Philips 681A/15 radio restored
 

I thought that I had sold this radio,but whilst looking for something in the loft I re discovered I was pleased that I hadn't sold it.
The cabinet had seen better days ,the chassis was very clean no rust, I tackled the chassis first it needed the smoothing/reservoir capacitors replacing plus
no fewer than twenty one black pitch type ,most were leaky some very slightly but they all had to go ,along with a few resistors .

I nearly got fooled with the can which I took for a capacitor block until looking at the cct it was in fact the output transformer. The set worked first time just needed the switches cleaning , then I noticed that one of the EL33's was getting allot warmer than the other ,so having swapped them over it turned out to be the valve at fault.
A good used one was supplied courtesy of Jerry cathoderay57, all was fine now , I need to find a socket mains connector it's not the usual Philips type the pins are thinner.

The cabinet was stripped ready for the french polisher ,I was very pleased with the results just the right colour and a semi sheen lacquer.
Now came the job of painting in the tram lines these were very deep , and I wasn't sure which colour the were originally ,Mike T came to the rescue there thank you, a pale cream was chosen.

It was then I came up with the idea of painting some wood stringing which I had and was a good fit in the groove ,instead of flooding the groove with paint ,these were glued in with a few spots of super glue (carefully).

The next day I filled in some slight gaps around the stringing with oxblood polish , this is my choice of polish for Bakelite cabinets as well.

Next job was to fit the new EM34 I knew that I was saving this for a special radio , Not sure about the knobs they look OK ,hope you like the end results as much as I do. Mick.

Re: Philips 681A/15 radio restored
 

Mick - that looks very nice!

Re-discovering forgotten items in the attic is one of my favourite feelings - maybe that's why I never get around to repairing anything ;D.

Allan Isaacs (a member of this forum) describes here how he modified the mains connector on one of these sets.

Re: Philips 681A/15 radio restored
 

That really does look great,to coin my phrase from a pile to a palace!

Re: Philips 681A/15 radio restored
 

Having seen Allan Isaacs restoration, the knobs look like the ones on mine having D shaped spring fasteners ,unusual for Philips sets ,Thank's for the positive comments chap's .Mick.

Re: Philips 681A/15 radio restored
 

Proper radio, in its day all those bands would have been full of stations. Hours of fun!