After having this console radio (Zenith 1936) sitting in my radio room (lounge) as a display piece for the past 16+ years, I finally decided to restore it to working condition. What put me off restoration initially, was the fact that it was meant to work off a 6 Vdc. accumulator and used the old style mechanical vibrator/invertor pack to supply the 150V HT.
First thing to do was remove the vibrator pack from the radio and strip it down to it's bare chassis. I used this chassis as a platform to build a valve rectifier with mains transformer. Only had a mains transformer with a 6.3V filament winding, so used a NOS EZ35 as the rectifier. Installed the new rectifier on the radio chassis in the same position occupied by the vibrator unit. Photo's below show the vibrator mounted on the radio, the vibrator unit removed and inner workings and the new rectifier mounted back on the radio.
Next was the replacement of all wax caps, as per normal! Under chassis at beginning of re-cap and caps were Zenith's own brand.
Once again, the radio gods were with me, the speaker field winding was still OK. Measured 1.2k ohms. Good size speaker at 12" and still in perfect condition for 80+ y.o. Just replaced leads and feed through grommet.
The radio being tested on the bench. Has a very attractive dial and smooth tuning mechanism.
Gave the cabinet a good clean and polish and replaced the grill cloth which was in poor state.
Finally the chassis and speaker ready to be re-installed in the cabinet and the radio complete.
Link below to short video I took of the set in operation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNJ092tfqh4&t=43s
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First thing to do was remove the vibrator pack from the radio and strip it down to it's bare chassis. I used this chassis as a platform to build a valve rectifier with mains transformer. Only had a mains transformer with a 6.3V filament winding, so used a NOS EZ35 as the rectifier. Installed the new rectifier on the radio chassis in the same position occupied by the vibrator unit. Photo's below show the vibrator mounted on the radio, the vibrator unit removed and inner workings and the new rectifier mounted back on the radio.
Next was the replacement of all wax caps, as per normal! Under chassis at beginning of re-cap and caps were Zenith's own brand.
Once again, the radio gods were with me, the speaker field winding was still OK. Measured 1.2k ohms. Good size speaker at 12" and still in perfect condition for 80+ y.o. Just replaced leads and feed through grommet.
The radio being tested on the bench. Has a very attractive dial and smooth tuning mechanism.
Gave the cabinet a good clean and polish and replaced the grill cloth which was in poor state.
Finally the chassis and speaker ready to be re-installed in the cabinet and the radio complete.
Link below to short video I took of the set in operation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNJ092tfqh4&t=43s
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