Author Topic: 1941 WE 302 Restored (Read 1059 times)

Ed Morris · « **on:** May 13, 2017, 12:18:45 AM »

Hi! New member and first post here. I hope this is the right place for this post. I just finished up restoration of a first quarter 1941 Western Electric Model 302 I bought on eBay. This is my first restoration of a telephone. I've been doing tube radios and phonographs for a few years. Recently, I've become interested in restoring some of the phones I remember from my younger days, and decided to start with this one.

This particular phone seems to be all original, with all parts marked with a 1941 date, except the F1 transmitter, which has a 4-48 date. I disassembled the phone, cleaned it, disassembled the 5H dial and cleaned and lubricated it. I repainted the body which was quite scratched and flaking paint. I replaced the missing line cord with a cloth cord, and the handset cord was also replaced with a cloth cord.

RotarDad · « **Reply #1 on:** May 13, 2017, 01:08:18 AM »

Welcome Ed! Nice job on the 302. I really like the period setting you created to display it. The 302 is really a work of art, and is a must in any phone collection. Several folks here collect & restore radios as well. You've come to a very nice place... Paul

TelePlay · « **Reply #2 on:** May 13, 2017, 01:12:14 AM »

Ed,

Welcome to the forum! A great place to discuss phones, their restoration, ask question and show off finished projects.

I move your post here since it is your first. If you "acquire" more phones, you can start a topic of your own in the "My Telephone Collection" in the "Collector"s Corner" forum board.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?board=68.0

Tell us a bit more about yourself, if you feel comfortable doing so, mainly your connection to phone, the phone industry and how many hundred phones you plan to make your own over the next year or two (a rampant highly infectious disease caught by many phone collectors commonly known as Phoneitis.

There is a section of the forum for radio guys in the "Off Topic" board, the child board "Radios & TVs."

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?board=44.0

We'd be interested in your radio collection as well.

Once again, welcome to the forum. The best place in the world concerning vintage rotary and other telephone stuff.

Duffy · « **Reply #3 on:** May 13, 2017, 06:14:12 AM »

Welcome to CRPF, your phone looks good.

dsk · « **Reply #4 on:** May 13, 2017, 07:46:31 AM »

Quote from: RotarDad on May 13, 2017, 01:08:18 AM

Welcome Ed! Nice job on the 302. I really like the period setting you created to display it. The 302 is really a work of art, and is a must in any phone collection. Several folks here collect & restore radios as well. You've come to a very nice place... Paul

This is about what I would say to, so Welcome to the forum!
dsk

Ed Morris · « **Reply #5 on:** May 13, 2017, 10:13:47 AM »

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm one of those people with too many hobbies. I have been active on the Antique Radio Forum for about ten years. Mostly I have focused on Zenith Trans-Oceanic radios, both tube and solid state. There are a couple galleries on my website with radios I have restored. I also make reproduction batteries for those radios as they are no longer available. My website is http://143.95.77.243/~elmphoto/radio.htm

I don't have any background in electronics, so most of what I have learned about radios is from reading and ARF. What I've learned so far about telephones has been from CRPF. I'm going to have to get rid of some radios, though, to make room for telephones.

I also take a lot of photos when I restore something, and I have already run into the security issue trying to upload photos, so I've got to find a workaround for that problem.

Duffy · « **Reply #6 on:** May 13, 2017, 10:41:32 AM »

You will find the information you need here for posting pictures.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?board=84.0

TelePlay · « **Reply #7 on:** May 13, 2017, 10:45:27 AM »

Quote from: Ed Morris on May 13, 2017, 10:13:47 AM

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm one of those people with too many hobbies. I have been active on the Antique Radio Forum for about ten years. Mostly I have focused on Zenith Trans-Oceanic radios, both tube and solid state. There are a couple galleries on my website with radios I have restored. I also make reproduction batteries for those radios as they are no longer available. My website is http://143.95.77.243/~elmphoto/radio.htm

I don't have any background in electronics, so most of what I have learned about radios is from reading and ARF. What I've learned so far about telephones has been from CRPF. I'm going to have to get rid of some radios, though, to make room for telephones.

I also take a lot of photos when I restore something, and I have already run into the security issue trying to upload photos, so I've got to find a workaround for that problem.

Ed,

Very nice looking ZTO!

BTW: The link to download the pdf restoration document does not work

As for uploading photos and that security error issue, a lot has been said on the forum about that since that first came to be an issue. I've worked on it and came up with the fixes that have worked for me and posted them here:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=16137.msg180586#msg180586

In summary, two things cause a security error: 1) meta data usually added by a smart phone or an Adobe product used to edit a photo (I use BatchPurifier LITE to strip meta data from my jpg images when the meta data raises the security flag), and 2) a string of characters within the image code itself is "just right" to raise the security flag (resizing the image usually shuffles the code enough to get around that flag issue). And, there is the occasional instance when both the meta data and image code cause a flag so once the meta data is stripped and it still does not upload, resizing is needed to get rid of the second flag raising issue.

There is a whole board on uploading images to the forum here:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?board=84.0

Any questions or problems, please ask.

Dan/Panther · « **Reply #8 on:** May 13, 2017, 12:29:25 PM »

Welcome Ed. You are in the right place.
Are you a member of ARF ?

D/P

Ed Morris · « **Reply #9 on:** May 13, 2017, 12:40:03 PM »

Quote from: Dan/Panther on May 13, 2017, 12:29:25 PM

Welcome Ed. You are in the right place.
Are you a member of ARF ?

D/P

Yes, I'm on ARF, with the same username as here, Ed Morris

Ed Morris · « **Reply #10 on:** May 13, 2017, 12:42:40 PM »

Quote from: TelePlay on May 13, 2017, 10:45:27 AM

Ed,

Very nice looking ZTO!

BTW: The link to download the pdf restoration document does not work

I just checked the link--it is OK, it is just very slow as it is a 48mb file!

jsowers · « **Reply #11 on:** May 13, 2017, 01:01:08 PM »

Ed, welcome to the Classic Rotary Phones Forum! I enjoyed looking at your site and seeing all the restorations of radios, record players and your 302. You take great pictures and write very well. I especially liked your descriptions of what you used to restore each item. Lots of good details there. I was surprised at the variety of radios you have and I only have one in my collection similar to yours, the 1951 Zenith AM/FM.

Those Califone record players on your site remind me of what I used to do for a living. I started out repairing school AV equipment 35 years ago, long before those players suffered from old age like they do now. Back then it was either replace the needle or clean and lube the idler and most of them were going again. I think I've seen your posts on ARF about these record players, or someone's.

Many of the same things you use to refinish radios you will use on telephones, but you won't have complicated electronics or leaky caps most of the time. Many phones need no electronic restoration at all, just a cosmetic freshening or replacement cords. A testament to their bulletproof construction.

So are you using the 302 on that beautiful drop-leaf table or is it just for show? I like how you install an input on many of your radios so someone can use an iPod or some other portable music source. It makes the radio much more useful and interesting, especially to the younger generation.

TelePlay · « **Reply #12 on:** May 13, 2017, 02:13:31 PM »

Quote from: Ed Morris on May 13, 2017, 12:42:40 PM

I just checked the link--it is OK, it is just very slow as it is a 48mb file!

Ed,

Maybe we are talking about to different links. I clicked on this one, in the red box, and got the result shown below that image.

Ed Morris · « **Reply #13 on:** May 13, 2017, 02:16:32 PM »

Jonathan, thanks for the comments. There's a guy on You Tube by the name of Radiotvnut who has posted numerous videos on restoration of those old school players.

I did check the caps in the 302 and was amazed they were dead on after 76 years. I couldn't check for leakage, but they obviously work and must be extremely well sealed. I wonder if anyone has ever pulled one apart to see what they're made of?

I do keep most of my radios and use them frequently, and will do the same with phones. The 302 shown above is going down to the house in the country where my wife grew up. I have a Model 500DM from 1981 by the bed and a 2500 spare. My wife doesn't appreciate the ringers, though, so I put on/off switches in the ringer circuit or disconnect it on the older ones.

Ed Morris · « **Reply #14 on:** May 13, 2017, 02:21:08 PM »

Quote from: TelePlay on May 13, 2017, 02:13:31 PM

Ed,

Maybe we are talking about to different links. I clicked on this one, in the red box, and got the result shown below that image.

My bad! Forgot about that one. I will fix it. The Renovated Radios site used to host that guide before I got unlimited storage. The link on my Resource Page should be good:

http://143.95.77.243/~elmphoto/pdf/H500%20Restoration%20Guide.pdf. Be patient, though, it takes a while.

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