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My AM Radio Repurpose Thread.

djwhy60

djwhy60

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Good Day All,

I purchased a fairly decent condition Silvertone Catalog 15 AM tube radio, Circa 1951. I have been looking for a good donor "body" for quite some time and decided on this one...for now. I checked with a few "in the know" people to make sure I wasn't gutting a million dollar historical radio.

I have been wanting to try this experiment out for a while now. I have a Dayton audio 100W mono chip amp, a 4" full range driver, a 24V power supply (brick), and all the associated wires and ad-ons.
It is going to be a vintage look Bluetooth speaker in the end. There are some things I will be trying and see if they work. Nothing as intricate as building a bazillion watt tube amp that gives you an instant tan when you turn it on, but a fun for me project.

I was looking for a place to post it, for posterity, and this seem the appropriate area.

More to follow! And thank you for humoring me.
 
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This is my starting point.....has some "boo boos" but not in too bad condition. Yes, it turns on and I can tune in some AM stuff higher on the dial. No worries....the original "guts" will be preserved. I can't bring myself to trash something like that.

As a matter of fact, if someone could use the guts, they are yours after I am done seeing what I need to keep the rest of the project in tact. Just let me know.

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I put a 50 watt Class D amp with Bluetooth into an old table top radio case.
I used a Dayton full range driver that sounds good. One of the knobs is just screwed on, the other is a rotory on/off switch. I also added a jack to plug the power supply into. Drilling through the Bakelite isn't fun though.
It turned out pretty nice and sounds good too.
 

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Lavane said:
I put a 50 watt Class D amp with Bluetooth into an old table top radio case.
I used a Dayton full range driver that sounds good. One of the knobs is just screwed on, the other is a rotory on/off switch. I also added a jack to plug the power supply into. Drilling through the Bakelite isn't fun though.
It turned out pretty nice and sounds good too.
Click to expand...
Mine has a cardboard back like all old radios....going to replace it with some custom engraved (lasered) basswood. The holes will be much easier to put in. I am using an on/off volume 10K switch to handle the turn on and off along with the system volume. There will be a treble and bass knob too. Going to use the included wire harness for the Bluetooth light...but going to change it to a white bulb and put it in the face light position. That way the face will flash when it is pairing and stay solid and light the face when it is done.
 
djwhy60 said:
Mine has a cardboard back like all old radios....going to replace it with some custom engraved (lasered) basswood. The holes will be much easier to put in. I am using an on/off volume 10K switch to handle the turn on and off along with the system volume. There will be a treble and bass knob too. Going to use the included wire harness for the Bluetooth light...but going to change it to a white bulb and put it in the face light position. That way the face will flash when it is pairing and stay solid and light the face when it is done.
Click to expand...
Do post some.pictures when done.
 
Off topic: TV cabinet repurposed into a woodworking bench.
I had another one that was made into a router table complete with a $400 Incra fence system & dust collector.
I got them both for free when a very cool guy upgraded his entire shop.
When I say very cool, he delivered one of them 10+ miles to my house. For free. Very cool.

It's good enough for who it's for :thumbsup:
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Mowgli said:
Off topic: TV cabinet repurposed into a woodworking bench.
I had another one that was made into a router table complete with a $400 Incra fence system & dust collector.
I got them both for free when a very cool guy upgraded his entire shop.
When I say very cool, he delivered one of them 10+ miles to my house. For free. Very cool.

It's good enough for who it's for :thumbsup:
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Very cool. I've seen those old floor standing TV cabinets used to house aquariums and reptile tanks. The aquarium looked pretty cool. They even left the front glass and bazel intact.
 
tubelectron said:
If I had them anymore, I would have been tempted to repurpose them in a Wide band speaker plus tube amp...

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I built a nice mono floor standing radio. I used a mono Eico tube FM tuner, a mono 6V6 push pull mono amp, a 15" woofer, midrange and a tweeter in it.
It sounded good. I used it in my shop for several years until the tuner died.
That was before I was into tube gear and the tuner, amp, speakers, and crossover were free to begin with so I just tossed it.
Now I would probably put a decent mono tube amp in one and add Bluetooth ljke I dis with that little table.top radio I die that with.
 
My two vintage Bluetooth speakers still run the original electronics. One is a 1940 Stromberg Carlson 535PS that I overhauled and used the original pre-war FM tuner input for the Bluetooth. Its still running the push-pull 6V6 amp and a rebuilt acoustic labyrinth (basically a transmission line) speaker setup with the 10" electrodynamic speaker. I did meddle with the amp a bit to drop the distortion and improve frequency response. Can only pull off so many miracles with things like that though.

The other is a 1941 GE L740, that one has a TV input that the BT module run to. push-pull 6K6, and a 6" car speaker with a tweeter. I tinkered with the amp in that a bit to improve performance too but again, only so many miracles to be had. Both sound pretty good but the Stromberg definitely fills a room better. Both also still have fully functional original AM/shortwave tuners. The Stromberg still has the pre-war FM tuner installed, its just not plugged in and I didn't bother to rebuild it.
 
Sorry it has been a bit since I have been back. I have been waiting until I received ALL the parts I ordered to take this project forward. Understand, I am doing this for some "fun" and to repurpose an older radio to something someone may enjoy. It is going to be nothing more than a pretty, vintage blue tooth powered speaker. I am going to try to do some things with it that some may think are "well yeah" type stuff. I have NO electronic background so everything to me is new. Bear with me. If I am going to burn down my house...then jump on in!

And this is when you realize you ordered some stuff that will not work together. Will regroup and work through it.
 
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Nothing chaps my butt than when I do not pay attention when ordering stuff for a project. I wanted a mono capable board....which I got....and an ability to use tone controls, wire harness compatible.....which I THOUGHT I got. Nadda. The harness set I bought is not for the board I bought. So had to order the RIGHT harness, but does not have tone controls. So time to drop back and punt. Will have to evaluate my project direction now. I can be a dumb azz at times.
 
I have a few other "donor" bodies here....may go in that direction for this build. Save the other for a different route.
 
Good Morning. I did an inventory and created a items list. These are things I ordered/purchased. I have, on hand, consumables, so I did not include them.
Parts List:

RCA 3-RA AM Radio donor Circa 1959?

Dayton Audio KABT-250 Audio Amplifier Board

Dayton Audio PC105-8 4" Full-Range Poly Cone Driver

Dayton Audio KABT-SFC Function Kit

24V 5A DC Switching Power Supply

10K Ohm Single Linear Taper Dimmer Potentiometer with on/off Switch

10K Potentiometer 15mm Shaft 3 Pins Variable Resistor

Be still those who think it is sacrilege to tear apart a 1950's vintage AM radio. I purchased it of the non profit web site for $14 and it is not operational. It also looks like someone was inside playing with it....will post pics when I take it apart. It also has a small blemish on one side, so most people who collect them probably would pass.
 
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Wanted a label that came on the radio back. So I modified one to match up with the partial that is on the back. Came out pretty good.
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Well it is making me much better about tearing down this AM radio.....someone was in here before me...and busted up some stuff. I will work around the bad stand offs. The upper corner was cracked and they glued it up....not worried about that. I also think those caps are not stock!

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