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Western Electric 333D

Started by Sargeguy, February 14, 2015, 06:19:15 PM

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Sargeguy

A Western Electric 333D purchased off of Craig's List for $20.  The phone appears to be all original except for the 706A receiver.  Even the original cord is there. 
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

Dennis Markham

Very nice Sarge!  That's looking like a find of the month for sure!

Sargeguy

Not the Blizzard project I was hoping for, the phone cleaned up rather nicely and only took about 2hrs to fix.  I stripped the old paint off with some Citri-Strip, then polished the phone with Novus #3 then Novus #2.  The process removed the surface layer of dull cruddy paint, leaving the whole thing more shiny.  Unfortunately, like almost all 333s it suffers from corrosion.  There are a few spots where the paint flaked off and some other areas that will need to be spot stripped and re-painted.  It functions pretty well.  I need to track down my can of Radio Shack electronic spray and clean the areas around the ringer and coil, but it is overall pretty clean inside.  The nickel turned out nicely after removing the paint drips and spatters.  A polish with Novus soaked Mirlon 2500, followed by MicroMesh polishing pads cleaned them up and removed some surface corrosion.  I plugged it in and everything works, but I am going to swap in a more appropriate receiver.  The "rattlesnake" cord is from a 122A but I do not have a spare laying around at the moment.  It sounds okay even without replacing the gaskets and tuning it. 
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409