Philco 40-160 Restoration - Part 3

Well, after a long break, I'm finally back to working on the Philco. I took it outside the other day to start sanding it down and get all the grime and gook off of it. The initial results were amazing. Take a look at this picture...





I’ve got a lot more sanding to go, but it’s getting dark, so I clean up and head inside to work on the center rails in the front, covering the speaker. There are four of them and each one has a vertical split in the same place which makes me think this is a common problem with this model. The cracks can be seen of both sides of each rail but luckily each piece is still intact.

As I look at it closely, I figure a couple of screws and some wood glue will help strengthen these right back up. I decide to do this work before I sand the pieces down so I only have to do that once (I will undoubtedly get glue on the sides of each piece). I measure the rails’ depth and figure a flat head wood screw 8 x 1.5” will do perfectly. I drill two pilot holes in each one, being careful not to drill too far. I pull the split wood apart carefully, just enough to squeeze in a little glue, then screw the pieces together by hand and wipe off the excess glue. After they dry overnight, I’ll sand them all down and fill any cracks left with wood putty, then sand them one more time.