This time we fully restore an old 1940's era Crosley table radio sometimes called a "fiver" because it had five tubes. This one is in reasonable condition but definitely needs a full restore both electronically and cosmetically.
These newer videos by you are a treat. Thank you for putting in the effort filming and editing, the video quality has really improved since your earlier ones. I would love to see a new video of vacuum tube making since it's been a while since your last video, and you're the only one on RU-vid with the knowledge and equipment to do it! The tiny tubes were incredible, and I'd love to see you put audio through one of your homemade tubes in the future. The scrape stripping is ingenious, as well as all of the other tricks you use for restoration. I'm definitely adding those to my arsenal for future restorstions. :3 Thank you!
a little trick I use when gluing under wood, or veneer is I go to the pharmacy, and get a large needle, and suck up some glue, and inject it under the wood.. this is only for things like veneer that's popped up, or a hard to reach area.. Excellent job my friend.. very nice...
good to see you back with regular project posts. Yours are singularly the most consistent and practical records of what the digital age has lost. Thanks for sharing! :)
A fine piece of work carried out there Ron and a real pleasure watching you doing it all too. Many-many audio repair buffs, over the pond in the UK, follow all the work you do.
I really enjoy your videos, and admire your skills. I have never seen multiple section coupling capacitors such as these used, in my 71 years, I learn something new! Keep the videos coming. Thank you.
The knob removal trick with the rag is great ,great video many thanks. I use a small piece of cardboard in my other hand to stop over spraying on to stuff that doesn't need it.
I recently incorporated some of your procedures into my own such as sandblasting the chassis then lacquer and painting the speaker with rubber cement. I am much happier with the outcome of my most recent radio as a result. Thanks for your wonderful instruction.
Thank you Ron for all the recent videos! Really have always enjoyed everything you posted for years now, you are a real expert and such a valuable resource. Buddy
I know little about electronics, having always been a social worker, but am facinated by your expertise. I can see that recording your work and knowledge, gained over years, will be of important use to even future generations regarding restorations. Thank you for preserving your work on these videos.
The visual restoration is always my favorite part of these ^^ This one came out excellently! The border was a good call- looks like it always belonged there, and highlighting the trim was a great idea too!
Hello Ron, I have been watching your channel for several years. Great videos. I am happy your making them. I obtained an old Crosley radio just like yours from an old ham friend who purchased it new. He had it in his barn. and was down sizing b4 moving to town. The radio cabinet good shape, but the radio did not play. Found the transformer had been replaced and candohm was shorted and the last repair job used a single 4.7k 2 watt resister. The John F. Rider diagram shows a 8,500 and 25,000 ohm single candolm. I used a 7,500 and 25k wire wound, did replaced caps, two dog bone resisters and the 80 rectifier tube. Once I finished restoration, I've been able to receive broadcast band but not the short wave band? The sound level is low, don't know if two resisters replacing the candolm causing it and/or mis-wired a capacitor as you show us in your video. Powel Crosley and his brother Lewis, built this model 516 in April 1936. I live here in Cincinnati and only a few miles where this radio was built in Camp Washington. Power and his brother were American Inventors, industrialist and Entrepreneurs in Cincinnati. Powel also owned the Cincinnati Reds. I like the way you raised the cabinet to make it look better to view the dial. The wire antenna you installed great idea too. Thanks for sharing your videos. I enjoy them very much. Russ
I have watched Ron's videos around 8 times each and I still think there brilliant ,I always lot forward to the latest video out .Many thanks to you Ron for giving your time to make these videos and I hope to see many more in the future .
That's definitely a cool set... thanks restoring and sharing, Ron. That set reminds me of years ago when I had and restored and loved to used a circa 1936 Crosley model-515 2-band tabletop. All the caps worked OK except for the main filter condensers. after clipping the led going to the dead filter cap and leaving the dead filter can in place for aesthetics and finding a subtitle ties-trip connection to mount an under-chassis modernize filter replacement and restored and loved to used a circa 1936 Crosley model-515 2-band tabletop. All the caps worked OK except for the main filter condensers. after clipping the led going to the dead filter cap and leaving the dead filter can in place for aesthetics and finding a subtitle ties-trip connection to mount an under-chassis modernize filter replacement the radio worked great for years and picked up the Ham Radio AM'ers that meet and QSO in the 3870 to 3885 kHz window very nicely. :-)
1940s? I thought transformerless AC/DC radios were the norm by the 40s? Plus those tubes point to early to mid 30s. Ah,not a complaint but a query. Otherwise I am so amazed at all your work. I was saying to myself you have all the tools to do everything, and some tricks and tips that are priceless. Thanks so much for all your efforts and videos.
Kudos! There's not a lot of us left in this Gameboy, smartphones and apps generation. It was a joy to see the radio working again. The only thing missing is the smell of the old parts and furniture.
You would be in heaven in my old 1939 house that is filled with antiques! The smell is exactly what you would expect, not the plastic-like smell of modern stuff!
If shooting trim with clear lacquer after applying stain or other color I've used magic markers (or sharpies for smaller stuff). They come of course in black and brown but also other interesting colors like gold and silver, and they wok pretty well for less-porous materials that don't take stain easily.
You make this look easy. I appreciate you positive attitude and your passion to preserve radio history. I like what you did to the bottom of the radio. I'm not sure what it does to the antique "value", but it looks nice. 🙌
That radio is pre 1940's, It's properly closer to about 1934 or 1935 because octal based tubes were used around 1936 onwards and that radio is pre octal tube era.
You said correct.I never seen pri octal valves.My age is 71 year today.When I started to learn radio servicing in 1967 not a single set was pre octal.There were Miniature and some octal base.
love the washer idea to cover the sockets! I learn something each time i watch one of your videos. Also thank you for passing on all this knowledge as Golden age Radio is rapidly becoming a lost art.
I think what is really impressive is the speed with which you do these repairs and in a far more practical way, I tend to find many of the RU-vid channels on vintage radio repair are overly fussy and pedantic. Great work.
Great video. TIP: I got a vibratory jewelry/parts cleaner from Harbor Freight. I use Simple Green gentle cleaner (or just soap and water mix) for the solvent. Turn the ultrasonic vibe on for one cycle and the parts come out nicer than you can imagine. You'll be as pleased as the way your lingerie comes out of the dryer. Thanks man... love your videos and it's nice to see you goof up occasionally and then you fix it. Very cool !
I failed on that same model . Blew out the speaker coil...Failed to calculate the canaohm correctly..Bought another speaker going to retry at a later date..old grundig on the bench for recap..I learned a few things from your vid thanks for sharing..
Very conveniently sized sandblaster, not to forget the very nice 👍, early model radio. Could have de-rusted many car 🚗 rims my dad had put on his horse 🐎 trailer back in the 1970’s. I know this sandblaster couldn’t help with tire blowouts, which he had many of. Just to sandblast the inner surface of them, a place where rust commonly formed on these tube type rims. Very easy way to de-rust your radio 📻 chassis. I know how hard and time consuming this would be with a piece of sandpaper. I’ve seen your very meticulous jobs on these radios 📻, with no shortcuts or omissions. I even have one ☝️ of those soldering guns I found on April 27th, 2020. Works very well. My dad had one ☝️ back in 1976 or so. Really like all your radio videos. Speaker 🔊 reconing glue will work for the speaker. Yes, very amazing 😉 stuff. Saw a lot of smoke 💨 with your soldering gun, it must be the soldering flux. Keep these great 👍 radio videos coming, even if they’re as long as two hours a video.
