Cossor 367 Help please

[Dicky5ash]

I have purchased this from a local antique shop for £25. I've taken the back off and everything looks in order. I have not undertaken a strip down yet. The mains lead has been cut off. I don't know if it works. The valve nearest to the rear door looks perfect, I removed it for inspection and have replaced it.

Please can someone tell me what steps I should take to try and see if it works. Obviously I could just put a plug on it but I suspect there is a more intelligent process to follow.

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers
Rich

[Boater Sam]

Do NOT plug it in.

Read the stickies at the head of this forum.

Download the service info, top right of this page.

Come back with a reply about your experience with mains and radios, and what test gear you have.

As an absolute minimum you will have to test and/or replace the audio coupling capacitor to prevent irreparable damage to the set, else it could be £25 of scrap.

[Dicky5ash]

Sam,

Thanks, just to confirm I had no plan on just plugging in I have a multimeter and an iron but no experience with valve radios... I shall do some reading.. Are there people close to Northampton or Milton Keynes that would undertake initial testing to see if its already a dud. I'm no electronics expert and it could well have already been plugged in by someone else... the cord has been cut short by someone. I know it has been sold at a local auction and on ebay, before I acquired it from the antique shop..There is a tiny grub screw missing from the wavelength card on the front so I have spotted various pics of it online

There doesn't seem many of this model knocking about from my short time looking online... I may be wrong.

Many thanks
Rich

[Cobaltblue]

The 367 is a nice looking set from 1935 it's a TRF.

Yours looks to be pretty tidy so well worth spending a bit of time on.

The valve you removed and inspected sits on top of the mains transformer and is the rectifier. It should be a 442BU.

I suggest you follow Sams advice it's easy to damage a lot of difficult to replace parts if you don't take precautions.

As well as the stickies have a look here

https://www.vintage-radio.com/repair...ion/index.html

A much underused resource.

At the very minimum your going to need a cheap multimeter and a soldering iron.

Making a lamp limiter may save you a lot of grief: https://www.vintage-radio.com/projec...p-limiter.html

Good luck.

Cheers

Mike T

[Nuvistor]

As well as the stickies have a look here

Excellent resource and agree much underused.

[Dicky5ash]

Thanks to you both, much appreciated. I have a multimeter and a soldering iron. I removed the base plate last night which exposed the “main board” just to see if there were any obvious signs of it having been fried.. it looked good, apart from 90 years of dust, i’ll post some pics. There is a second clear glass valve at the very front of the cabinet behind a transformer which is everso slightly tricky to get at, it also looks ok, It didn’t want to come out with a gentle tug for a closer inspection and I didn’t want to break it, so will leave it in place until I do a proper strip down and can get at it. There are two further white frosted glass valves (frosting on exterior) with electrical connections on the upper side.

I am looking forward to restoring this ��

Cheers
Rich

[Nuvistor]

Always remove valves by gripping its plastic base never the glass.

[Radio Tech]

Richard, as and when you get round to it, I would suggest replacement of the smoothing caps and most of the waxie caps, they are sure to be leaky. Take your time, and hi light on the circuit diagram where you have got to.

Good luck with it

Best wishes

Ken

[Nickthedentist]

What a bargain for £25

[Dicky5ash]

Originally Posted by Nuvistor

Always remove valves by gripping its plastic base never the glass.

Thank you, yes, makes sense. Could be a very costly mistake!! that’s why I didn’t remove the one at the front of the cabinet as you can’t get your hand in easily to grip the lamp base. Will do when I strip it..
Cheers
Rich

Originally Posted by Radio Tech

Richard, as and when you get round to it, I would suggest replacement of the smoothing caps and most of the waxie caps, they are sure to be leaky. Take your time, and hi light on the circuit diagram where you have got to.

Thank you. Are these the HUGE red and others are green I think caps in the circuit? I’ve found the service sheet on eBay so I’ve got that coming soon. I’ve never seen a 90 year old circuit. It was a surprise I have to say!!!

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

What a bargain for £25

Ahh that’s good to hear. I had no idea what it was worth. It was very dirty, all I did was give it a clean and a polish. I might French polish the box ultimately as there’s some bad scratches on the top, but was really pleased the grill cloth is 100% perfect and all of the Bakelite is unscratched and not cracked. It will be fab if I can get it going 😁

[Tractionist]

That's a beauty ...... take your time ..... be patient - it's a relatively simple TRF. You did well to grab it - well done!!

[paulsherwin]

I agree that this was a good buy, especially from a general antique shop as these tend to price high. The radio will need work before it's usable if it's unrestored though. Unfortunately sets of this type aren't the easiest to learn the ropes on.

If you are keen to do the work yourself and want to do a good job, it may be better to acquire some nondescript 1950s wooden set and get started on that. There are lots of things to learn if you're a complete beginner, and most people here will admit they made lots of mistakes working on their first sets, and did things that they now regret.

[Boater Sam]

Dicky5ash, I have sent you a Private Message on this forum, top right of the screen on your name to access.
Sam.

[PaulR]

Hopefully you will get hooked on the hobby and this will be the first of many sets you restore. Firstly you will need to know how to solder, how valves work, how radio sets work and, most importantly, how to work safely with relatively high voltages. None of this is particularly difficult but you need the initial knowledge before you do anything on this nice old set.

There is lots of information on this site and on this one http://www.vintageradioworld.co.uk . You will also find that the contributors to this forum are very willing to help. I have certainly found them to be so.

As Paul has already said it would be best to get some experience by restoring a 1950s set which would be nowhere near as rare and interesting as the Cossor you have.

There is a myth that valves are unreliable but with a few exceptions this is not the case and your 80 odd year old valves may well still be ok.

[Dicky5ash]

Thank you. I really don’t want to wreck this set so i’ll look out for a 50s number to practice on first. I was surprised looking on the net that there doesn’t seem to be many of these particular models floating about. I spotted only 3, 2 of which were actually one and the same (my set) as it can be identified from a missing grub screw, initially sold at an auction in Towcester then on eBay then I picked it up from a local antique shop. The other was a tatty one.

Whilst I know nothing... there is no obvious signs the valves are blown, they look clear and all the bits inside appear good, we will see!

Thank you all, I shall certainly draw upon your help and advice ������

[Cobaltblue]

Originally Posted by Dicky5ash

There is a second clear glass valve at the very front of the cabinet behind a transformer which is everso slightly tricky to get at, it also looks ok, It didn’t want to come out with a gentle tug for a closer inspection and I didn’t want to break it, so will leave it in place until I do a proper strip down and can get at it. There are two further white frosted glass valves (frosting on exterior) with electrical connections on the upper side.

The Frosting is a metallic coating its important to try not to damage it although not the end of the world you can "replace" the coating. The connections on the top are known as top caps and are common on RF valves the idea is to reduce capacitance and coupling between the anodes and grid. You need to be careful though on some power valves in particular the top cap is the anode.

Your set looks quite a lot tidier than my own so could I be rude and ask for some pictures for my web site ( I am trying to put pictures of real sets on the roll-over but it all takes so much time so not that many yet treated this way).

This set is unusual not so much for the electronics but the tuning scale.

This style was briefly popular and is known not unsurprisingly as thermometer tuning. EMI and Regentone both used this style for a while and there may be others.

Cossor made two models with the single scale the 367 and the 377 and an few more using twin thermometers the 364, 366 and the 736 tabletop radiogram there may be one or two others but so far I have been able to find examples of all Cossor models or even pictures of them.

A nice find and really one of the less common Cossor sets.

Cheers

Mike T

[PaulR]

Just another thought. If you do buy a "guinea pig" radio make sure it is an AC only one, not AC/DC or "universal". The AC only ones are safer to work on as they have a mains transformer. A Cossor 500 or similar would make a good choice.

[Dicky5ash]

Originally Posted by Cobaltblue

Your set looks quite a lot tidier than my own so could I be rude and ask for some pictures for my web site ( I am trying to put pictures of real sets on the roll-over but it all takes so much time so not that many yet treated this way).

Thanks, interesting... very happy to provide some pics, let me know what you want.
Cheers
Rich

Originally Posted by PaulR

Just another thought. If you do buy a "guinea pig" radio make sure it is an AC only one, not AC/DC or "universal". The AC only ones are safer to work on as they have a mains transformer. A Cossor 500 or similar would make a good choice.

Ahhh that’s so helpful..any tips on where to look for such a set?

[Herald1360]

You could turn up at the Memorial Hall Royal Wootton Bassett on Sunday morning for the next BVWS auction

Even if you don't join , you might find something suitable in the bring and buy area for £10 or less. There'll probably be a few unloved sets hacked out in the auction for £5 (minimum bid) but to bid you need to be a paid up member which might make £5 set look expensive unless you get carried away and go after something interesting! There's a Marconi T26A in the auction which looks the part- isolated chassis, 6.3v valves etc etc though it might not be unloved enough!

https://www.bvws.org.uk/auctions/pho...ootton-bassett about 2/3 down, lot 170

Otherwise- the usual suspects- boot sales, junk shops, Ebay, Gumtree, small ads etc. A wanted posting here would likely work, though transport might be more costly than the set!

[Dicky5ash]

Thank you. I would have joined and attended Sunday but I have plans in Birmingham. Whilst not suitable for a practice set I love the look of lot 212...i don’t know what it is, I wonder how much that would go for? I’ll look out for a practice set