40-190

 


Home Up Antenna Rotating Antenna Philco 20 Model 45 90 37-61 Philco 39-30 40-150 40-150 #2 40-150 #3 40-180 40-190 41-221 41-290 42-350 46-421 48-1256 Service Bulletins

 

 

 

This is a Philco 40-190.  The 40-190 has a distinctive Art-Deco look to the cabinet.  Electronically it is virtually identical to the 40-150 and 40-180. The Riders schematics detail the differences in the chassis.  The differences amount to an added antenna coil for the 40-150 and/or a tube change.  One of the revisions includes a series resistor to stop oscillations with a particular tube on the SW band.

This radio has a rotating antenna for broadcast bands.  Some times this antenna is missing.  Or the service bench needs to mock one up.  Here are some details. See what is inside that rotating antenna !

 

Shop Pictures Before

IM000159.JPG (76344 bytes) IM000160.JPG (74043 bytes) IM000162.JPG (262432 bytes)
Accumulated grime around the knob area.   YUC. Dust, dirt and dings. You can see the dirt and scratches on front of this cabinet.

 

Cleaning

I tried several methods to clean the cabinet. I started with GoJo.  It did not remove much of anything.  Next I tried a rag and alcohol.  The rag turned an instant shade of dirt!.  Later I moved to four ot (#0000) steel wool and alcohol.  

With the 0000 steel wool the pickled, orange peal finish stripped right off.  A combination the dirt, a coating of dark tar like matter, all the paint splatter, crayon marks and grime around the control knobs also came right off.  Underneath is a beautiful three dimensional, grain pattern  finish.  The type of finish with visual depth and grain that catches the light and shimmers as you move your head side to side.  The overall appearance lightened up too.  

I found that CRC no residue contact cleaner (found at Home Depot) remove significant stains from the grill cloth too!  I used a light scrubbing action with a sponge.  Too hard a hand will un-weave the cloth.

 

Strip

There is no need to strip the finish off of this cabinet!  The original finish is a rich brown color. 

 

Blemish Touch up

I used a combination of magic marker like stain pens, a bit of finger rubbed stain to tone the nicks, scratches and dings.  There was a dinged edge on one of the inside edges of vertical "balusters" (for lack of a better description) immediately to the right of the dial scale.  It was expanded back out by putting a few drops of water on the depression, placing a small wet towel over the nicks and quickly (count 1001, 1002) placing the heating element part of a soldering iron on the rag.  I checked the progress and repeated the steaming about 8 to 12 times.  The crushed wood expanded back out!.  A proper treatment of stain pens and careful application of lacquer to build up the thickness of the finish.  It looks pretty good.

 

Shop pictures After

IM000201.JPG (236023 bytes) IM000202.JPG (176387 bytes)  

I will add some pictures of the finished radio with a repainted bezel (A muted GM Gold spray paint from the auto parts store looks great) and new push buttons from "Old Time Replications is owned and operated by Larry Bordonaro".  You can see the new wine colored push buttons on the 40-150 page.

 

Runway Shots

Please enjoy these pictures since adding Wine transparent push buttons, a good dusting and added station presets tabs.  Just imagine your favorite nostalgic music or a sports game broadcast. Click on the little picture below for a lager image.

This is the original finish.  No need to strip and refinish this radio.  Warm look beautiful sound. .  

 

im000066.jpg (42996 bytes) im000062.jpg (49695 bytes)  Original Finish.  This unit was washed with alcohol, dings and nicks touched up and coated with several hand rubbing sessions of MINWAX furniture paste wax. im000067.jpg (44503 bytes)
im000064.jpg (59016 bytes) im000065.jpg (63131 bytes) im000077.jpg (48548 bytes)  

No Flash.  Push in call letters can sometimes be found on the internet.  This temporary set was created with Excel.  Any one can do it.  Just spray the printer output with lacquer and toner.  The hard part is trimming.  Put a small piece of scotch tape on the back so they do not fall out.  These will be replaced with better trimmed inserts and the font adjusted for a nice fit.
im000072.jpg (154497 bytes) im000075.jpg (309070 bytes) Original speaker cloth.  The speaker outline is less visible in room and day light. im000071.jpg (173006 bytes)
  im000070.jpg (129696 bytes) 1/4" knot on right rear top  
im000061.jpg (55662 bytes) Rotating the tall broadcast antenna, on lower left, to either minimize interference or peak reception of a station.  

See what is inside that rotating antenna !

 im000049.jpg (48248 bytes) Original, cleaned up chassis.  This one did not receive the wire brush, buffer with rouge compound.  im000050.jpg (62459 bytes) Polarized power cord can be easily replaced with a vintage non polarized.   
im000051.jpg (83271 bytes) As usual all paper/electrolytic capacitors, resistors (in or out of tolerance) and deterioration wiring has been replaced.  Multiple alignments have been performed (just because I am a picky engineer).  im000054.jpg (64134 bytes) Sort Wave loop works surprisingly  well. But add a wire (to the ANT terminal for improved reception. im000052.jpg (56953 bytes) 40-190 sticker

 

 

A second 40-190 chassis in for restoration.

 

IMG_5669.JPG (207045 bytes)40-190 chassis.  Shipped with out dial glass.  A good practice.  IMG_5590.JPG (2615451 bytes)

New wiring under the chassis.  The rubber wire insulation was shot. 

 IMG_5583.JPG (211435 bytes)

IF can with bad wires and a resistor to be replaced. 

 IMG_5584.JPG (211292 bytes)

Original resistors and wires.

 IMG_5585.JPG (206230 bytes)

New wires and resistors. 
IMG_5546.JPG (216232 bytes) IMG_5548.JPG (167330 bytes) IMG_5549.JPG (192745 bytes) IMG_5550.JPG (148072 bytes) IMG_5551.JPG (172326 bytes)
IMG_5560.JPG (198616 bytes) IMG_5556.JPG (167589 bytes) I did not know it at this time but the SW coil under the wax, right side, is shorted. IMG_5561.JPG (163360 bytes)

RF bypass cap. 

 IMG_5558.JPG (232424 bytes) IMG_5559.JPG (217470 bytes)
IMG_5586.JPG (203014 bytes)

Shine up dial scale reflector. 

 IMG_5589.JPG (128527 bytes) IMG_5593.JPG (172849 bytes)

Clean tube sockets. 

 IMG_5594.JPG (143326 bytes)

Rotating antenna

 IMG_5595.JPG (183478 bytes)

New resistor.
IMG_5670.JPG (214178 bytes)

 

New wires.

 IMG_5672.JPG (248433 bytes) IMG_5673.JPG (205485 bytes)

1000 ohm 10 watt resistor used in place of the speaker field coil.  To be removed before shipping.  

 IMG_5674.JPG (205074 bytes)

Oscilator coil.  The silver coils were shorting and killing the SW band. 

 IMG_5677.JPG (197226 bytes)

String installed between the bare wire to keep them separated. Tacked with Hot melt glue. 

 

A third 40-190 in for restoration.

IMG_6919.JPG (1519750 bytes) IMG_6918.JPG (1619352 bytes) IMG_6920.JPG (1409519 bytes) IMG_6921.JPG (1806599 bytes) IMG_6937.JPG (2010866 bytes)

After the Christmas lull, deteriorated wire replacement has begun.   

 IMG_6939.JPG (1554278 bytes)The cloth insulated wire seems to be in good serviceable condition.  
IMG_6940.JPG (2017988 bytes)

The grey socket on the left is very brittle.  Do NOT force the old wire leads off of the terminals.  If they do not come off easily, overlay the new wires on top!  Heed my advice or you may be sweating a new grey socket. Also avoid the temptation to dissolve off the flux (gently scrap if you must).  If it soaks in you will throw off the dial linearity and alignment or possibly loose the high frequency SW end of the band.  Trust me :~)  

 IMG_6941.JPG (1890925 bytes)

The Rubber coated is hard and cracks off like candy. Any wire that looks suspicious will be replaced.  

 		 IMG_6944.JPG (268594 bytes)

Don't forget the resistor inside the IF can.

 IMG_6946.JPG (411467 bytes)

Pictures of record.  This is when your memory is just not enough. 

 IMG_6947.JPG (436936 bytes)
IMG_6948.JPG (401782 bytes) IMG_6949.JPG (412781 bytes) IMG_6950.JPG (367982 bytes) IMG_6951.JPG (1771783 bytes)

Line RF bypass caps.

 IMG_6952.JPG (1506801 bytes)

Melt out the tar.

 IMG_6954.JPG (739103 bytes)

Replace with Y1/2 safety caps. 
IMG_6955.JPG (879688 bytes)

Two wires need replaced. 

 IMG_6957.JPG (892591 bytes)

Along with the 10k resistor. 

 IMG_6958.JPG (951932 bytes)

A bit of cleaning. 

 IMG_6960.JPG (957786 bytes)

The oscillator section is shorting out around 680khz.  The blue is white board dry erase marker. 

 IMG_6959.JPG (899945 bytes)

The Dry Erase marker scraped off where the veins shorted. 

 IMG_6961.JPG (878975 bytes)

I used a Dremel tool and a sanding disk to relieve the height of the Armature veins. It took four cycles of marking and sanding to get satisfaction.  
IMG_6965.JPG (822130 bytes) IMG_6966.JPG (921377 bytes)

The whole chassis was re-aligned after the work on the tuning cap.

I have a new set of wine push buttons.  

 IMG_6967.JPG (799110 bytes)

This 40-190 sounds sensitive on all bands. I set the push buttons to some random stations.  All buttons work great. 

 IMG_6969.JPG (850982 bytes)

All is aligned and receiving 1420 Old Time Radio. 

 IMG_6971.JPG (1782429 bytes)

The "Art" of the restoration.  New wires, capacitors and resistors.  

  

 

IMG_6943 sm.JPG (234338 bytes)

The superintended. 

 

 

Hit Counter

 Contact me including your thoughts and comments. 

Please see the LINKS page.  I have collected many resources over the years.

135,912 unique web site visitors (14,499,000 hits) from October 2004 through August 2011.

Copyright © 2004 - 2012. All rights reserved.