Repair Of A 1936 Philco 610 Tube Radio

Here's a Philco model 610 from 1936. It was sent in for repair. Lets see if we can get it going again.
Repro dogbone resistors by Steve Davis www.philcoradio...

[@45AMT]

Repro dogbone resistors and cabinets by Steve Davis.. www.philcoradio.com/davis.htm

[@DrDroogkloot]

Seems to me you are a real philco specialist. Nice to see these radio’s still exist. I have 3 philips radio’s dated from late 50’s till early 60’s and a nordmende from 58. The nordmende stil works great. I enjoy these repair video’s of these tube devices on this channel and on the shangoo channel. Keep it going👍👍

[@davisdorian9985]

instablaster...

[@stevewalters6003]

I have a 37-610. It is a great performing radio. Philco is one of the best radio brands for performance and build quality.

[@Rev22-21]

I restored 37-610 myself for my sister in law last year. It worked out really well being my first Philco restore. Really enjoyed that build.

[@64samsky]

I still have a 1937 Philco that was totally restored that my puppy chewed the 3 wires that go to the speaker, that I want to send you, as well as my Grandfather's 1949 bake lite Philco. My case kept getting dragging through the courts and sits in the court of appeals stalled because of Covid 19. I'm not a bull crapper, just stuck for a bit...I will be in touch. Great Video!

[@timmack2415]

I just finished a 610 Nice job

[@stephencopeland238]

I've learnt a lot from you - thank you so much for sharing - your efforts really are appreciated

[@jeffk9876]

The gentleman who made the dogbone resistors is Steve Davis. He also makes reproduction philco cabinets. You can find his ad over on Ron Ramirez's philcoradio.com site. He made me a cabinet for my Philco 90.

[@LarryDeSilva64]

Great old Philco radio to work on. You do really nice work repairing these old radios. Thanks for sharing.

[@b.a.m.5078]

Hell yeah. These videos are just so satisfying

[@TysonHugie]

Awesome work on this one!

[@45AMT]

Thanks Tyson!

[@billmcdonald2436]

Thank God you used safety capacitors. The world most certainly would’ve come to an end without them.

[@bobwendoloski6970]

Nice restore, I did one of these a few years ago. I restuffed the electrolytic cans it was a cleaner job and since they were single caps it was pretty easy. Surprised you did not sneak in a fuse!

[@levimevis5192]

I have this radio's big brother the 116B which is known as the "Baby Grand" model. Mine's an early model with the round tube shields rather than the rectangular shields like yours has, which means yours is actually a late production model. Unfortunately my 116's speaker (which is the earlier production 10" unit) got broken when a tree fell on my workshop and stuff fell off my ceiling and broke the cone, which was in mint condition prior to getting smashed.

[@levimevis5192]

Another thing is that your radio is missing the cover that's supposed to go over the dial pointers so that only the pointer for the selected band shows in the tuner dial and the rest of the pointers are blanked out until they're selected.

[@45AMT]

@@levimevis5192 It's not my radio. But I'll let the customer know.

[@levimevis5192]

@@45AMT I know it's not your radio, I say that just as a way to let people know I'm talking about the radio in their video.

[@Rev22-21]

Me, I have no problem ordering & replacing all caps and resistor. I may not use them but better having & replacing then regrets later. Also Philco's are pretty fun to work on.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

wow this one needs some real help ! I sure enjoy listening to my 610b and I refinished the cabinet

[@nor4277]

The owner should be very happy , nice work.

[@THOMMGB]

It's amazing how well such a simple 5 tube radio could pull in so many stations. I wonder if this radio actually hurt sales of the more expensive higher count tube radios.

[@Korium84]

38:29 VORW, The voice of the report of the week. Great job on the radio

[@steelcity321pb6]

Some people do some strange things to Vintage Radios: sadly it’s the same here in England. Thankfully the 1936, model 610 was placed into a pair of capable hands. It sounds, and performs fine. Best regards, Phil.

[@vicmabus1532]

I like the little porch light behind the dial!

[@PapiDoesIt]

I love watching these old radios come back to life. But I still have a hard time whenever someone pronounces bakelite as "bake light" when those of us who spent our younger years in Europe pronounce it "bocka-leeta"

[@45AMT]

That's the way we say it here in the US. No apologies for that.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

I have one. A friend was able to get it for me. He literary stopped someone in the motion of throwing it into a container at the town dump. I did the variac slow power up. I had to replace one filter capacitor in the power supply. It plays wonderfully for about 20 minutes and then begins to quiet and sound gets garbly. So I suspect a leaky coupling cap. I haven't fixed it anymore than that. Person discarding it said it sat in barn for decades. I'll need to refinish the cabinet which is also missing a little foot. I'll restore the electronics then. I just like that I can play it a few minutes with all of those old parts. It has the larger speaker. I think they came with two sizes. God Bless

[@dondesnoo1771]

I have 3 I usually use a modern speaker add a resistor for the field ugpdrad filter values use modern output xfmr keep orig speaker aside . Have the trf and super het cathedral and a 4tube wit the clock original speakers don't sound well.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

@@dondesnoo1771 Nice! I just looked in the back of mine and the label says model 116. It looks like a ten inch speaker in mine and it is loud and has lots of low end response. Your mods are interesting. I think I'll take a screen shot and bear that in mind. You could use the field coil in the original speaker if you could store it in place in the cabinet. It's amazing to see this 75 to 85 year old technology still performing so well. God Bless

[@lyntonprescott3412]

Great job. Lynton G4XCQ

[@hestheMaster]

Reproduction dogbone resistors for Philco radios can be found at Ebay seller b47g2a. There is a seller on Ebay who makes nice repro power cords with polarized plugs that also look vintage. He is key_west_fl Very nice fix on the Philco there! Picks up stations great! Looks like the grill cloth needs attention.

[@45AMT]

The grille cloth is just the start as far as cosmetics on this one. Thanks

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

28:58 WSM Yes! Love that station when I can pick it up in the northeast.

[@MrBillmcminn]

Zoomer Radio 740 from Toronto. It’s noteworthy that 740 KHz was the former frequency of CBL, the flagship station of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, at the end of the 1930’s CBL was one of the stations that was blown off the air when WLW was transmitting at 500,000 watts.

[@45AMT]

They have great programming when i tune in at night.

[@billmascheck5083]

I just finished a 610 bullet and found 3 schematics for the 610, each one and minor changes on it. I found a service bulletin no. 217 on audiophool.com that help out also.

[@normgrows]

Hello Thanks for the videos fun to watch, I Just scored like 10 or more Vintage radios in a clean out. We got a few Philcos and Zenith that look similar to these you work on and one larger record player also its neat. hasent seen the light of day since 1956 when it was stored ! I also got All of the guys old Tubes like 100s and 100s of new in the box Tubes and the display even, Interested in seeing some pictures of our score ? I dont really know who else to talk to about this stuff haha

[@normgrows]

I found a awesome General electric case full of tubes new like a service kit ! looked it up on ebay the box empty was worth like 100 bucks ! I think we did good?

[@Radiowild]

Well done!

[@chetpomeroy1399]

I noticed the prices on the parts list. Those parts were probably pretty expensive for the 1930's!

[@45AMT]

Especially during the depression.

[@bigmotter001]

Nice video but it would have been nice to see your tune up procedure in it's whole. Thanks and take care.

[@45AMT]

If i post the alignment people complain the video is to long and boring. If it don't people still complain. It really is a no win situation

[@jim8230]

Wow. shortwave is sure active...

[@rodneygreene9102]

Really enjoyed the video I have an antique Radio I need fixed I was wondering where you were out of where do you live I live in North Carolina thanks so much

[@45AMT]

SC

[@radiotvrepair1059]

Thanks for the vedio. I want to buy a tube tester by which you can advise me an old tester and which brand or a curve tracer like utracer3, etracer .

[@45AMT]

I like the Eico testers. But like anything else it's all in preference.

[@Madness832]

Sure the cabinet wasn't inspired by an ST-style tube?

[@MrGigi-dz9cv]

That hair, may come from the brush, or airborn. I don't like painting with the brush

[@force311999]

is the plug on the repro cord polarized ?

[@levimevis5192]

Yes they are, I've used them many times, although with a transformer set like these you don't have to worry about plug polarity as much as you do on a hot chassis set.

[@gazyounglive]

Not many full time SW broadcasters left around the world now, internet took most of them. China radio international seem to be like audio pollution at certain times of the day.