atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Antique Telephones Dail face

Is there any way to remove a telephone dial face (the part under the finger wheel) without having all of the inner workings dump out all over the place? As is visable in the station phone in my latest 1A2 post, the dial face is a grungy brownish look while the rest of the phone is a nice polished green look.

Thank you in advance!

Joe

Joe, we had this discussion recently here. There is no reason to take anything apart, except for removing the finger wheel.

The letters and numbers on a WE (or clone) dial are injection molded. That means they "go all the way through" the dial plate.

Take the dial off the phone and check the back of the dial, and you'll see what I mean. You can see the "backs" of the letters and numbers.

You can rub 'til the cows come home, as we say in Brooklyn, and the characters will never wear off.

The same goes for WE TT dials.

There where three types I remember. One there where two screws to remove. Two you removed the finger stop and rotated the face plate to the left or there was a retaining ring you rotated to the left (makes four I guess). Than the nut on the center of the finger wheel, that was the one with the spring and retainer that would fall off and you had to pay attention to what went where.

Like Arthur said, you can probably clean it without removing it.

Hi Arthur,

I had thought about sanding and buffing the dial plate with the mechanical things still attached, but I was worried about the dust and crap getting into the gears and such. If it is sealed well enough, I will go ahead and get it buffed.

Best,

Joe

TTYJoe, you really do need to look at the retro-bright web site. You are probably going to go to a LOT of needless work. I'm retired and I still don't have time to squander on sanding and buffing, if a little chemical magic will get the job done!

Hi Lightninghorse,

I am going to try to find the high percentage peroxide this week and try this. I have all of the other chemicals needed. I saw what it did with the discolored Commodore case, and that would be really cool if it worked with telephones.

Joe

The Retr0brite system works better on light-colored plastics.

As a 'haven't used it', I find that interesting. Why do you say that Arthur? Does darker plastic get 'blotchy ' easily or ? (Inquiring minds want to know. )

For the whole story, read the website. I have no idea why darker plastics don't respond as well.

here
There was some Retrobrite discussion earlier. Drug store peroxide was adequate.