Next challenge: Turning a table lamp back into a WE 50AL

[oyang]

The dial came from a switchboard originally,
...when it was still a dial.

Just curious: How can you tell?

[Phonesrfun]

The finger stop, rather than just being a flat stop, has a slope to the part that the finger hits.  More comfortable for the finger on people who sit and dial numbers all day long for a living.

[Greg G.]

Somewhere in this forum somebody posted a scan from an old magazine that detailed the project.

I was curious to read that article, but haven't found it yet, here or elsewhere.  I did come up with this ad from the September 1956 issue of Popular Science though.

My memory is fuzzy on it, may not have been an actual scan posted, but the Popular Science article sounds familiar.

[oyang]

Have you seen the topic on Lamp Phone Atrocities yet?

UGH!!!! I guess the silver lining is that these conversions kept the phones out of the trash bin. In my major hobby, antique fountain pens, there was a massive loss in the 1980s when gold hit $1000/oz, and people ripped the 14k nibs out of pens for scrap and threw them away.... all for a few dollars.

[oyang]

Progress update: Spent about $150 on parts (mostly the dial) and hours stripping and repainting. Of course this was totally impractical and made no financial sense, but that wasn't the point, was it?   

This is what I have so far..... Of course there is not a single wire in it, so getting it working is next....

[HarrySmith]

Nice work! Definitely a "saved" phone. Your efforts were worth it even if the money wasn't. I occasionally see complete wiring harnesses on eBay sold very cheaply, start a  search and save it, be patient!

[Phonesrfun]

Of course there is not a single wire in it, so getting it working is next....

For me, that's the easy part.

[TelePlay]

The cosmetic work was so noted here

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11814.msg156103#msg156103

[Sargeguy]

Looks good so far! 

[19and41]

Keep those before pictures, they say so much about the good job you have done!  I love seeing antiques rescued from the spoilers.

[DavePEI]

OMG, he's ruined a perfectly good lamp!

The cosmetic work was so noted here

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11814.msg156103#msg156103

[oyang]

Thanks all!  I've pulled the wiring diagrams and will start wiring it soon to a 634A subset. It's still got the cut off perch, but I didn't replace that part because it doesn't functionally compromise the phone, and it has the key 50AL marking that is the identity of this phone. I suppose I could (may) someday cut some brass plate to solder and restore the original shape of the perch, but perhaps it is better to leave it as a mark pride that this phone died and returned to life.

Quick technical question: what determines if a phoneset is sidetone or anti-sidetone?  Is it the paired receiver/transmitter elements, or the available terminals to allow anti-sidetone wiring, or both?

[unbeldi]

The anti-sidetone upgrade of the 1930s, the 151AL, added an additional hookswitch spring contact so that it had two independent switches.   Yours appear to be for a 50/51AL, for the sidetone circuit.
This is the crucial difference in the instrument, the other is in the subset, which has an induction coil with three windings, and the mounting cord would have four conductors, rather than three.

A 634A subset is an AST subset.

[oyang]

From my reading, I can just ignore the fourth wire and it will work with this subset even though it is anti-sidetone.  I'll review the prior posts I found about connecting a 51AL to a 634A, assuming that this phone is the same except for the locations of the wiring connections (all on the hookset in this model).

[unbeldi]

One can ignore the black wire when the desk stand is wired as an AST device and one doesn't have an AST subset, but not the other way around, when the subset is AST and the desk set isn't.

You have to rewired an AST subset slightly, and indeed we have posts about that.  Just last week it was mentioned: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=4670.0