GE LC-628

[TC Chris]

I retrieved my childhood 78 rpm radio-phone from the storage unit today. It will be a good winter project. It's an AA6 (RF amp) with a single-play turntable on top. Internet photo follows. I had trouble finding it--in my mind's eye, it was a larger box. The crystal cartridge is undoubtedly dead.

GE radio-phono.jpg (7.69 KiB) Viewed 5300 times

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

It may be a good performer, at least the radio part. I have always liked GE radios. Some of their AA6 sets are very good, especially with tuned RF stages. There have been conversations here on the forum about changing the crystal cartridge to a ceramaic 1/2" mount if the tone arm is adaptable. Getting the tone arm light enough to accomodate a ceramic cartridge may be the challenge. I don't think it would be too tough to add a stage of amplification to the amp in many cases. Good luck with the restoration and be sure to share it with the forum......

[TC Chris]

I brought the little device home in a plastic bag in the bed of the pickup @ 20 deg. F. But it has been enduring temp extremes in the storage unit for years. I just went out t the shop with a bucket of water & Murphy's to get the worst dirt off. The dial string is dead, and there will be some minor veneer gluing ahead. It has an RF amp but it is not tuned--just a two-gang tuning cap. The idler wheel is still rubbery (!!!!). This phono does not have an idler retractor, so the little spring holds it against the drive turret and the turntable rim, making flat spots. I'm inclined to rig up some sort of retractor so it doesn't always go bump-bump-bump. The filter caps were toast and led to the radio's retirement, so that will be a first step.

Is anybody rebuilding crystal cartridges still?

Chris Campbell

[William]

Chris, this little GE looks like a nice winter project for you. It won't take up much space and once done should be fun to listen too. I'm looking forward to seeing more photos so please keep them coming.

Bill

[Dr. Radio]

I wonder if it shares a lot of chassis parts with the GE L-660 table model (radio only)? I've got two of those I need to frankenstein together one day to make one nice one.

[electra225]

Chris, I'm not aware of anybody who is rebuilding crystal cartridges anymore. I'd suggest a phone call to Gary at VM Enthusiasts for the better answer to your question. I have a player with a crystal cartridge that I'm considering swapping to ceramic, then rig up some kind of extra stage of amplification to support it.

[TC Chris]

I wonder if it shares a lot of chassis parts with the GE L-660 table model (radio only)? I've got two of those I need to frankenstein together one day to make one nice one.

Circuits are similar but the online Rider's schematic for mine does not give part nos. And yours has pushbuttons, which always make me go cross-eyed when viewing the schematic.

Chris Campbell

[TC Chris]

Work progresses on the little GE. Right now the focus is on gluing up the cabinet veneers. That's one of those undertakings that is a thousand tiny steps, kind of like Greg wrestling with Tolex. Figure out the next glue-up, apply glue, clamp, wait. Repeat. Over and over.

Over the next couple evenings I will clean the chassis and tubes, recap it, re-string the dial, and lube up the phono motor and turntable bearing (both frozen).

At the same time I am building a bike service stand. I am tired of kneeling and bending even lower to oil my chain in the winter. The goal is to work standing up. The commercial models were all too $$$ for my taste but our friends on YouTube offer a bunch of improvised versions. I modified the design to suit my engineering sense and then adapted that to the materials at hand. Another project was repairing a large wooden-framed mirror that was an alley find. I have no place for it, but it was too nice to go in the crusher so I glued, repaired veneers, and stained up the frame and will give it away. That project is done and the bike stand is close and they will leave a tiny bit more room in the shop.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Tiny steps. It's all a matter of taking care of a thousand little details to make it whole again. It took 80 years to mess it up, if it takes a few more weeks to sort it where it is usable again and lives, then that's what it takes. When you put some of yourself into a neglected and abandoned device, then you have done a good thing. I look forward to seeing this project progress....

[TC Chris]

As we all do when restoring something, I'm mulling over where on the spectrum from "factory original" to "rat rod" this one will be. It appears that when my parents bought it used ca. 1952, it had already been "refinished" by applying a new coat of finish over the old one. Right now, my tentative plan is to repaint the various plywood edges & grille, which were painted originally and have suffered from moisture, etc. As to the natural-finish veneer, there is a strip of fake burl (what's the term, photo-something?) that finish removal would kill, so I'm inclined to go with Howard's or linseed oil 'n' turps and call it good. The "plinth" for the record player is a bit more beat up and I might try staining and varnishing over whatever is there.

One big question is whether the crystal cartridge might actually work. It was replaced once when I was a kiddo, which was very long ago, but it still LOOKS new!

The tone arm is light, as 78 rpm crystal-cart arms go, but it appears t have some tabs for a spring to improve matters further. Maybe I'll check out the spring selection at Ace, or maybe even my big container of misc. salvaged springs, to see if there's a fit.

It's going to be a non-winter weekend in January so there will be time to putter. I'll move my new bike stand out and oil the bike's chain (a week of rain takes its toll) ad that will make more room for working on the GE.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I used brown shoe polish on a "plinth" (silly terminology for a motor board ) that was tempered Masonite and it turned out pretty nice. One could even cover that with a wash coat of shellac if he wanted to preserve that look. Be careful on the photo-finish, fake burl. Some of that stuff isn't even paint, it is literally a photographed decal sort of a device. Looking at it can damage it. I wouldn't use anything on it without doing some discreet investigation as to its steadfastness. Rather like the markings on glass tubes.

[TC Chris]

Step by little step.... Today I cleaned up the turntable motor assembly, an Alliance two-pole motor and idler wheel. The idler and turntable and motor bearings were all stiff. For the motor, I just added some Mobil 1 0W-20 to the shafts and the reservoirs. Didn't do the full soak. The idler and turntable bearings are just shafts in steel bearings so I cleaned them and added a bit of turbine oil.

Then I glued some more veneer and carted the chassis into the house for cleaning via the soap and water and hand-cleaner methods. The tubes had long-storage crud on them. I was careful to avoid wiping near the numbers on the glass but on one an inadvertent swipe erased about half the printing. This will not be "like new" because the chassis plating is a bit corroded. Let's face it, plating quality was not really an issue for low-end sets like this, nor did they anticipate that 80 years later the device would be in service. Tomorrow I'll re-string the dial. The schematic I have (Riders) does not have a diagram but it's a standard simple "slide rule" dial pointer. The only challenge is making sure that when the knob goes right the pointer does not go left.

Does anybody have a recommendation for rubber phono-motor grommets/bushings? These look like the flat-sided ones that were used under tuning caps, bit the ones with conical tops as were used later on changers. Although those could probably work.... Gary Stork?

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I ran across a Bandersen video awhile back where he demonstrated what he used to clean chassis. I think it was CLR, but I'm not sure and I can't find the video again. There is a guy on the old TV forum that takes TV chassis to the car wash. I'm not that brave....

[William]

Chris, here's the mount section from Gary's site. Maybe one of these will work.

https://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/catalog ... mounts.asp

Bill

[TC Chris]

In the #$@*&^$!!!! department, I re-strung the dial cord on the chassis today. Fat fingers & fine cord make for lots of #@*&^%!!!!. The speaker, which had been repaired under previous ownership, which is to say >70 years ago, got poked again so I'll have to get out the Duco Cement. The tuning cap wheel is partly behind it, and the dial cord kept leaping off.

Then I tested the tubes, just in case, and all seemed OK.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

You can't see my grin, Chris.

How many times have I done that myself? I really struggle, even after all these years, with restringing a dial. I try to divorce speakers from dial restringing if at all possible. I have three RCA 3-RF-9's that have the pointer wheel for the dial smack dab in the middle of the 8" speaker cone. THE worst possible location for these two devices ever thought of by humans. Who thought that was a good idea?

[TC Chris]

You can't see my grin, Chris.

How many times have I done that myself? I really struggle, even after all these years, with restringing a dial.

Seems to me that I chided you for reluctance to re-string some dial not long ago. Something along the lines of "c'mon, it's easy." That came to mind several times while I was muttering.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Sometimes, we "encourage" each other in the strangest ways.

Funny how it runs full circle, huh?

[TC Chris]

I'm laughing now but it wasn't so funny at the time.

Chris Campbell

[TC Chris]

Still working on the little set. The main case veneers and joints are mostly done. Tonight I noticed that one corner of the top lifting cover needs to be glued, with some this strips replaced where a small bit of inner plies disappeared.

A couple days ago I replaced most of the caps. My electrolytic stash included the two values I needed but at 160 WV. The schematic call for 150 WVDC but the consensus over on ARF seemed to be that 160 WV modern caps would be cutting it a bit close. So I ordered up a couple 200V caps. Also ordered a new chassis-to-line Y cap to replace the paper one originally used.

My VOMs were not giving me reliable readings on the resistors. My plan is to bring one of the VTVMs out to the shop and see if they are more accurate. All of the resistors are dogbones.

While I'm waiting for parts I decided to refinish the phono motor board (aka plinth). The whole box had been over-coated with some sort of finish before my parents bought it used. The motor board finish looked especially unpleasant. It looked like heavily toned lacquer over an inexpensive (not walnut) veneer and I figured that I could do better. The finish came off easily with one application of remover. I'll try staining it and varnishing--if necessary a "stain varnish," which I usually try to avoid except in appropriate circumstances.

Greg was griping about hard-as-rock turntable mats. Well, this little 1942 device has a cup for used needles. Turns out it's rubber And, to my great surprise, rubber that's still flexible. It flexed enough to pop out of the motor-board hole it sits in. Not bad after 80 years, and with a heat-producing appliance underneath it.

Chris Campbell