500 base didn't quite inside the subset so I then bashed in the sides of the base plate a little to make it flatter.  You should drill a large hole in the 500 base so that the screw from the "door" of the subset can screw into the frame.  I then drilled holes through where the feet had been and attached the base with small bolts.  Here is a before and after:






After I finished this I found a pefectly serviceable 634 at the bottom of the subset bin, so I will be using that instead.  This one will go in the bin until I cobble together a 202 frankenphone for sale.

[Sargeguy]

After all that I came to the realization that if I was going to install the phone in the hallway I could use the 634 subset that was already there.  I just unhooked the D-1 and popped on the B-1.  It worked perfectly the first try.  Here is a picture:



That niche is still crying for a candlestick.  I polished up the base using a Micro-Mesh polishing kit that my wife had on hand for polishing jewelry that she makes.  The grits range from 1500-12,000.  It worked really well, but it appears that the phone was re-painted at some point and that appeared as blotches when I polished it up. 

Dennis Hallworth provided me with the base.  I traded him my bare base and $5 and he set me up with a freshly covered base.  He is a great guy and does really nice work at a reasonable price.  His 302 feet are excellent.  Here is a picture of the base:


I still need to do something about the fingerwheel.

[bingster]

His base coverings are really nice.  All too often, restored base coverings are done by punching a small hole in the leather where each screw is to go, causing a dimple as the leather is pulled up into the recess by the screw head.  He goes to the trouble of punching proper holes like the originals (which is the more difficult way).  Very nice.

And the phone looks great in that niche!

[Sargeguy]

I have been looking for a B-1 plunger for some time, but gave up and went with the D-1 plunger instead.  As soon as I did that, this one came up on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170546589710

[HarrySmith]

Greg, I love the bashing, banging and drilling in your repairs

In my years as a mechanic I was often told if you can't fix it with a hammer and a screwdriver, forget it

[KeithB]

It's always a slightly painful moment when you "re-purpose" a vintage piece by altering it.  Until you realize that's exactly what many field technicians did with these metal-cased subsets.