Another Possible Project

Whichever one folks are using, such a format seems to be the best mover for heavy and local items.  The couple I got mine from seemed anxious to get shed of it.  Thanks for the birthday greetings!

19&41 wrote:

You ought to take some good pics of it and get it on Craigslist ASAP.  There are those who want one, but they are few and far between.  Here is another they just put up here...

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Craigslist is not bringing a lot of results here, Facebook market place seems to be where everyone is looking.

wildcat445 wrote:

Happy birthday, Rex! 

It is good to hear from you again, Mr MEZ!

Happy birthday Rex!

Good to connect with you too Wildcat! 

Fortunately, the receiver was held in place with 6 fasteners.  4 hex head and 2 phillips.  There was some flimsy cigarettw wrapper quality foil to cover the open face of the chassis.  I'll probably get some aluminum foil and use headliner adhesive to hold it in place.  The unit has a mighty big and involved crossover network.  I think I'll have the black cap's replacements.  The filter is 1000/800 Uf.

I did forget to add, that if its the model I remember, it will have several black, paper covered 'lytics on the radio chassis. They were always bad, and caused int. channel dropout or 1 or both channels to have low/no output.
 Also the FM osc transistor failed quite often. IIRC, an ECG 160 worked just fine as a replacement, and there was a zener on the radio board that would also fail. If I could ever find my notes, I could give you the part # & location.

Those old "Maggotboxes" lol, had a special tool kit to remove the radios. There was a REVERSE hex socket that was used to pull the upside down, hollow pot nuts off . I worked on dozens of them when I worked for Magnavox ASC's

 The tool kit was made and name impressed "Magnavox" but I believe it was another Xcelite product. Same case as their interchangeable SAE & metric "bit" handle tool bits in the crappy clear plastic boxes that would crack & break when the plastic became brittle.

 It had the inverted socket and a 2 prong "T" pot nut removal tool, that looked like a pin spanner.

 You can carefully remove the pot nuts with long nose pliers, if you are careful, but generally it can bugger up the pot nut. No biggie. I always reinstalled them right side up so   I didn't have to dig out the kit. The pin spanner nut could be removed with a sturdy pair of snap ring pliers or very sturdy thin pointed needle nose. (Or loosened with a light hammer & small cold chisel...don't ask  how I know this.... so it can be unscrewed with finger pressure). The pin spanner was commonly used on their TV sets for, IIRC, the "tint" control adjustment capacitor. It had to be removed to pull the tuner cluster, but I have seen it  needed on several models of the stereo consoles.

 It is remotely possible Xcelite might have the interchangeable "bits"  for the socket and spanner still available. I got mine in the late 70's, and have only ever seen one other set since then, so I suspect they were fairly rare, even back then. The rest of the interchangeable "bits" are standard, everyday type, and are usually dirt cheap to find used.

Thanks Greg!  This is as much fun as the things I got as a kid!

Happy birthday, Rex! 

It is good to hear from you again, Mr MEZ!

You ought to take some good pics of it and get it on Craigslist ASAP.  There are those who want one, but they are few and far between.  Here is another they just put up here...

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I have a Magnovox about the same size and vintage.   We are trying to get down to one home, so it will be sold reasonably to reduce all the stuff I will have to move.  I'm not sure I have much of a market around here, and I'm not up to shipping it.

Well I got it.  It is a 1964 model.  I've had the rcvr/amp out of the unit and it was quite clean, considering there wasn't the same kind of heat convection that tube units exhibit.  It was very well constructed.  I gave it a dust off and cleaned the controls.  I put a 3.5 mm plug cable on the aux input and led it out the power cord slot in the back cover.  The turntable works and changes, though it will likely need a new needle.  I've been playing it with both FM and my laptop recording library.  It plays nicely, but it won't heat the house this winter.   The only problem thus far is the AM antenna is apparently disconected.  It makes a nice birthday present for myself.
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Sounds interesting. I am not familiar with the Astro Sonic and wonder what vintage it is? Is it early 1960s solid state with germanium transistors? I've been hearing that these can be problematic now what with bad  and leaky transistors from internal tin whiskers and other things like that causing problems. Well, keep us in formed.
73, Rod  N4QNX

I've found a relatively early Magnavox Astro Sonic for relatively cheap.  It appears to have a stain of some sort on it's right front grille cloth.  The current owner says it's record player works perfectly.  Based on what I have seen of these, I would consider that to be a miracle.  I just hope none of the speakers are affected by whatever marked the cloth.  I wanted to try one of these, as none of my radios are solid state, which is what I have worked in for 45 years now.  I also hope the radio receiver isn't as finicky as the tube types.


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