Restauration and modernisation of an old rotary dial phone

b/Hardware publicado por u/DarkestEx June 09, 2015, 06:21:03 PM

Restauration and modernisation of an old rotary dial phone

Hey, guys.
I was on a flea market last Sunday, where I bought an old, 50's rotary phone for 18€ (~20$).
My idea was to get it going with our analog, business DTMF telephone system.
At the beginning I wanted to build the converter by my own, but my dad probably doesn't like the idea of using a not 100% tested device on our telephone system and actually bought me a converter for about 40€ (~44$).
I restaurated, took apart, cleaned and repaired it. When the converter arrives tomorrow or in two days, I'll try it.
This might not be the most interesting project for you, but I kinda like to have such a retro phone

Pictures from it before and after the process will follow.

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u/Snektron June 09, 2015, 07:02:16 PM

Cool! i think my dad has such a phone still too :3

u/alexgt June 09, 2015, 07:37:38 PM

My dad has a phone like that too but it is just for looks now

.

Hope it works

u/DarkestEx June 12, 2015, 12:30:39 PM

Alright the restauration is now done. Now I am only waiting for the pulse to DTMF converter. When it arrives I hopefully can finally test it.

Here are some photos before the restauration:

And after it:

u/alexgt June 12, 2015, 02:22:51 PM

Looks awesome

, can't wait to see if it works

u/CKH4 June 12, 2015, 02:25:55 PM

That is ridiculously cool. I love old things, especially clocks. Its really great that you restored it because we need to keep stuff like this alive so that people can understand where things come from.

u/Dream of Omnimaga June 18, 2015, 11:10:45 PM

Wow you did a pretty good job restoring this phone. I never used that kind of phone much, so using one would take me a while to get used to, but I did often see them as kid since my grandmother had one and there were still some at some places in the 90's.

Quote from: CKH4 on June 12, 2015, 02:25:55 PM
we need to keep stuff like this alive so that people can understand where things come from.

Well said. This is why I hate the digital gaming era and games that are online-only. Once the company that makes the game decide to shut down the server, the game files are now useless and most of the game history is deleted. Digital game purchases aren't as bad since you only lose them if the service shuts down, but at least with physical copies you can still grab the CD years later and play.

u/CKH4 June 19, 2015, 10:08:48 PM

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on June 18, 2015, 11:10:45 PM
Wow you did a pretty good job restoring this phone. I never used that kind of phone much, so using one would take me a while to get used to, but I did often see them as kid since my grandmother had one and there were still some at some places in the 90's.
Quote from: CKH4 on June 12, 2015, 02:25:55 PM
we need to keep stuff like this alive so that people can understand where things come from.
Well said. This is why I hate the digital gaming era and games that are online-only. Once the company that makes the game decide to shut down the server, the game files are now useless and most of the game history is deleted. Digital game purchases aren't as bad since you only lose them if the service shuts down, but at least with physical copies you can still grab the CD years later and play.

The problem with really old things is that the format has changed. I saw some old floppy disks recently that only held like 2 MB of stuff. It's amazing that people used to put games on them.

Relating back to the phone, I think it would be really cool if someone were to take a broken one and fix it with updated stuff (like wireless).

u/DarkestEx June 19, 2015, 10:31:11 PM

Quote from: alexgt on June 12, 2015, 02:22:51 PM
Looks awesome , can't wait to see if it works

In fact, I just hooked it up to our phone system and it works

After all those years, it does ring and you can talk and listen. Everything except dialing works already.
I still need to finish my pulse to DTMF converter to get it dialing (or wait for that bought one to arrive - Deutsche Post is on strike so this can take a long, long while).

u/CKH4 June 19, 2015, 10:36:09 PM

Nice. Hopefully your post people get off strike.

u/DarkestEx June 19, 2015, 10:46:56 PM

Quote from: CKH4 on June 19, 2015, 10:36:09 PM
Nice. Hopefully your post people get off strike.

Yeah, that would be great. At least Deutsche Post is not our only mail deliverer, as there's Hermes, UPS, TNT and DPD available here.
But yeah, almost every online shop uses DHL (Deutsche Post). Some packets are delayed over two weeks now and we haven't received any packages for the entire week. Still their share has some nice value drops so that should hopefully remind them that the mailmans don't get much money if they make such a loss. And actually the mailmans at DHL are paid the best of all mail delivery companies here, so yeah.

u/CKH4 June 19, 2015, 10:49:02 PM

The snobs of the mailmen are wanting more eh?

u/DarkestEx June 19, 2015, 10:50:54 PM

Quote from: CKH4 on June 19, 2015, 10:49:02 PM
The snobs of the mailmen are wanting more eh?

Exactly. But I might not blame them to hard. Amazon even lets them drive twice a day to get their packets delivered. If the mailman forgot any Amazon package he needs to drive another round and deliver it.

u/Ivoah June 19, 2015, 10:52:31 PM

All of our wireless phones were dead today so I had to use an old rotary phone we had laying around in our basement

u/CKH4 June 19, 2015, 10:54:08 PM

Quote from: DarkestEx on June 19, 2015, 10:50:54 PM
Quote from: CKH4 on June 19, 2015, 10:49:02 PM
The snobs of the mailmen are wanting more eh?
Exactly. But I might not blame them to hard. Amazon even lets them drive twice a day to get their packets delivered. If the mailman forgot any Amazon package he needs to drive another round and deliver it.

Yeah I definitely don't blame them. I wish that there was a better way for them to protest because it hurts other people too.

Quote from: Ivoah on June 19, 2015, 10:52:31 PM
All of our wireless phones were dead today so I had to use an old rotary phone we had laying around in our basement

Nice.

Last Edit: June 19, 2015, 10:55:42 PM by CKH4