What to do with a Philco 46-1209 console?

I’ve got a Philco 46-1209 with a rather beat-up cabinet hanging around the house. It’s time to do something with it. 

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It’s missing the phonograph and all of its supports. I think someone scavaenged them to restore another Philco.


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The knobs were missing too. I put generic replacements on it.


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The finish is pretty beat-up ...

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… and I put a big dent in it when I brought it home.


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I’m not sure how to patch this. Cut it out, fit a wooden plug, and patch the veneer? Fill it (with what?) and patch the veneer? Fill and touch-up paint some fake woodgrain?


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There’s water damage on the top, too.


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And this side needs some veneer repair, too.


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I replaced the electrolytics and it works, but I’ve yet to replace the paper capacitors and check the resistors. It has a fair amount of static, so either I’ve got a leaky paper cap or it has silver-mica disease.


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The speaker is in good shape.


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Here’s the tube complement. It has Philco’s funky paraphase push-pull output stage with a pair of 6V6’s.

So, the question is what should I do with it? I believe it is a fairly common model. Should I part it out and have a cabinet bonfire? Give it away? (Fat chance of any takers for that!) Restore it? I’ve never tried refinishing, so it would be a challenge to bring this console back, but on the other hand it would be good practice on something that’s no big loss if I screw it up.

Update:

I put up a post about the electronic restoration. I bought some Crystallac and am looking forward to stripping, sealing, grain-filling, and spraying lacquer later this summer.


© Steve Byan 2011-2019