Trying to find the 8 radio tubes of 5 types for a GE Junior S-22 [24A, 27, 80, 45, 35/51]

[Triode]

I'm trying to find these 8 radio tubes of 5 types for a GE Junior S-22
He'res a link to a page with all the info on the radio https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/general_el_ge_junior_m_s22.html

It's my dad's radio. He knew some of the tubes weren't working and had no way to test, so I offered to test them at a local hacker lab where I had a membership and it happened to have a tube tester. While stored there the entire set was stolen, and no one is giving me any info on it, let alone returning them.

Since they weren't mine I feel obliged to replace them. So looking on ebay I can find these tubes, but not all from one seller and the shipping costs almost as much as the tubes. If there is a person with a collection out there I figure maybe you could sell me the whole set I need so I only pay shipping once. If you happen to be local I live in the SF bay area (silicon valley).

Total 8, 5 types - I know they go by different names, so equivalents are ok as well.
No -- Type (brand of original, doesn't have to match)
2 - 24A (was 1 Philco and 1 RCA)
2 -- 27 (was philco)
1 -- 80 (ken-rad)
2- 45 (philco)
1 - 35/51 (philco)

Info on a good place online or in the bay area to pick these up would be appriciated as well

Thanks!

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Ouch! I would have not let them out of my sight.

The 31/51 was the hardest to find: https://tubedepot.com/products?utf8=✓&keywords=35+/+51

www.tubesandmore.com has the rest. That's where I tried first. One tube is ridiculously expensive there.

8 tubes at, say $20 each is a large lesson. FWIW: I could PROBABLY test them (East Coast), but don't know. The two tube testers haven't been fired up in years and I didn't check the charts. One is the TV/7AU military tester,
I've never inventoried my father's collection, but those early tubes are separate. There's a few tube sets around the house, but they need some work.

 

[Musicmanager]

Hi Triode

I have a friend here in the UK who has an enormous collection of tube valves, I sent your list to him this morning and he's confident he will have them but needs time to find them.
Seeing KISS's post above, you may already have a solution, but if you're tuck let me know and I'll put you in touch..

Regards

S

 

[Triode]

Thanks for the help. I've looked around and the best I can find is on https://www.findatube.com/ his prices on the 45 are the best I can find, it's over 100 in many places. Let me know what you find Musimanager, is there an ok way to ship from there?

 

[Triode]

I know it sounds stupid, but this was a shop where I knew most of the guys and it was on my personal storage shelf, and I had wrapped it in pink foam and duct tape incase it tempted anyone. It was only there for 4 days. Unfortunatly in community organizations the ones who do stuff like this are the ones you never see. I know all the guys who are regularly there, but there are a few who have ever growing piles of parts and yet you never see them, I'm sure it was one of them but I don't have a way to find out.

 

[Musicmanager]

Hi Triode

I think the best way to describe this chap is he's a valve radio nutcase !!
He's not a trader, he's a retired teacher like me. It seems to me his valve stock is counted in thousands but like most nutcases he's never sure what he's got, although he told me this morning he'd have what you need for sure. I don't understand this technology terribly well, but he was going to 'convert the numbers ? ' and then check he'd got all and get back to me. His prices are likely to be just what you need .. .. but he won't hurry ..

As far as shipping is concerned, they're not very heavy - I would have thought a well packed air freight would do the job nicely.

I'll keep on to him ..

S

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

The 45 made the "tube of the month" club: https://vinylsavor.blogspot.com/2011/09/tube-of-month-45.html

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

#45 reasonable prices, but you better hurry: https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=tube+45

 

[Triode]

Yeah, converting the numbers is one of the tricky parts. They go by several names and the military ones are different, so if you're sorting through a group it can be hard to spot the ones you need.

 

[UsedTester]

why don't you try https://www.used-line.com/ a lot of listings, Used equipment , but cheap

 

[Mikebits]

I have a huge box of tubes, but the ones your in need of are pre-WWII era. If you can substitute with any of the circa 50's - 70's tubes, and cross ref with the newer numbers, I will check to see if I have them. If I do I would gladly let you have them as I feel bad for the predicament you find yourself in.

Mike

 

[Triode]

I really appreciate the offer, and it's quite a generous one at that considering the value of the tubes such as the 80. But I should have updated, I actually recovered these tubes on a return to visit Milwaukee, one of the Makers saw them on a shelf and told the person they were mine, and saved them for me. The radio still doesn't work as the tube that was originally not working and started this whole chain of events is still broken and I don't know which one (or more) it is. But for now I at least have my tubes back.

 

[BobW]

The prices at Findatube are likely the best you'll find. That seller is well liked by the members of several antique radio forums. Type 45 tubes are unfortunately very expensive because they are in great demand by the tube audio fanatics.

It's too bad that you lost your set of tubes, because chances are that they were probably in good working order. Whenever anyone starts to repair an antique radio they tend to think that one or more of the tubes is most likely defective. However, it's far more likely that one or more capacitors has failed. The reason being that way back when tube radios were still very common, so were the replacement tubes. If it quit working, the owner could take the tubes down to a repair shop, test them and get replacements at low cost. However, if something else failed, most likely a capacitor, this was not repairable by the owner, and that's when they usually stuck the radio in the basement, not to be found until several decades later. So, when you find one of these old radios that's been in storage for decades, the most likely reason why it's non-operative is that a capacitor has failed.

Now having said that, even if the capacitors were still okay the last time the radio was used decades ago, it's virtually guaranteed that the electrolytics will now be bad, and most if not all of the paper capacitors will also be bad. You should not power up the radio without replacing the electrolytic and paper capacitors, or you'll risk destroying the power transformer and/or the audio output transformer. If that happens, then you may as well forget about trying to repair it, because replacement transformers will cost more than the radio is worth.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Triode:
I can test them for you, I think. I have a very coveted military tester, but hasn't been fired up in a while. https://frank.pocnet.net/instruments/Military_us/TV7/TB-11-6625-274-12.1.pdf I may have another tester that can test them too. I'd just have to do a dry run to make sure stuff is in order.