Jim’s Telephone Collection

[jpbales]

I just cleaned up this moss green WE 500- polished the housing, cleaned everything, lubricated the dial, yada yada yada and now I have this awesome green machine!

THEN I got the Spokesman  It came with a box and was listed at "NOS," but it was clearly at least lightly used, so I gave it a good polish as well. I'm using an 18 watt-equivalent power supply, not an original, and it seems to work fine.

This will be a hoot when I use it at work!

I'll post my other stuff later, but I'm excited about this at the moment.

[Texas1880]

What components does one need to get this working? A 107b speaker, a 500 set, and a power transformer? What else? I really want to set one up

[rdelius]

I think the 107 speaker is part of a 3B speakerphone. If so you need a 55b control unit ,a 666b? control head and a 12-16vac transformer

[Texas1880]

Thanks. I'm starting with a 107a speaker. The transformer will be easy, the other stuff not so much.

[jpbales]

It's actually pretty simple to setup. You can find the technical manual in the TCI library, which explains everything in detail.

In a nutshell, you need the speaker + a 500 (and there are other phones that it will work with, as well), as well as the transformer (or equivalent power supply).

The original 18 volt power supply (labeled a "power unit) is 18 volts/ 3.6 "VA." A VA is basically the equivalent of a watt. If you know just the basics about how speakers work and electricity, you'll know that volts x amps = Watts. That means the power unit is 18 volts at 0.2 amps (pretty low amperage, honestly). Instead of buying the original power supply, I just used an extra one I had already that is around the equivalent wattage (of 3.6) and it seems to work fine even though it's not the exact same specs. The speaker should really only use the power it requires, so having a little bigger of a power supply shouldn't hurt it. Having an underpowered one might cause distortion in the sound, though. I'm not an electrical engineer, so no promises.

The wiring is also simple. Buy a telephone "wall jack" to connect the phone and speaker wires together (they are 5$ on Amazon. The speaker has four wires: two connect to the telephone receiver circuit and two connect to the power supply. So wire the telephone to the wall jack like you normally would but then add the two extra conductors (either using a 4-conductor wire or two separate wires... the 4-conductor wires are a little trickier to find). Then wire the speaker to the wall jack to the appropriate connections that go to the phone circuit. Then wire the power supply either to the wall jack to connect to the speaker or wire it directly to the speaker. You'll need another 4-conductor wire to do it the former method. Once you have the phone and speaker wires to the jack, you just use a normal modular like cord to connect the jack to the phone line.

Easy peasy!

[jpbales]

This is the wall jack I used to connect the wiring. It has plenty of space and terminals inside to connect everything without any hassle. There's a hole at the bottom end where the oncoming wires go.

[jpbales]

Here's my first rotary phone, a black WE500. Before and after photos of cleaning it up.

[FABphones]

  Like me, another who can't resist getting a nice shine onto metal, even when it is inside and out of sight.

You got that black to shine up beautifully too, what products did you use?

[Babybearjs]

did you polish the gongs? or replace them with brass plated ones?

[jpbales]

Thanks for the kind compliments.

I used a polishing wheel and some plastic polishing compound to polish the housing.

For the gongs, I also used the polishing wheel. I sold that phone a while back, but I would guess that the brass has tarnished since then without anything to protect it (which I later learned). You could use Rustoleum clear coat to prevent tarnishing.

[Jim Stettler]

I have been told car wax will protect the bells from tarnish. I have never tried it.
There is also Renaissance wax, which is a museum type wax.

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http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=21352.msg217710#msg217710
Quote from  link
Quote> "One thing I can say for certain is the best "wax" ever to protect bare metal is Renaissance Wax, a microcrystaline wax designed by a British museum long ago. It is not a polish, just a protective wax. A very small amount on a piece of cotton covers the metal in one coat and when immediately wiped off with a microfiber cloth leaves the shine unchanged but keeps environmental conditions from affecting the bare metal." < Quote

[jpbales]

After restoring the 500, I got a 302. Also no longer in my collection. The first two photos are before pics.