atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information WECO 555 Cordboard so far...

Hi Mods, if this is not the proper place for this, please move to where it belongs! Thanks, Joe

Here is an update on my 555 PBX cord board project.

This project started out as the frame of a 55X cord board that was given to me by Wallace Jacobs (Jake’s old Western Electric Supply). I drove down to El Dorado Kansas in late spring to get some ladder rack sections, and returned with the ladder rack as well as a cord board frame. Here it is before I did anything with it.



The frame spent the next couple of weeks in the garage before I took it out, pressure washed it and brought it into the family / Teletype room to begin restoration.

The first thing that was done to it was that four almost NOS cord circuits were installed along with the front bezel sans the middle strip. A lone designation strip was installed as well, and my chief cord board restoration supervisor Kotobuki, was asking me when the desk would be found and installed.



The next phase (at Kotobuki’s insistence) was to find and procure a desk (From Jake’s) and to get it installed pronto. It is not dignified for the restoration supervisor to be balanced on top of a cord board frame. Here it is just after it was installed, much to Kotobuki’s approval.



The next thing that was found and installed was the current limiting resistance lamp socket and the side panel mounting brackets. Granted that these are not very exciting, but they are very necessary to the proper functioning of a 555 (so sayeth Kotobuki).





Next, six more cord circuits were procured, and four were immediately installed after cleaning the Bakelite front panels. The other two needed a small amount of work before installation; one simply needing a cover mounting bracket screw replaced (it had stripped threads) and the other needing the mounting bracket. The one needing just the replacement screw has been since replaced, but the other needing the bracket has not. I will either have to find a bracket or fabricate one. Here are the photos for this…






As you can see, I will also have to fabricate a couple of the brown fiber board strips that cover the cord circuits’ innards. It is these fiberboard strips that mount to the missing bracket on the one cord circuit.

Since this forum only allows 8 photos per post.

End of part one…

Cord board progress part two.

Now, I realize that I forgot to mention that the buzzer / battery control surface and the buzzer volume control surface had also been mounted before the desk arrived. Here are some photos of those two items.



[img]https://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_1832.jpg [/img]

Also, I forgot to mention that I have acquired and mounted another designation strip, and a jack field and lamp strip. Notice that the middle bezel strip is also installed.



One of the harder parts to find according to Jake’s is the buzzer. Through the kind generosity of a TCI forum member, I acquired one complete with buzzer, shaft and volume control knob. After cleaning the knob in an ultrasonic cleaner then with a toothbrush, I installed it under the close supervision of the restoration supervisor kitty.

https://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_1831.jpg

Here it is after mounting.

https://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_1847.jpg

And now, the full frontal!

https://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_1846.jpg

I have also acquired a semi-rough casting of the handset hanger bracket. It is made of cast aluminum, which I found on e-pay. These are next to impossible to find in genuine WECO, so for three bucks, I figured that I can spend some time filing and polishing this for my board. I have to drill and counter sink for the mounting screws, and will probably start finishing this next week.

https://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_1845.jpg

Now the cord board supervision kitty, Kotobuki, had just finished an exhausting 45 minutes of supervising my restoration, and decided to call it a day (er, night). She after all is only six months old, and still needs lots of sleep. Thus, she retired to the sofa in the family / Teletype room, and passed out while watching The Next Food Network Star. In her place, my fifteen year old calico telephone tech came out of retirement and stepped up to the plate to make sure that I did not do anything that did not meet specs. She has had in the past two litters of telephone tech kitties, each of whom are well respected in the telecom field.



Astute observers will note that there is the official WECO Lucite desk protector on the desk, and that came from another generous TCI forum member.

Now at this time, there is a TEL circuit module on the way as well as a 5H dial, dial mount bracket, dial housing and dial wiring loom. Kotobuki is very anxious about this as she is not only the RMO (rodent mitigation officer) and cord board restoration supervisor, she is the chief cord, cable and test lead flexibility tester for the roosterville phone company. She is looking forward to helping me install (while testing the flexibility of) the dial circuit wiring loom.

After these are installed, I will be purchasing the main wiring harness and plug strip for the cord circuits from Jake’s. I will also get the top of the unit from Jakes, and will be looking for some CO trunk circuits as well as (if I am very lucky to find them) some tie trunk circuits and a conference circuit. I also will be looking for five more lamp strips and jack fields as well as seven more designation strips.

Well, I guess this is it for now… I hope that I did not bore anyone to tears with this. I cannot wait to get it working and connected to C* net! I will post updates and more photos as progress is made at the direction of the chief cord board restoration supervisor, RMO and cord flexibility tester.

Best,

Joe

This is so cool! I really enjoy the updates!