ROBOT HEAD Radio from 1947! Electronic [Restoration] 

To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab

Just have to complement you for having perfect audio levels on all of your videos. It's a rare thing on RU-vid.

I would indeed like to see a case restoration. This is the main reason I watch David Tipton's radio restoration channel.

restore the case. restore the case. restore the case.

trained on electronics on the late 1960 , one of my first test was the building and alignment of the superheterodyne radio. Thank you making these videos,they bring back so many good memories. I am going to binge watch your videos.

You're so meticulous in describing everything you do, it so mesmerizing! Love your vids...great job as usual!

Thanks for bringing back life to yet another great little radio, Paul. We had transformerless designs all the way up to the early 60s here in the UK, and I learned the hard way at a very young age that the power cord should always go into the socket the right way round! Back then we had three different types of mains power sockets, 5 amp two pin reversible, 5 amp three pin none reversible, and 15 amp three pin none reversible, all at the standard 240 volt 50 Hz supply. By the end of the 1960s all new house power sockets had to be of the now standard 13 amp, three pin none reversible type. I was born in 1952, and at sixty seven I'm still here, so the burned fingers I got in my early days taught me the hard way that the correct wires must be connected to the correct pins in the plug! Thank so much for all you share through your RU-vid channel, Paul. You have a world wide audience eagerly awaiting your next knowledge packed video.

I always love it when you can restore an old radio from the 30s or 40s I find it fascinating to see the innards and you fixing it up with today’s technology

Mr. Carlson.." it's just that easy!" Me...." it's never, just that easy!"

I'd like to see the case restoration as well, please. As thorough, professional and thoughtful as you are, I'd enjoy watching you paint a room! 😊

Paul, You are the Mustie1 (or the Mr. Blond) of electronics - thank you!! God bless Paul (in MA USA)

Paul, your videos are second to none in terms of quality, education, safety and just plain ol' interesting. I don't always understand everything in your videos but I always understand more than I did before. Thanks for being a calm, soothing voice in these times of chaos. Keep up the excellent work! Oh, and the answer to any question you ask do you want to see me do X? The answer is always YES!

No matter how many videos I've watched, I always learn something new and fascinating with each one...Thanks!

Thanks Paul for another instructional video. I get lots of info from RU-vid folks like you who help me piece together the workings of a radio. Cheers... Oh, and of course all Aussie radios have the tubes hanging upside down (I've been reading other comments) 🙄

Nothing like working on some PCB designs and drinking coffee while binge-watching Paul fixing radios and designing circuits.Winner combination!

There seems to be some who want to see the case restored. That’s not a bad idea. It’s your call. There are those who enjoy the full restoration. I am one. Shows more than tech skill, shows mechanical aptitude too. Keep up these great videos. 😊👍🏻🙌🏻👏

I really like the way you explain what you are doing. As a former electronic engineer, I do appreciate, thank you.

Interesting radio and restoration--thanks Mr. C! This restoration has interesting timing. As you may recall, I sent you a PM through Patreon a little over a week ago, asking about radios of this vintage not matching their schematic. Although I had not specified, it was my Crosley 52TF that I was referring to in that PM. Unsurprisingly, the schematic for my 52TF appears to be a direct ancestor of the 56TD here in your video. The circuit in my 52TF has many differences to its schematic, so you now know what I was talking about in that PM. I originally restored all of the caps and some resistors with the same/similar values as in the original circuit. Afterwards, when I was troubleshooting hum issues, I noticed the audio output section had many differences when compared to the schematic. I took many photos and then made the audio output section match the schematic, but that completely broke the radio--no B+ voltage! Even though it went against the schematic, I moved one wire back to the way it was in the original circuit, and I got B+ back. Now I need to revert the rest of the audio output section to match the original circuit. I'm still working through hum issues, but you've given me some things to try. I'm curious if the actual wiring of our two radios differs from the schematics in the same way. Thank you for confirming that Crosleys don't always match their schematics. Regarding the new mica capacitor, connected to the grid of the 50L6, can you confirm its value, please? Is that orange-red-brown (320 pF)? I'm also guessing the upper-left black dot on that cap means it's mica (vs silver for paper). People, if you enjoy Mr. C's videos as much as I do, please consider supporting him through Patreon so that he can continue such great content. Frank B+

Mr Carlsons lab you are good at restoring vintage radios and alignment of vintage radios 📻 my friend 😊😊😊😊😊

Really liking the second bench. Looks quite roomy. 👍

Alignment makes all the difference plus that radio has excellent sensitivity, another great video Mr Carlson.

I would have preferred that you made a video where you sorted out the grounding situation and other issues. I really didn't need another plug for your capacitor tester. I would love to buy one though. All that being said, you are easily the most knowledgeable electronics guy I have ever come across.

Story about Moffats Limited... a Canadian company tied to Crosley: In 1946, the Avco Manufacturing Corporation (formerly the Aviation Company) of Greenrwich, Connecticut bought Crosley Radio and Television which, in addition to its entertainment products, also made major appliances. The same year, Avco licensed the manufacture of Crosley products to Moffat. In 1953, Avco bought Moffat outright. From here, the story needs to go back in time. In 1927, five companies (McClary Manufacturing Company, London, Ontario; Sheet Metal Products Company of Canada Limited, Toronto; Thomas Davidson Manufacturing Company Limited, Montreal; E. T. Wright Limited, Hamilton, Ontario; and A. Aubry et fils Limitée, Montreal) merged to form General Steel Wares (GSW) Limited. They acquired the Happy Thought Foundry Company of Brantford, Ontario in 1920, followed by the Easy Washing Machine Company in 1958. In 1962, Beatty Brothers Limited of Fergus, Ontario acquired a controlling interest in GSW through a reverse take-over, merging the two large firms. Here's where Moffat comes back into the story. Under the leadership of Ralph Barford, GSW acquired the Moffat Company in 1971, making GSW the the only Canadian-owned, full-line appliance company. The Moffat acquisition, probably Barford's largest, brought GSW into the big six full-line appliance makers. The other five, all foreign controlled, were Admiral, GE, Inglis, White and Westinghouse. GSW merged with General Electric Canada in 1977 to become the Canadian Appliance Manufacturing Company (Camco), making it the largest major appliance manufacturer in Canada. The same year the company acquired the major appliance operations of Westinghouse Canada, exclusive of the "Westinghouse" name. Those products were re-branded as "Hotpoint" and sold along side of the GE, Moffat and McClary brands. Under Camco, stoves and refrigerators continued to be built at the Weston plant until 1983 when production moved to Hamilton, Ontario and then off-shore. URL: progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2016/04/we-used-to-make-things-in-this-country.html

Another fantastic video - one of the few channels that is really worth every cent of my Patreon contribution.

Another amazing piece of history saved... Fantastic work!

I’d love to see the cabinet restoration. Also, I (like others already did) have to compliment you on the audio aspect of your videos. Always pleasantly clear and intelligible.

Mr Carlson you are good at electronics restoration of vintage shortwave radio Receivers and Aliament

Mr Carlsons lab your vintage Robot Head crosley Moffat tube AM radio from 1947 is awesome my friend 😊😊😊😊

Hello, Paul! I really enjoyed the video. I am always amazed at how many tests can be performed on one antique radio...with a final result of the component sounding so rich. As for the case, to be honest, I really like how it looks now. This is a personal thing but I prefer seeing a radio that shows its age but works great! Again, Thank You for making these videos. With the lockdown, these videos get me through the day and I learn something with every view. Keep em' coming!

i learned so many things from a video, i can't believe i haven't discovered this guy before!

MR Carlson thx for loving my comment:) Even when am not at home Your channel plays ( it helps to distract thieves XD )24h almost:Pam uploading and downloading alot data so pc must be always on. bills are bigger a bit but not too much 40 euro per monthXD. Now am making my 1st LED torch from 130 lumen 1w high powered LEDS and connected 13 them pararel one by one , took heat sink from old pc. + am gonna use a little of 7.5W /mk good conductive thermal grease and spread it on metal underpads and then attach diodes to heat sink

I always love the effect of hearing modern broadcasts coming from eighty year old radio sets, it's kinda Twilight Zone-ish.

You know has shape of a toaster probably why it gets so hot. Very good restore!

“I have a screwdriver here” sounded as if that was a threat to the radio :’D

Totally enjoying your channel, well done. I was a TV engineer back a few years ago so its very nostalgic to watch your show. Just a little hint for polishing glass fronts for you, you can use toothpaste instead of headlight cleaner, works every bit as good. Keep up the good work 👍😎

As usual.....your work is perfection. Also, yes.....would REALLY like to see the result of the finished radio with the black and gold! thanks!

Very enjoyable. I'm probably the 99th person to say this, but you're the Bob Ross of vintage electronics. Oh yeah, please restore the case.

Your videos are just the best. You breeze through this radio like you have done dozens of this model before. I know we don't get to see all the work you do, but still, just awesome! You have to show us the cabinet restoration for sure.

You piqued my curiosity about Moffats Ltd. so, being the Army Intel geek, I researched it and found that Crosley Radio and TV sets were sold & distributed in Canada by the Crosley Radio and TV Division of Moffats Ltd., Toronto, Ontario. In March 1954, Donald R. Moffat was elected Executive Vice President, Avco of Canada Ltd., headquartering in Weston, Ontario; he was also the President of Moffatts Ltd., which was another Avco subsidiary.

Robot cabinet looks fine leave the battle scars, save you time for your innovations like your capacitor test.

Mr Carlson the radio cabinet looks like new that's so awesome

I just discovered your channel today, after watching a lot of techmoan, 8 bit guy, lgr, reto man cave it's interesting to see the repair of old electronics. I can really get a sense of the evolution of technology. What changed and what stayed the same.

I really love this videos. You do know a lot about electronics and electricity. It is very fun and entertaining to follow you along all these adventures. Many thanks

This guy is brilliant! One of the teachers in this would.

Mr Carlson your Crosley radio Receiver from 1947 with broadcast band is good for DXing at night and day that's cool

This was fantastic. I love the styling of this radio. Great video.

Very comact and portable construction for thats times( 1947!) 👍

An other great job by Paul i really enjoy your video's and how you explain what you are doing thanks a lot !

Watching these videos makes me want to work on these radios, too. But I know nothing about tubes, lol!

Missed your smiling face youngman! Great restore ! I enjoyed every second of it!

These videos are fantastic. It looks like it was modeled to look like a cast iron radiator.

Novus #2. Get a set of #1, #2, and #3 -- the best thing ever for polishing things, especially plastics!

Yes please! Definitely would like to see the final colour restoration. Thank you.

Restoration of the case? Yes, please! Thank you.

Great video! You make the alignment process very straightforward and easy to comprehend. I'd like to see how you restore the body of the radio to maybe red and gold. Keep up the good work I am enjoying all of your videos and have learned a lot from them.

I don't know about everyone else but I would like to see content on actual replacement of components. I would like to see you de-soldering components and replacement. Discussion of movement of components. We've seen testing of components and alignments coming out the yin yang. You talked about the case and how to restore it but no coverage of what you actually did. Same thing on the plastic cover; what product did you use and technique to remove the scuff? You talked about how hot the inside of the case would get with the tubes in there. How hot is that? No ventilation? What would it take to actually replace the tubes with solid state components? Have you ever considered doing this?

looks like a old drive in speaker. thanks for sharing!

When I saw the name Crosley, I thought it was one of those Junk Phonographs . This is a Gem! I have restored some of those myself.. Capacitor and tube rectifier replacement.. Oh that Bakelite...... "I'm the leader of the show, keepin' you on the go But I know I can't live without my radio" - LL Cool J

I just found your channel and have watched a couple of your videos. They are very interesting and informative to watch, however I have next to no knowledge base on radios, albeit I am a retired Mechanical Engineer - having been the safety Engineer on the Space Shuttle Main Engines. I have always been interested in the design of vintage tube radios, and just completed designing and making two sort of Prairie School wood table radio cabinets. One for my grandson, who likes old radios, and one for me. My grandson liked a Prairie School table lamp that I recently designed and made and wanted me to make one for him. Since it took me a month to make, I decided that I would make something for him that did not take as much time. So, I incorporated the look of the lamp into the radio, which still took me two weeks to made two radios. It would be neat to insert a tube radio in my cabinets for the great sound, but I have not found a good deal on a working one or two. So, for now I have 1970s vintage Tandy radios inside the cabinets. The rear panel needs to be removed to turn on, set volume and station - but only two screws. Here is a quick and dirty video on my Prairie School Radio Cabinets for your viewing pleasure! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zvlVWGyhBf4.html

I learned lots from this and it was fascinating as usual. The radio looks like it is about to say "Take me to your leader" :D I think if it had a gold grille and painted body, it would look even more like a robot head or something so I say just leave it in plain Bakelite. Cheers

Love the videos!! The best polish is Blue Magic (In the tube) cleans and polishes stuff is great!

Loved the Crosley Fiver i restored, fun radios.

When you first powered it up, the las thing I was expecting was for it to work. Smoke yes, but not work. LOL. Nice job as usual, and thanks for the tip on dial cord replacement regarding the spring.

Great job! Very well done in every aspect. Top notch.

This thing looks related to.... Rosie the robot ON The Jetsons!

I think that the "robot's head" shape of radio as you put it is one of the ways that people try to make things look "futuristic". It's like when the first diesel electric locomotive was invented that they made it look more or less shaped like a space vehicle so that people would find it more attractive than just a box shaped locomotive like they use now. The thing is that people don't exactly know what the future is going to look like until it actually happens. Instead of Jetsons-style buildings, for instance, buildings look ordinary. But there was no Internet or cell phone or flat screen television or touch screen tablet computers or any of those things back when /The Jetsons/ were first produced by Hanna-Barbara.

This design would benefit greatly from adding an exhaust fan to the back to pull cooling air from the front. Yes, fans are noisy but heat is worse than noise.

A radio only a mother could love. Very Flash Gordon-esque look to it. Strange how there's no ventilation. As the plastic faceplate hasn't distorted over the years the designers apparently did a good job of isolating the heat from the tubes. Still, I don't think I'd want to leave it on unattended on a hot day in an unairconditioned room for too long.

That radio would look properly cool in the black and gold colour scheme.

Hi Paul. Great repair as usual my friend. Very interesting radio. Take care.

Hey Thanks again Carlson will be watching this tonight. 👍

That cleaned up really nice. I am wanting to restore on a classic AM radio for my station I am now by default the chief engineer of with the now nice new solid state AM transmitter dumping a gallon into an 80 year old shunt fed tower with 80 year old grounds you can guess the noise I have to deal with. RF eats up everything solid state especially radios and I would wager a good quiet build like this and some of the radios I have seen you do I would bet it would shrug off the RF. Now I just need to get on your patreon and build some of those testers. I am betting the old time gospel format on said station would sound awesome through an old time tube radio.

Mr Carlson... as always love the restoration videos. In your next video (or in a reply to my comment) would you please explain what is meant by "star grounding" that you did to reduce the hum. Also I have restored a couple of radios that have "back-lash" gears. In you next video with that sort of gearing would you show us the technique you use to reset the back-lash. Finally -- during the alignment procedure I never know if/when I should be using a modulated signal and what % modulation should be used -- would you please take a couple of minutes and explain that a bit in your next alignment video. Thanks

Mr Carlson the radio speaker looks like new that's so awesome

Great video as always Paul. Would be very interested in the cabinet restoration please.

Perfect timing Mr Carlson. I just bought this model Crosley from a local Craig’s List seller that’s week. When I opened the radio all the tubes were missing. [Lol] Buyer beware.

I'm just a little surprised ... Because in Germany all AM transmitters in the radio band have long been switched off. By the way, I was trained at the former Grundig company and later worked at the Satellite World Receiver. But that is a completely different number. That's not " that easy " :-) But anyway, I like your videos. Keep it up

In the UK it was common for AC/DC (transformerless) sets to have the control knobs attached to the shafts with set screws (and the set screw hole plugged with wax or resin) to reduce risk of knobs being pulled off and the user coming into direct contact with chassis mounted controls

@ 52:10 you mentioned that the components in the chassis don't match up with the schematic. Boy have you got that right. Noticed you correctly placed a third electrolytic on it at the cathode of the 50L6 tube . 10uF at 25 Volts. The two section electrolytic is supposed to be a 30uF and a 50uF at 150 Volts each. Glad you have the ability to reverse engineer the design of the radio for it's poor performance issues and was able to correct them. Great radio for those cold winter nights because it doubles as a hand warmer as well! LOL

I would love to see the Robot/Shaver Radio case restored. Great job as always.

Nice looking radio. Definitely paint it one of the factory color options.

Awesome video that is a joy to watch, thank you once again!

Seeing you struggle with the cover, I thought you might use the.”Get a bigger hammer school of repair” technique of persuasion!! Great videos, I have enjoyed your work and still amazed at your breadth of knowledge of Electronics!!!

Black with red knobs. Small fan at the bottom with small vent on opposite end. My two cents. :-) Thanks for the project. I really enjoyed it.

Paul, I notice that according to the old timers, most really old receivers were cut off so high in frequency that they sound tinny. Are you ever tempted to "just 'improve' the designs a tad" to remedy this for modern ears?

Great video, yes restore the case. new to this channel enjoying immensely.

Yay! a new Mr. Carlson's video, the Crosley looks like a bread toaster to me :)

I really enjoy your explanations and restorations. Next time I stumble across an old radio I even might get to try a restauration project myself. Meanwhile I found an 1948 Farviprüfer (tube tester) with programming cards at my uncles old house. Have no real use for it - any interest?

Mr. Carlson: “Maybe a robot’s head. Or a big shaver.” Crosley: “I am The Walrus.”

I've been spending some time going back over some of your older videos. I have one of the Precision Apparatus rf generators you are using. While doing an alignment, I can listen to the 400 Hz modulation tone all day and not find it annoying. Maybe I am used to it. The aircraft carrier I was stationed in had 480 volt 400 Hz 3-phase transformer banks powering various shipboard electronic systems. With loose laminations, these transformers would scream! I have an newer solid state rf generator that utilizes 1000 Hz modulation. I find 1000 Hz very annoying!!

I have read that Crosley made his radios to sell cheap because he had a radio station that at one time was 500,000 watts. It was funny that when you were tuning that radio you put it on 700 which was his were you could find his radio station. Today it is just 50,000 and is WLW. You can see it from I 75 north of Cincinnati as you go to the Dayton Hamfest. You can take tours to see what was his 500,000 transmitter.

The tag on the bottom could be right. I worked at a Goodyear tire shop and our manager sold crosley tv's, washer and dryers, phonographs, etc. I had bought a washer and dryer set, and when it needed service, the washer was actually a Maytag that was branded as a crosley, so I guess they did things similar to Sears with their craftsman line

That radio reminds me of a 1961 Thunderbird, it has a beauty to it's ugliness. I do allot of restoration to wooden radios that have been damaged too badly to ignore. I find it very time consuming but rewarding. I must admit when it comes to Bakelite, I just try to find them in good shape and polish them. I can see where the right paint job properly buffed would look great on that radio. Go for it.

I'm sure there is a video somewhere of Pauls Antenna farm. Going to have to search for that one.

Your Videos are Outstanding and a pleasure to watch. I almost thought I would hear the music from the era when the Radio was made lol...

Mr Carlson is like (but not the same) the Electronics version of Bob Ross. And I mean that in the best of ways, allowing us to actually understand what is usually a very, very dry subject.

Very cool. Thanks. Oh, and restore the case blk/gld.

That is so awesome how that radio goes from picking up one or a couple of stations to hitting something all the way through the dial. So much work but so satisfying. (I hope I am accurate with that assumption as you did all the work). :-) Thank You, again for another successful Restoration and sharing the "journey". I have learned SO much from you. I do need to get onto Patreon and learn the cap leakage tester build. That device is a "must have". And my words wont help pay your bills. ;-)

I love the look the way it is. If you want to paint some gold accent on the speaker grill that would look cool too, you can’t go wrong with the black and gold combo (especially if you like Hertz Mustangs 😉). So my vote is to just repaint it black.

I’d really love to own a nice tube am radio, I’ve looked on eBay. Most aren’t restored and even though I’ve watched quite a few of your restorations I would never trust myself to restore it. I wish I had the three or four radios that I dismantled in my childhood.