atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Antique Telephones What should I start next?

Hi again,

I am in a quandry! I have just finished polishing and reassembling my beige 3A speaker.

So what should I start next? I have a very dirty, but potentially very pretty yellow hardwired 2500 with a cracked faceplate. I also have several early black 500s with soft plastic shells. Then I have a dirty and cracked Princess phone with a six conductor line cord that my grandkids found in a junque shop and bought for me. The princess has a sticky dial.

I am leaning towards the princess, but have never even taken the shell off of one.

What are your ideas?

BTW, I love this hobby!

Best,

Joe

What happened to the cordboard? Is it all done?
I can send you my 500 and 554 to polish if you're bored

Hi Jeff,

I am waiting on the TEL circuit module and a trunk circuit module to be gone through and tested by a 555 expert. I get updates every other day on it, and these items should be arriving shortly.

There are a few other major components that are still needed, but I have put this project on the back burner to simmer a bit as I am quite busy with my mother in law who will be moving in at the beginning of November, and my grandkids (who are lobbying me quite hard to 'hurry up and finish the switchboard'). So right now, it is living comfortably next to my Teletype machines in the newly vacated pool table room (none of us play pool, the thing came with the house).

As soon as everyone is settled in and all of the legal estate crap is finished with my mother in law, I will have substantially more time to spend on the bigger projects.

Right now, I am doing little projects that don't take too much thought... sanding, polishing, photographing telephones and kitties. As I have so much on my mind that absolutely demands my attention, I really do not have the energy to try to do anything extra that requires undivided attention such as wiring a 555. As far as my phones, I hope to compile a list of what I have completed along with photos, descriptions and possibly the provenance of each instrument.

Hopefully, in the late winter months, I will be back to pestering everybody in the telephone collector community about wiring a cordboard.

Best,

Joe

Hi again,

Well, yesterday I decided to start my next phone restoration. To make a long story short, my four grandkids took their mother and grandmother (my wife) to a junque store, and found a pink princess phone. The one girl picked it up and announced that "gran-pa" would like that! So, three little boys (9-13 years old) and one little 7 year old girl proudly took the phone to the cashier and paid three dollars for it.





They gave it to me when I got home from work a while back. I thanked them profusely, and hugged each one. (When little kids do something like that it to me means more than all of the (alleged) gold in fort Knox.)

Anyway, I got to taking it apart last night. I have never opened up a princess before. Unlike my first assumption when I saw it with its' six conductor cord, this has an internal bell. The thing was (is) absolutely filthy. The dial is sticky, so, I think that there is a phone restorationist in Arizona that specializes in dials. I will look him up and see what it will take to clean and adjust the dial. The bell was covered in green verdigris crystals, so I took it out, scrubbed it, then soaked it in this nasty stuff that plumbers use to clean copper pipe before soldering it. that got most of the crap off of it, so after another round of scrubbing with abrasive and a sponge, I chucked it into a tumbler with some 30-06 cases for a week. It will come out looking like new.


(Dirty bell prior to taking it out)


(Bell after the initial "treatment")

Here is a shot of the dirty handset cord.



And the line cord, showing how the tip and ring wire have lost their lugs...




The case has cracks on one end, which I hear is very normal for Princess phones, so I gave it the cyanoacryllic treatment, and will smooth it out tonight and start the sanding. The cords are a complete mess, so into the dishwasher they went. I will give them the rubbing alcohol treatment afterwards, then rewind the handset cord. Speaking of handsets, the speaker element is missing, (not to worry, I have many in the junque box).

Well, this is it for now. I will be posting updates. I am putting much effort into this little phone as it was given to me by my four favorite little kids!

This is a long term resto. I will take my time on it to make it perfect. I will also be working on Jeff's black 500 as soon as it arrives. Hope I dont accidently send his black phone back with pink handset caps! :rofl:

Best,

Joe

That looks awesome!

I have a antique green Bell butt set its a rotory dial, it still works but the case is cracked and the aligator clips don't grab to good anymore. I think its from the 1970's or early 1980's

festec is that the contempra receiver one?

Yes Jay

i dont know if i would call that an antique, there are an awful lot of guys still using them.

Last person I saw using one of the Green Contempra was an Alarm guy and he was using to to tone out a line.
This alarm company is a division of the telephone company so I wonder if they pass down their old toners and butt set tools to the alarm installers.

I don't think that NT ever made a TT version though.

im gathering different contempras of late, even though i always hated them, found an interesting animal from prince edward island (they still had exchanges with operators into the 80s) its a contempra, in a touch tone reciever (square hole) with a filler to cover it. its still in the truck, im curious as to weather there is a touch tone keypad under the cover.

im gathering different contempras of late, even though i always hated them, found an interesting animal from prince edward island (they still had exchanges with operators into the 80s) its a contempra, in a touch tone reciever (square hole) with a filler to cover it. its still in the truck, im curious as to weather there is a touch tone keypad under the cover.

Have not heard from Joe in a while...hope everything is okay!

I am not sure what kind of butt set it is but I have two of them, one is like brand new...
here is a picture of one
https://www.contact-directconnect.com/Calgary/55%20hood%20dee.jpg

:toast: happy 2012 hope its a good one .

Northern Telecomm. I've got one that I bought on E-bay for $10. My first one, in 1980, came from North Supply.

I have a feeling that I'm not going to see my phone again. Multiple PMs and emails to Joe with no response.
Just great!

Jeff, since you have a ship to address have you tried snail mail or a phone call ?

Good idea...

Jeff, I seem to recall elsewhere that Joe is retired. With that in mind, it is quite likely that he has suffered a health problem. Perhaps sending a card with a wish that all is well with him may be proper. We have no real way of knowing why an otherwise active member suddenly quits posting.

deleted double post

I have refrained from posting on this subject, but as some of our fellow members who also subscribe to another list are aware, Joe became enraged and had a “Charlie Sheen” melt-down that resulted in him being banned from that list. The moderator and several members of that list were very concerned with the level that his threats/rants constituted.

He then started a competing list, vowing to annihilate “Trolls” and other scum. After 15 initial post, the new listserve has been idle ever since:
https://tinyurl.com/7pd2795

He has also been absent from several other forums where he had previously been active with frequent postings.

'snuf said!

I have refrained from posting on this subject, but as some of our fellow members who also subscribe to another list are aware, Joe became enraged and had a “Charlie Sheen” melt-down that resulted in him being banned from that list. The moderator and several members of that list were very concerned with the level that his threats/rants constituted.

He then started a competing list, vowing to annihilate “Trolls” and other scum. After 15 initial post, the new listserve has been idle ever since:
https://tinyurl.com/7pd2795

He has also been absent from several other forums where he had previously been active with frequent postings.

'snuf said!

Got a response from Joe just now saying he had some health problems over the past few months and was still working on my phone.
I guess patience is a virtue...

The health problems could be the reason all that WECo55 referred to occurred.