Getting an old Bakelite telephone running again.
- Thread starter kennyh
- Start date
kennyh
pfm Member
Cool, nice to do a bit of homework and find all is original. You have a very nice old telephone. As an aside what microphone did he supply it with? Some restorers put new eletronic mics in and some fit one of the 2 possible originals. Mine are all original but I am considering a switch on one of them to try a more modern unit.
Tony L
Administrator
Microphone/ear speaker look original to me and seem to work ok. Drawer blank is bakelite too. I think it is a pretty decent example and a nice old one. Looks decent inside too. In many ways I regret not doing the restoration myself, but I doubt I’d actually have saved much if I’d had to replace any parts.
kennyh
pfm Member
I agree, you have a proper nice telephone there which looks as good as new. To make it worthwhile doing it yourself you do really need to pick the base unit up cheaply.....which is next to impossible now for a nice undamaged example.
By the time I've finished my 162 I could probably have bough a good one for the money, or near enough anyway.
By the time I've finished my 162 I could probably have bough a good one for the money, or near enough anyway.
kennyh
pfm Member
Update on the resurrection of the old 200. Some bits arrived last week, touched lucky on a NOS set of internals which must be rare to find and also sourced a pukka 1930's no 10 dial. Had all the nuts and fittings cleaned then started the rebuild in to the deep cleaned casing. Thanks to Rod from here I utilised from his bell set the connection board you see on the pics. Bought 2000 ohm coils for the bell mechanism as suggested by an ex GPO engineer and wired directly to telephone, cheating yes but very effective. Sadly now just waiting for a brass spacer to arrive to fit the chrome finger plate to the dial, the chap thought I had one already so never sent it. He has now put it in the post. Phone is up and running without it anyway for now. Note the rats nest of cabling inside the tiny case when finished, truly awkward to fit it neatly when that big braided cable and its flailing ties are added to the mix lol.
I have to say it is whisper quiet on the line with great reception both for outgoing and incoming speech, and the bell ring is far more subtle than the 332L..........even the cat can live with it
Thing is now, with the performance of this matching any DECT or mobile phone we have I'm wondering why people are reporting I sound "funny" on the 300 series. How do you rate yours for quality Tony? I may have to investigate this now as I thought there would always be a trade off in quality with an old bakelite......but this old 200 proves me wrong.
I have to say it is whisper quiet on the line with great reception both for outgoing and incoming speech, and the bell ring is far more subtle than the 332L..........even the cat can live with it
Thing is now, with the performance of this matching any DECT or mobile phone we have I'm wondering why people are reporting I sound "funny" on the 300 series. How do you rate yours for quality Tony? I may have to investigate this now as I thought there would always be a trade off in quality with an old bakelite......but this old 200 proves me wrong.
Tony L
Administrator
That is really nice. I’m actively on the lookout for a nice ‘King Pyramid’ at the moment. Ideally a really nice restoration candidate as I’d like to do it myself, but I have a feeling I’ll end up buying restored as so few good candidates seem to be around. Looks to be very hard to find a non-cracked 26 bell set unless you pay circa £250-300 for a fully restored complete phone.
kennyh
pfm Member
I'd just grab a 26 bell box casing casing for now Tony. Identical as far as I know. Then buy the coil for it or do the "fix" I've applied to this one which negates the need for the induction coil in the box.
Ah edit that, thought you were after a 25 which are far rarer. There's a 26 on ebay now for sensible money.
Ah edit that, thought you were after a 25 which are far rarer. There's a 26 on ebay now for sensible money.
Rico
Bloody Colonials
By way of contrast I have just restored this:
...a 1971 model 722 GPO Trimphone! I bought it looking rather grubby and tired looking for peanuts, stripped it down, replaced the cables and mic, gave it a damn good clean and plastic polish and it looks great and works a treat! Reminds me of the phone from when I was a kid at my parents. Much to my surprise it rings out fine here, not that I'll use it for that as I've a modern cordless phone. The iconic 'bleeping' ring is present and correct!
PS I've got an allegedly mint 300 series Bakelite phone on the way too as I've always wanted one and thought I'd treat myself.
That is a beauty, Tony. Sadly we didn't get the 722 down here. Plus our decadic dials were in reverse of UK - numbering 0,1,2,3 etc where yours counts down from 9,8,7 etc.
I still have some bakelite phones that I picked up in the 80's, kept for posterity. We used to do conversions on them back them, adding an electret condenser mic capsule (much better speech quality, and lower loading on the line than the carbon granule variety), and alter the plan wiring within the set to reconfigure it to work on master jack BT wiring, and fit a new BT cable set. My daughter was marvelling at my MKII Pert phone the other day, when I was plugging it in to prove a line fault. Great piece of ergo design.
Tony L
Administrator
In my usual overly obsessive fashion I've now ended up with far, far too many phones and phone parts. The keeper other than the Trimphone is this 232 pyramid which I'm using with a nice wooden 1A bell that's sitting on the floor next to the La Scala (that being what the phone is sitting on). I've built this one up from a donor and some additional parts, it has a very early handset (1934, which I think is first year of production for the 164 handset), a 1940 Type 10 ceramic dial and the base has a later resampling stamp of 1957. It is a beauty and the wood bell just sounds amazing after I've adjusted the pivot, set the armature gap and aligned the bells etc. Really cool!
In my bits and rebuild box I have enough to make a nice if very slightly faded/browned three-button 300 and almost a complete 232/26 King Pyramid (just waiting on a couple of missing parts to show up on eBay at the right price and a very rare first year of production 706 with original Type 12 dial. I'll build/restore them all and eventually offer them here before eBay as I've decided I really don't want to become a phone collector as I'm already far too obsessive about hi-fi, records, guitars etc! Two keepers is enough for me!
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kennyh
pfm Member
That's looking great Tony. I'm in a similar position position to you now. I've got 3 phones which I've fully refurbed, 2 for downstairs and one for upstairs. I've also got a box of spares which like you I'll build another "bitza" phone up and sell it on.
The 3 I'm keeping are 2 x 332L, one with drawer and one with blanking plate. I will also be keeping the 200 style early 1932 162 with no.25 bell box sitting underneath it.
I've got an urgent fad for 1/10th scale Tamiya F1 cars at the moment so the Ebay bidding is mostly on them for now
These phones are a great thing to have in the house though aren't they Tony, love the ring on them when you manage to match the bell gongs nicely. Everyone who visits wants one!
Heres my 3 keepers.
The 3 I'm keeping are 2 x 332L, one with drawer and one with blanking plate. I will also be keeping the 200 style early 1932 162 with no.25 bell box sitting underneath it.
I've got an urgent fad for 1/10th scale Tamiya F1 cars at the moment so the Ebay bidding is mostly on them for now
These phones are a great thing to have in the house though aren't they Tony, love the ring on them when you manage to match the bell gongs nicely. Everyone who visits wants one!
Heres my 3 keepers.