RESTORING A ZENITH BOOMERANG RADIO
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Zenith made a fair number of neat table radios in the 1940's and they have become quite collectible. Here is the "boomerang" radio, called that because of the dial shape which is sort of like a boomerang. We take the radio from rough to beautiful for the collection.
So good to see you back. We have missed you. Lovely job as always. Love your kitty. Hello from New Zealand.
Great Tip for dealing with crazing Ron love your videos . Since watching your channel I have started collecting and restoring old tube sets my self, I have 9 to date. good luck from UK
I really enjoy watching your videos. You're a great teacher!
Hi ron. Excellent video as always, your skills are amazing, my own project is progressing but even i can't rattle them off like you, nice to see the workshop manager keeping you in order.
Always enjoy your videos especially when your helpers come in and say high mine like to watch me tinker
I sure wish you could fix my 1959 Westinghouse TV. You amaze me.
Hi Ron, Thanks for another great video. Your video are like comfort food - please keep them coming!
Fantastic job and your helper does a good job too
Love the Supervisor.
Now I'm glad I have my trusty "360". It was gifted to me from a dear friend's fathers work bench. My friend is long departed, but I think of him each time I use that meter. Plus, there's something honest about that zero adjust wheel. I'll bet a lot of followers don't know what that is! Learning the troubleshooting techniques here is the most valuable practical education... From a master!
Thank you Ron for another great video, I always look forward to your projects.Hope you have a great Christmas and new year ,merry Christmas
Oh yes! The unmistakable smell of a vintage radio when pulled out of its housing. Something one never forgets. :)
Thank you. I always learn something from your vids. No bells and whistles, just practical no nonsense everyday restoration.
Ron, thanks for posting. Always love watching your restoration videos. I'm a computer tech and I'm always repairing stuff, but its all newer. I don't get to see much early electronics. Great job.
I have used that liquefy the stain trick you used here - i saw you use it many videos ago. Like a charm it worked. A gentle buffing then a light coat of poly. Looks as good as new being almost 70 years old, it's an old Zenith that i just love the shape of. There is another i need to do as well.
A Crosley i can not find any info on, got it working easy enough now comes the make it look nice part.
Your videos make me very happy, to see someone other than me doing it is great! Pretty soon all that will be left of these radios are pictures.
I try to bring every one i find back to life. I was lucky to have worked in a radio and TV repair shop as a kid. When Mr reed retired and sold the shop i asked for and was given all the tube stock and many parts. Along with the radios that get left there after the repair estimate was too much.
If they only knew what they gave away.......
I absolutely love your videos, Ron!! Thanks for all you've taught me over the years. We need more cute kitty cat though lol
amazing work !!! learned alot especially on restoring the cabinet and parts thanks for your time to teach us
Neat radio. You're a wealth of knowledge. I wanted one antique radio, just one. So I bought an RCA Victor 55u so I could also play 78s.... Then 3 more found me. They are fun to play with and get working. AM is terrible in my area so I've modded most with aux inputs for Bluetooth or hidden mp3 players and stream oldies to them. Love when the cat makes an appearance. Mine "talks" to me also. Lots to say! Take care.
Great to see you work, I' love when the cat comes in the picture...!
Thanks master Ron!
🙏
Loves from Turkey.
Nice radio, good restoring job and a lovely cat! Thanks from Argentina!
beautiful work, greetings from Argentina ...
Gorgeous radio, touched by the hand of a Master!
Another excellent video. Try Barkeepers Friend on tarnished metal. At first it seems to do nothing and then it suddenly foams and activates, literarily washing away the tarnish. It seems to do it chemically without a very harsh abrasive.
Great job. I have learned a lot from you over the years. Thanks
A thin layer of hot glue also works very well on speakers. I enjoy your videos. Thanks for making them.
Yet another great video Thanks! keep em comming. Im running out of things to watch on youtube.
Running out? You gotta be kidding! :)
It's always impressive, the speed at which you repair radios. I suppose that's experience at work.
Great job Ron keep the videos coming
I love your videos, thanks a lot for sharing!
Today I learned that I can refinish wood just by re-flowing the coating with laquer thinner and letting it dry again... so simple... so obvious... just put some solvents back on it... how did I not know this sooner...
Love your videos! Thank-you :)
Great insight into the amount of work you've put into bringing back another old receiver to its former glory. What stuns me is the vast number of radio receivers from so many manufacturers. So great to see such variety! Here in my country (New Zealand) when it comes to wooden cabinet receivers from the era they will pretty much be produced by one of only a few local manufacturers & have the same conservative (somewhat boring) style.
Great hint on the contact adhesive cleaner, cheers from another New Zealand fan
o-my.. all the old 1940s radio shows.. jack benny, the shadow, lone ranger, ww2 news, big band music, red skelton, charlie mcCarthy... and once again nice work ron... thanks...:)
It looks amazing! Great work!
Great. An early Christmas present for us. Thanks for posting this. Cheers
Ron In My Opinion This Is One Of The Best Channels On UA-cam
Your A STAR Buddy !
I Wish You Was My Neighbour !
I've Got A Very Old Valve Set That Was Gonna Get Thrown Out For The Scrap Man But As Soon As I Saw IT And Picked IT Up I PUT IT IN MY RUCKSACK . The Case Was Battered Beyond Repair So I Butchered One Of My BIG Studio Speakers And Incorporated In There ! !
IT Draws A Lot Of Electricity And Gives Off A Lot Of Heat
My Best Guess Is About 50 Watts
Our Next Video Will Showcase The Unit I Hope You Like IT
Birmingham England UK
Bless Ya Fella
Tube sets do get hot. Be sure to provide adequate ventilation.
Lovely restoration Ron
Excellent work my friend 👍
Reminds me of the beautiful family radio with walnut furniture (1930s era or so) that used to sit in my attic as a kid.
Mother threw it into the trash in the 1990s.
Heart breaking.
Nice work! I have found that if you leave the Brasso on for an hour or so it does work on severe tarnish.
Your videos are really *awesome,* Ron! Wish we could hear all of the programming that they played when they were new!
Love your radio restorations Ron thanks alot :)
nice one Ron keep them comming
💃🏻✔📻🙀😄 Great refinishing work and cat is still jealous of all the attention you gave it and not to her!
me and my cat ar watching you , when i need to relax your canal is a great place !! ..
Nice job! Beautiful cat!
You have a ginormous knowledge base, larger than your humongous tube collection, but smaller than your extensive wardrobe. (I could be wrong)
Nice job Ron. Love your videos, always waiting for the next one...................................Berni
Hexane also works to remove rubber cement. It’s used as a thinner. Brand name bestine.
An early Christmas present ! Thanks Ron.
The Quality goes in ...... I am from Scotland and over the years have repaired mainly
British Sets. Zenith sets seem very good from what I've seen on you tube
Always enjoy your videos, but I gotta say what's really impressive is that wall of hardware behind you. Even if it's mostly multimeters(?), looks like a tiny part of some great collection
Ficou excelente! Parabéns! Great work!
Beautiful radio, beautiful restoration.
Keep'n it real! Thanks for the video.
great work, always love you videos,keep it coming,,good thing kitty didnt put her tail in the rubber cement
Love your radio vids, but your homemade Nixie tubes are still my favorite.
My favorite was the home made magnetron that actually put out some power.
I love your videos great job learned a lot learned more than what I have already
Great job! Wished you could have given us a better shot of the finished work. We didn't get a full view of the front. Beautiful work! I always look forward to your videos.
A full frontal shot (of the finished radio) would have been nice for sure.
Muy buen trabajo mi amigo, saludos
4:17...even so, an old paper capacitor is bound to cause trouble sooner or later- and you're better off replacing it.
Another great video, thanks Ron
Hi Ron Missed you great work Matt from the UK 🇬🇧
Another excellent video 😊
Muy buena restauracion..Felicidades desde Catalunya
What is your background? You have a wealth of knowledge from obviously many years of experience. Harry
I guess Mr Carlson's Lab and Glasslinger is somewhat incompatible with each other when it comes to changing caps...
Bad caps lead to transformers singing Komm, süsser Tod.
Mr Carlson is an objective realist. Glasslinger is a passionate expressionist.
Another great video Ron. 👍
9:49 "I'm hurting your Woman"
Great work! old radio saved for years to come ********************
Great video! Thanks.
I've noticed that dial cord installation is not a favorite amongst some of the pros. Another great restro and teaching video.
Nobody likes dial cord retlated jobs....
Thank You for uploading. To say the least It realy feels refreshing to finaly hear someone with actual knowledge talking about old capacitors.
Excellent Job..
It so nice to hear the word Brasso. I grew up with it and I still use it to this day, 56 years later (-:
Job well done , thanks for the video.
I have the six tube version of this radio on my TTD list. The only difference of opinion here is replacing the capacitors. They may work now but from my experience, they can fail at any time. Also, I replace that crumbling rubber wire if present.
I just about finished a 1935 model A-67 GE and did the same thing....changed 98% of all the caps & resistors and all the rubber insulated wiring (all color coded correctly); that and all but one tube. Next comes the replacing the cabinet. The only thing I can salvage from it is a fluted trim piece and the base trim. My speaker I'm afraid is frozen but not until you're above 80% volume does it show up. The cone is flawless. But would anyone have any recommendation on how to free it up without having it rebuilt?
Funnily enough, I don't think I've seen brass since I was a kid, fond memories of the stench of that stuff on my hands 😂
Love these videos could the hole in the speaker not be fixed? Or was it
I don't know why he didn't patch it with a piece of paper and more rubber cement.
mooi werk,aww poes is wel heel erg lief!
You are very smart ❤❤❤
Looks pretty nice, but don't you think some felt feet would be better on the bottom?
Nice work...nice radio..
How do you make all this look so easy? Thanks for sharing.
Ex-military, Braso has to work on bare brass. When new buckles had a layer of quarter-master on them but had to be removed with lighter fluid.
Braso or Brasso?
@@Jeffrey314159 Brasso
Good job here, although I tend to replace any wax paper caps just because they will often eventually start showing leakage under load even if they check out OK initially. Maybe that's just me of course and it probably depends on how many run hours they've had.
I also normally replace all of them. This was one exception, since the caps were all reading over 20 megs with 30 volts on them. Very rare in these old sets!
@@glasslinger indeed! I think it has a lot to do with where the caps are placed in the set, many of the military transceiver sets and measuring equipment from the same era have the caps mounted on pairs of terminal tie strips in some corner of the chassis well away from the tube sockets. The wax paper caps seem to bake to a brown "mummified" state where they're buried behind other point to point components.
Loved it as always.
Jack-bean. Made me chuckle. I look forward to each and every video you do fantastic work but it’s pronounced Jack-oh-be-an a time in history where buildings where made of oak that was really dark.
haha xD, looked like the Radio already came with a Induction Mobile Phone Charger (the coil)
30:42 I found using Brasso to clean tarnished brass quickly to be tedious and less than effective. And strong chemicals aren't 'enviromentally correct'
Noxon 7 is what I've used for many years on oxidized brass, copper and chrome.
Noxon-7 is much better than Brasso?
Oki Donk. Excellent restoration. O ki Donk.
Another job well done.
Glasslinger...U are my Guru.
Thank you for another great vid. Do you ever sell your radios?
Do you fix radios for people my cobra 138 xlr needs capacitors 😢😢😢❤❤❤
I just watched an incredible vid about Nixie Tubes, and at the end the gentleman thanked someone named Ron....Im guessing thats you ?
Yes, that is Mr Glasslinger who he refers to..
I missed the part with the hole in the grill cloth ("screw up hole"). What happened there? Also why didn't you patch the hole in the paper membrane on the speaker?
I too want to know the story of the "screw-up hole!"
I'm assuming that when he glued the template onto the speaker cloth that little hole In the template must have thrown him and thought it was supposed to be a cut out for something and so that's why he cut out a hole. And then luckily he had that Zenith Z from something else on a Zenith model radio and he put it there just to cover up the hole that he accidentally made.
The cardboard had the hole in it so I made a bad assumption that the cloth needed the hole too! I forgot to turn on the camera when I goofed up! The speaker sounds fine even with a hole so no need to make more work!
hello miss it's been a long time for our god to take care of you thanks for the video hat