Restored RCA T60

This beautiful little RCA T60 belongs to my friend Clark Day. It was in pretty bad shape when it got to me, but it now works on both AM and SW bands. Some of the highlights of the restoration effort were:

• The speaker cone was torn, right up to the rim. I used the "Elmer's glue" technique described here. It worked pretty well.
• The audio output transformer was damaged. It looked like a mouse had chewed through part of the primary, making a rewind necessary in order to save it. Instead, I found a metal-clad replacement with the "exact" footprint at Triode Electronics. It was listed as "Output Transformer for Add-On Reverb Unit", so I almost missed it. But, it's exactly what this radio needed. The part number is OT-47605 and is actually made in USA by Magnetic Components, Inc.. The price was very reasonable, too.
• The "magic eye" tube, 6U5/6G5, was pretty dim. This is the "rare" one, but Gary Schneider at "Play Things of the Past" in Medina, OH had it for a very good price.
• Several of the paper capacitors were literally broken. One of the leads was loose and would wiggle unnaturally at the cap body when unsoldered. I replaced those with whatever I had here. That fixed the audio.
• The push-button dial mechanism was binding. It was pretty easy to disassemble and re-lube the whole thing. The dual-gang capacitor is the kind that has little ball-bearings on the shaft. I was able to re-use the dial cord but re-strung it so it would be a little more snug.
• While I was taking the picture for this page, there was a "pop" and it quit working. At first, it looked like the B+ went away because the "magic eye" tube went dark. Later, the B+ was back, but not on the 6SA7. The IF transformer had blown open. Coincidentally, one of the wire leads which goes up into the can had very deteriorated, cracking, plastic insulation and was bare in spots. I suspect it touched ground at some point. The fine cloth-covered magnet wire had blown right where it turned to enter the winding. Some of the fine wire strands had balled up on their ends, which is pretty strong evidence of fusing. The repair took a few hours, but it's back and working now.
• The cabinet refinishing was difficult because of the two-tone staining. I used Watco "Danish Oil" and Minwax "Special Walnut", with masking tape to define the dark area. I left the "Designed for TELEVISION attachment" decal intact, so I had to match the original color. It took several coats but in the end is acceptable. The most difficult part was then I had to drill new mounting holes for the speaker (I think what I got was not original) and accidentally (stupidly) poked through the front. This was after the refinishing was done. Oops. The damage was just a little splinter, but it took a long time to fix. After sanding with 320 grit, the little hole was quite small, but needed to be filled. I finally used Bix "Stain Putty" mixed with the "Special Walnut" stain and that worked well. This, however, led to about two weeks of attempts to blend the little sanded area in with the rest of the dark region. The little area kept growing and growing, and was generally either too light, or had really dark areas around its border. I finally got the right amount of stain to hang on. The light area is still visible, but it's not too bad. I coated the whole thing by airbrushing with Floquil "Closs Coat" from the local hobby store.
• The dial light is a 6.3V Type 51 bulb. This is pretty hard to find, and I looked everywhere. As a long shot, I tried my local hobby store and they had them for 75 cents. Amazing.

The schematic can be found here. It was very useful. Some pics of the radio before the restoration, along with some of the insides: