American Restoration - Atwater-Kent tabletop radio

[KX5JT]

Did anyone see Rick Dale's restoration of that 1928 Atwater-Kent on last week's episode?

[K6JEK]

Yes I watched it. I love that show even though they don't show enough of the actual restoration process for my tastes.

In this case they didn't show what they actually did to make the radio work. It did show a bunch of deteriorated insulation and a tar filled box full of capacitors. I saw they heated up the tar and extricated the contents. I wonder though, were those caps actually bad, the ones in the tar?

[The Slab Bacon]

In this case they didn't show what they actually did to make the radio work. It did show a bunch of deteriorated insulation and a tar filled box full of capacitors. I saw they heated up the tar and extricated the contents. I wonder though, were those caps actually bad, the ones in the tar?

I didn't get to see that one, but....................

Very few of those power supplys with original caps survived. I have 5 AK socket powered radios in my collection (and 3 battery sets) 4 of the 5 have had to be "recapped". I have gotten pretty good at it and it is not a job for the faint at heart.
It is stinky and smelly and best done out in the garage on a breezy day. One of the problems that you run into is after seperating the caps from the chokes and witing up new caps, then stuffing it back into the can is that you ALWAYS need more tar to fill them up. The late model caps take up far less volume than the originals.

Also the big trick is to heat the cans up slowly and gently so you melt the tar all of the way through before attempting to grab the leads and pull the gutz out.

the one that I have that survived intact is the one you would have least expected. It is a Model 52 and the power supply can was so rusty that the mounting feet had rusted clean off of the bottom of the can. Go figger!! There is definately no ryme or reason to it.

the nasty job of repairing the power supplies is the big reason that the AK metal box sets dont bring a lot of money to collectors or at collectors auctions and sales. And, I have gotten paid pretty good money over the years to repair them for other collectors.

[KA3EKH]

I got an Atwater Kent model 40 at home, the only model Atwater I can afford and although I have seen several others that had been restored and in need of restoration I ant never seen one with paint job like the one on that show. This is my model 40 and yea I know the speaker is not  right but it works, back when I got the speaker it was gutted so that’s the best I can do.

[The Slab Bacon]

Some years back A.E.S. (tubes and more.com) used to sell rattle cans of the proper color (british brown) wrinkle paint. It was pretty good stuff and worked very well although being an odd brand.

Some of them were brown wrinkle and some (the later ones) were gloss black.
Also the center of the top could be gold, red, or green depending on year and model.

[KA3EKH]

The thing on the Restoration show was a model 40 that was painted black with white cubes all over it, some weird kid of art deco thing. Suppose it was originally like that’s but I never saw that paint scheme on an Atwater Kent. But I am not a collector just a hacker, what do I know.

[KA3EKH]

I know what it is now! it was not a model 40 but a model 37. Supposed all the model 37 looked like something that was inspired by a drinking too much home made alcohol?

[KX5JT]

Yeah I wish they would have shown more of the actual restoration... Rick did outsource the electrical restoration to that other guy but sure did a nice job on the exterior, although I thought it was strange colors for a radio from back then.

Then they only turned it on for a brief period when showing it to the customer and it sounded quite "tinny" even on the home theatre.  That big speaker surely had some better response in person.

[W9GT]

We enjoy that show, although I haven't seen that episode yet.  I will say,however, that Rick does really great work, but I think it is a stretch to call much of his work restoration.  Seems that it is more rebuilding and repainting...many times with inaccurate paint jobs and conjured up part replacements.
With much of the stuff that he does, it doesn't really matter if he jazzes up the paint job...but it is a shame to not restore an old AK radio to its original appearance.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[K6JEK]

I sent Rick Dale a note after watching an earlier episode where they restored an old juke box for Angel Degadillo from Seligman, Arizona. The first thing they did was plug it in and turn it on. I wrote "never do that."  I didn't get a response.

[K9PNP]

I sent Rick Dale a note after watching an earlier episode where they restored an old juke box for Angel Degadillo from Seligman, Arizona. The first thing they did was plug it in and turn it on. I wrote "never do that."  I didn't get a response.

I think if he did that on some of the items he gets in, I would want one of those really big fire extinguishers on hand.  And they normally show them being plugged directly into a wall socket.