Unrestored

I buy radios faster then they get fixed, thats just life and has always been the case. That being said at any given moment I have a good 3-8 sets waiting in line to be worked on. Here are a few of them in no real order:

This set (above) I picked up at a flea market for a mere $40. Its a ERLA, model 224. Late 20s TRF. No idea if it needs any electrical work, the cabinet is mostly intact but needs some word working on the top plus new (more "correct") knobs. I got it since its an unusual brand that I don't run into too often and the price was right. I try to stick to sets that either I will want to regularly listen to or are unusual/rare show pieces such as some of my battery 20s sets.

ERLA is an unusual company, I see very few of them even online I have trouble finding pictures of ERLA's as examples. There are maybe 4 or 5 color ERLA pics online other than the one above, and seeing them on eBay is a rare occurance. I know the company existed at least through the early 1930s in Chicago.

I have always loved the Columbia 20s radios, some of those consoles like this one were just plain huge. This one (model 920) big double door late 20s trf is about 5 feet tall, and has a built in record player (uncommon for the period) which uses a large govenor'd GE motor big enough to drive a submarine. The set came out of the attic of a radio collector who was trimming down their holdings and let this one go, it worked for ages but is now back on the bench possibly due to power supply issues.

This was my first radio eBay purchase, since finding the type of sets that interest me these days can be hard to do in antique shows/auctions. This is a King model 80, and is a simple battery operated 5 tube mid 20s set. King was sold by the Sears Catalog perhaps before Silvertone took over, it was made in Buffalo New York. Being from Syracuse originally, I liked having a piece of upstate NY history. The King company only existed for a few years and only produced a few model numbers, making this an unusual piece for my collection. It is unrestored, needs to be cleaned up, needs tubes, and needs a dail cord and it will be fine. What is nice about this set is a one knob tuning system in the time when three dailers were still being made.

This General Electric console is from the 40s, model number unknown. It needs to have the cabinetry redone following a basement water pipe leak (grr!) along with some minor electrical tuning. The set is unrestored, and was a gift from my family for my birthday one year. The trend in my shop appears to be consoles getting the last bits of attention.

This Delco R-1252 was almost free from an antique shop going out of business, cost me a mere $5 plus tax. Generally I have little interest in these postwar consoles that all look the same, but the price was right and I can't stand to see a good radio get destroyed by lack of interest. Its made by GM (hence the brand name), and has a three speed record player (which is partly why I kept it, I have an other similar RCA console that I use for my records since record players aren't made anymore and I like the sound of a tuned tube amp). It needs to be completely redone, cabinet is fine outside of some tabe residue and stained grill cloth.

I picked up this Stewart Warner 900 on eBay for about $75 USD, and had my roommate drive out and pick it up in rural western PA. The 900 was availble in two color varriants, the yellow/gold finish mine has (above) or in a green two tone. Thankfully mine has a completely intact, scratch free finish which would be one hell of a hard style to refinish, the two toned paint scheme is fairly complex, and as if that weren't enough, the gold coat (on the radio half) is a type of crinkle finish (not the same as what the Atwater Kents used, this was alot smoother in texture). Although this I consider a console, it is really a metal table AC model (TRF) sitting on top of a matching speaker table. The table also has a grill-clothed backing to it (i suppose in case you decide to leave the radio so the back is in sight) which at first glance, I had thought to have been a home brew backing for the set (however I have since seen every 900 set with it so I know it is original). I have yet to test this set to see if it works.

Here (above) is a green version I saw on eBay one night. Note the damage to the finish on the grill and radio top, due to the finish style it would not be an easy fix. I almost bid on this green one so I could have one of each type, but it was too far away and shipping was cost prohibitive for me.

Stewart Warner also had a table-top only (no speaker cabinet) battery version of the set, which also came in both color varriants, under the model number 950.

Not pictured: my Philco tabletop using the same chassis as the 40-185 console (slant front w/ pushbuttons). Console was easy to fix, table top version... not so much!

That's all in this catagory for now.