restoring an old phone

[cosmo*k]

hi i have an old i think bakelite 1950s phone in black which has been in my shed for some years and waz wondering if anyone knew wot to use to bring it back to life. not sure wot the phone is made of but some kind of ceramic maybe?? can any one suggest anythin? thanks

 

[breezer]

.......... not sure wot the phone is made of.........

anwered your own question

hi i have an old i think bakelite 1950s phone in black

bakelite was the new plastic, since plastic wasnt invented

 

[bernardgreen]

They can be re-corded ( fitted with a modern lead and plug ) to work as a single phone on a POTS ( Plain Old Telephone Service ) phone line.

But due to having a low impedance bell desgined to work in series with other bells they cannot easily be adapted to as on of several phones on a modern plug system where bells / sounders are high impedance and designed to work in parallel with each other.

The rotary dial would be recognised by the exchange but if it has been left in a shed for many years then the speed of the dial may be in-accurate and mis dialling will ocur.

 

[JohnD]

The outside probably wants just a gentle clean, and use Armorall to make it gleam. If it is scratched you could use T-cut.

Rubber-insulated flex will be perished and need replacing and you will need a modern phone plug on it.

You can unscrew the earpice and mic to remove eargrease and crumbs.

Lift the cover off the base and remove dust and spiders.

The rotating dial just needs gentle cleaning. Don't do anything to wash dirt inside the mechanism and don't oil it. Try a soft paintbrush.

You can adjust the bells by turning them (the fixing bolt is off-centre).

 

[TicklyT]

..... You can unscrew the earpice and mic to remove eargrease and crumbs.....

The mic. cover may be locked with a sprung pin. There's a small pinhole in the edge of the cover. Push the pin in to release the cover.

A 3 Kilohm resistor in series with the bell coils may help make it compatible with modern phones, but you may get 'bell tinkle' when dialling if you use it with ADSL filters.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/freshwater/pstconv1.htm may help

 

[Space cat]

Bear in mind that those old phones were what is now called pulse dial rather than the modern tone dial. This means that when some talking machine says "to listen to the message again, press two" it won't work. In some cases if you ignore the instructions and simply hold the line you will eventually get a real person at the other end but you can't count on it.

 

[plugwash]

or if you don't want to have to have a phone cord coming out of it you could always convert it to a mobile phone

 

[breezer]

buy a new one- cheaper

 

[ugjointer]

If your old phone has still got spade terminals for connecting to the network ,then I would say that the internal circuitry will need altering.This is accomplished by altering the straps on the cicuit board internally ,depending on what series phone you have got,300 ect,you will need a circuit diagram.Personally I would sell it.