01-22-2008, 11:31 PM
Another thing: clean all the switches with contact cleaner and work them back and forth while the cleaner is still wet. I do the same with tube sockets.
I don't clean the potentiometers. I've had mixed results. Sometimes it washes all the lubricant out of the pot. Then it doesn't work right and feels rough, so I don't do it on the antique pots.
If pots are noisy I just run them back and forth quite a few times to wear the oxide off the metal wipers. That will quiet them for a while, but it is only temporary, I've found.
I also clean the outside of the chassis with 0000 steel wool and sometimes a damp rag. I don't go overboard with polishing. Philco chasses weren't intended to be works of art like some of the fancier radios.
Keep the steel wool away from the tuning capacitors, though, and wipe or blow the steel wool dust away carefully.
I don't clean the potentiometers. I've had mixed results. Sometimes it washes all the lubricant out of the pot. Then it doesn't work right and feels rough, so I don't do it on the antique pots.
If pots are noisy I just run them back and forth quite a few times to wear the oxide off the metal wipers. That will quiet them for a while, but it is only temporary, I've found.
I also clean the outside of the chassis with 0000 steel wool and sometimes a damp rag. I don't go overboard with polishing. Philco chasses weren't intended to be works of art like some of the fancier radios.
Keep the steel wool away from the tuning capacitors, though, and wipe or blow the steel wool dust away carefully.
John Honeycutt