48-482 Restoration Notes - (2013) Obtained the unit from ebay seller (about $40) and when I got it home it smelled badly of cigarette smoke. I took the chassis out of the cabinet and disassembled the cabinet as much as possible, removing the dial plate and grille cloth. Grille cloth also smelled badly and ripped on removal but should be replaceable as its design seems to mimic things I ve seen in the cloth shops. (As it turns out I was able to get a nice replacement cloth from Joann Fabrics as can be seen in the photo. The large piece is the replacement cloth with the original on top of it.) Center dark section where dial plate is seen and where knobs are placed seems to be a photofinish, though one of the PhilcoPhorum guys who restored one thinks not. I ll attempt to restore it but may have to strip. The decals for volume etc. are very dark and may need replacement. Knob decals are 1/8 high and are placed 24 or 25/64 th of an inch above the top of the knob hole cut out. The large PHILCO label is 5/16 th inches high x 1 and 5/8 wide. The PHILCO label is centered on the bottom section with the bottom of the decal 1 and 1/16 th inches above the bottom of the bottom section.
Began general cleaning of chassis with a series of photos, removal and cleaning of the vacuum tubes and clean up of chassis with isopropyl alcohol. Recapped C104 (15uF electrolytic). Had a cardboard outer shell that I could not get to come off with heating so cut the cap, pulled the guts, added the new electrolytic and used black tape. Recapped C103 (15 & 10 uf) by prying up the outer lip of the aluminum can, removing the ring w/ the 3 ground lugs, heating and pulling on the cap lugs was able to pull out the plastic wafer that has the 2 positive leads, then put large screw into the cap guts and while heating w/ hair dryer was able to pull out the guts. Wired in the two new caps and was able to replace the plastic wafer, 3 ground lug ring and tap down the outer lip that was previously pryed out. Recap C103 w/ 10 and 15 uf caps. Red lead = 10 uf +, bare lead is 15 uf+ and black lead is common negative which also goes to case and to chassis.
Recapped C100 & C101 which are part of bakelite 3903 ODG (two 0.01uF caps; replaced with Y2 safety caps). Recapped C102 A,B and C. Proceeded to recap all paper capacitors by restuffing them. By heating the cap with a hair dryer, you can pull out the wax ends of the caps and push the guts out...sometimes. Other times you may have to pick out the wax with a small probe or drill out the wax to be able to get the old cap out. You are left with a hollow cardboard tube into which you place the new capacitor. On this radio I used a hot glue gun to seal the ends of the tube after the new cap was put into it. You can see in the photo restuffed caps (with the blue tape on them) and untouched caps yet to be restuffed. Recapping is complete in the photo to the left. There were a few resistors that had gone out of spec and these were replaced too.
(Photo of the chassis stand I built to hold the chassis while working on it. Makes it much easier to get to all the parts without having to balance the chassis on its edge.) After recapping, I continued to clean up the chassis, sprayed the switches and volume/trebel/bass controls with Deoxit D5 to clean them up. This improved the switch action on AM/SW/FM switches which had been sticking. Cleaned the pins on all vacuum tubes with a small nail file to be sure them made good contact with the sockets. Repaired a small piece of wood that had split off when I first took off the grill cloth/speaker board. Used a unique way to hold the piece down while the glue dried :) On the front of the housing for the dial pointer and on the dial glass itself there was the residue from an old rubber mounting that I believe was used to cushion the dial glass and chassis against the cabinet. I used some foam insulation from the hardware store to simulate these.
Chassis back together and playing :) although its missing the right side dial lamp in this photo. Did some additional clean up on the cabinet and since it is too cold to spray lacquer I tried some Howards Walnut Restore-A-Finish. Came out looking pretty good. Did two treatments followed by a coating of Johnson Paste Wax.
Replaced the felt washers on the shaft of the various pots with new felt washers. Photo shows order of placement of small cardboard washer, felt washer and knob goes on after the chassis is placed inside the cabinet. Used Adobe Photoshop Elements to make new call letters that go onto the pushbuttons and placed a thin plastic on top of the paper by slipping both into the side of the brown pushbutton. Over the brown button there is a clear plastic button that provides protection. These were not present on the radio when I purchased it but I found replacements on-line. They slip over the brown button and may have fit snuggly when new but are now rather loose and tend to pop off when other buttons are pushed. May have to secure them with a small piece of tape so they can be removed at a later date but are fixed while in use. Will use some blue painters tape to make it easy to remove later if the call letters need to be replaced. During the chassis restore I replaced the old line cord with a new one which has a polarized plug. At the same time I added in a 1 amp fuse on the hot side (small prong on plug) of the line.
All back together and playing :) Did not adjust any of the 6 AM fixed tuning buttons since the use of them depends on where the radio is played. Only WSAN pulls in a station at the moment (which is 1470 AM in Allentown). SAFETY PRECAUTIONS: As with all vintage electronics, this unit should be unplugged when not in use. Vacuum Tubes can get very hot; do not put your hands near the back of the radio and keep the radio away from walls, curtains or other items that could be damaged by the heat. Repairs should be made by a person knowledgeable in vintage electronics as there are electric currents and voltages present in the radio which can be fatal. Information from Ron Ramirez's PhilcoRadio.com for this model follows: "Model 48-482 was the King of Philco table Models for 1948. A very large radio (20 inches wide and a foot tall), it could receive AM, FM and short wave with its 9 tubes. Despite its high price, it sold fairly well. Original selling price: $149.95 Number made: 25,908"
Delivered for Christmas 2013! UPDATE: 5-6-2016 Steven reported that it had stopped playing so it went back into the shop for repairs. Turned out the fuse had blown so it was replaced with a 1.5 amp fuse. While it was in the shop a full refinish was in order since the lacquer was missing in a number of places. Cabinet was stripped with citristrip. The front panel had a unique finish that had a darker mottled layer under the finish. I simulated this with a dark brown acrylic paint applied with a sponge and then toned the face with a number of coats of ultraclassic perfect brown and a coating or two of Behlen s medium brown walnut toner. The rest of the cabinet had a couple of light
layers of Mohawk ultraclassic medium brown walnut toner applied, followed by a layer of clear gloss (Deft). Decals were applied to the knob areas and the Philco logo on the front. Multiple layers of clear gloss were applied followed by rub out with pumice 4F and rottenstone. Johnson paste wax finished the job.