I bought this radio a while back. It has no transformer, It had a bayonet light plug instead of a power plug, after pulling out the chassis and noticing everything inside clean and tidy and looking in good order, I put a normal power plug on, grounded the ground wire to the earth pin of the plug and hooked up the aerial wire to the front door flyscreen and plugged it in to find the old girl works like a champ and sounds great. I am hoping to find out who actually made it and when, It's obviously early 1930's as the dial goes from 0-100, there is only a volume and tuning knob, the only identifying labels are "Saxon" on the canister thingy's on the chassis. It has 5 valves, two are shielded inside the canister thingy's and two are not shielded. Four or them have wires coming off the top of them going to shorter canister thingy's. There is a really old filament light bulb mounted in the bottom floor of the console called a "Barrater" so I have been told which apparently reduces voltage, the set stands approximately 1200-1300mm tall and approx. 600mm wide
The licence number is A9224. I'm hoping there's a whiz on these things who can basically tell me what my old girl actually is!
Cheers.

It has no transformer

That usually means that one side of the mains supply is connected to the chassis, and in earthing such a chassis you have 50/50 chance of creating a dead short circuit at 240 volts, depending on how the mains plug is wired.

As a general caution, transformer-less sets were never designed to have their chassis earthed to the mains.

Eclipse Radio of Melbourne manufactured Saxon brand radios in the 1930s, but they were TRF type and had numerous knobs for tuning, and were mounted in wooden boxes that are referred to day as coffins. I think you say yours is in a console cabinet?

The peephole type of tuning dial you describe would tend to date the set to the early 1930s.

As to identifying your brand and model, the two best ways to help us are: (1) let us know the type codes of the valves in the set, and (2) provide good sharp photos of it, front and chassis. How to submit photos: https://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?id=image-submission-guidelines

When removing valves -- if you need to for the purpose of identification -- only do so by their black bases, never by their glass envelopes. Also, be very gentle when removing top cap connections as the connector can be corroded onto the valve and you can end up pulling the cap off the valve and destroying it.

The "goat" shields around the valves lift or twist off.

Finally, powering up old sets that have not been used for a time, without their first being checked over by a knowledgeable person for obvious issues, can cause otherwise avoidable destruction of parts that are either very hard or impossible to obtain today.

The 'light globe' is a baretter and is designed to limit current flow. It's pretty much a normal light globe but has a tighter tolerance on the wattage than standard lamps.

The existence of a baretter indicates an AC/DC set. Beware! There's no component that fully isolates the mains supply from the circuitry and this means that if you were to have the incorrect polarity the chassis would be live. Yep - 240 volts waiting for fingers to touch. There are no second chances if you get a good belt off one of these sets. Check and double check everything.

If one dares work on AC DC sets an RCD will not necessarily protect you, as far as I can see, after the rectifier. I have not tested this theory and don't intend too, any time, using me.

Normally one puts an "Isolation transformer" between You & the mains. I often use mine on any set, as I put a kill switch on it.

As said these cannot be grounded & it is important the the chassis be Neutral. No matter what, these are not intrinsically safe and treacherous out of cabinet. Many refused to work on them.

The "hot wire Barretter" (Ballast tube) is normally an iron filament in an atmosphere of hydrogen.

Be careful...... very careful... you have been warned.

Marc

Hello. Just a clarification Brad. Barretters, as used in series with the valve heaters to regulate the current used an iron filament in a hydrogen atmosphere. The filament is straight wire, rather than coiled up as in a light bulb. They do not normally emit any visible light, except for a brief flush of red when the valve heaters are still cold.

As to the radio in question; the chassis is not necessarily connected to one side of the chassis but it could well be. This makes it potentially very dangerous although earthing the chassis is a good precaution. Ideally, these radios should be only run via an isolating transformer.

Eclipse radio continued manufacturing radios up until at least 1950, although after 1939 they were owned by Radio Corporation (Astor). They used Saxon, Monarch, Peter Pan, Endeavour, Croyden and Univox brands, as well as others.

Hope that helps. Cheers, Stuart

Thank you GTC, Marc, Brad and Sirwin for your information, yes I did take the precaution of testing the D between the chassis and earth with my multi meter once I powered her up, no reading so I got the polarity right! The inside of the chassis although full of very old componentry seemed like new, only the volume pot seems to only function on the last quarter, although as only the ABC station comes through loud and clear, I'm thinking a long wire aerial will boost the reception on weaker stations. I did accidentally pull the metal cap off one of the valves, but when I pushed it back on the radio still works, however it easily comes off, leaving 5mm or so of wire protruding from the to of the valve, I'm thinking of using an alligator clip as a heat sink and soldering a short piece of wire to the protruding piece which I can then re solder to the wire attached to the cap, or just soldering n alligator clip to this and clipping it to what protrudes from the valve, haven't made up my mind yet, will try and get a photo up. Cheers and thank you!

If you de solder the valve cap you will find there is a hole in the top, you may find its easier to do that and just solder from the top.

So, can you let us know the valve line-up for starters?

I have emailed a photo as instructed, but It hasn't been put on for some reason, I will put up the valve lineup, but not until I am able to remove them , as presently I'm enjoying listening to the old girl, working very well, but when I next pull out the chassis to do some soldering and clening, I'll carefully have look at the valves, however currently holding off because she's working fine at the moment, even with the original innards, no mains hum or crackling, just a loud clear tone you can hear loud and clear halfway down the street! So while it's going good, if it ain't broke, why fix it? But the volume pot seems to prefer flat stick, the volume disappears to zilch in a fraction of a turn backwards, so I'm thinking spray of electrician in a can might help? So at that point when I give it a go I'll carefully yank all the valves out, write down their numbers and give them a careful clean.

and give them a careful clean.

Careful being the operative word there. It is very easy to wipe off the markings.

Top caps coming off is not unusual and loose ones should be attended to before they snap the wire level with the envelope.

It is now a case of cleaning the top cap & cleaning it, inside & out and making sure there is a hole for the grid wire. When cleaning the grid wire rest it on something to avoid stress before tinning it. Scraping with a blade is the most effective.

If it fits through the hole in the cap, well and good. Otherwise you need an off cut from an old cap or resistor Beware some modern stuff is ferrous metal, not copper and it may corrode? Do not make the wire straight, allow for expansion & contraction.

The strong Araldite is better long term: A small amount inside the cap is enough, speed is of the essence and if everything was cleaned & tinned that is all it needs. The heat will actually accelerate the epoxy resin reaction.

If you use it on a loose valve base 100% is not necessarily good on a hot valve like 6V6, 5Y3, etc. Insulation tape over the Epoxy resin holds it in place until the reaction stops.

If you leave a slight gap between TC and fly lead, you can often put a blade in there & twist, that confines most of the stress.

Marc

Hi Jamie, sounds like an interesting unit you have there......your volume control issue if lucky might be as simple as that somewhere during its life the original control may have been replaced with one that has an incorrect value & curve....have come across this one myself more than once! You'll need to identify the chassis & check the cct diagram
Alternatively having to run the audio stage flat out to compensate for a lack of gain in prior stages might be telling you other components need a check!
With a unit that old I'd be checking the value of all the resistors & checking if not replacing most or all caps especially the electros...all these bits being off value or leaky combine to a situation that can drastically reduce the service life of you're valves etc. Not trying to put you off you're enjoyment but if you do remove the valves doing a few checks along the way might keep it going for a decade or two longer

Sorry guys - a mistake with the link caused the delay here but all is good now. Photo uploaded to original post.

I wonder which genius put the RCS dial on and then fitted a control knob right in the middle of it. Aside from that this is a classic radio from about 1932 but not sure of the brand.

Don't recall seeing that cabinet before. The speaker fretwork appears to be unique.

Best chance of chassis identification and schematic would be the valve line-up.

Thanks for those tips, I was cautiously hoping that due ti the fact there's no mains hum, caps are ok? I don't need to drive it flat knacker, it's just that the volume drops away sharply at a fraction of a turn? But with a clear station it's all (bellowing like a marshall stack) or practically nothing, fading in and out. ABC loud and clear, music stations, faint and undulating, until late evening, they come to the fore... But I'll definitely mend the top caps as instructed, and do some internal checks, however I'm a mechanic and although have a good grasp, I know very little and am very pleased and grateful for pointers etc.from experienced and knowledgeable people, I do a fair bit of auto electrics, so understand the inherent principles and I certainly don't wish to make a rod for my own back by causing damage I'll need to fix later! The dial in the middle struck me as a bit odd too actually Brad! It seems antique in it'self but if original, I'd still be scratching my head as it seems useless and superfluous and I've had to loosen the screws and place an elastic hair tie from my missus, like a gasket between the dial and the wood panel as the thing rubs against the wheel on the front of the variable capacitor, so the dial knob just turns without achieving anything, so yeah maybe not original, in which case maybe I should replace it with something, maybe a piece of plywood or suitablde plate, the trick is making it look seemless or at least attractive enough to look original... Hmmn interesting, obviously if that's not original, it was done a very long time ago?