The title of this post is lie number one of a litany of lies to be found on the Internet.
You are NOT going to learn how to rewire a vintage phone. You are not.
I know this from experience. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself as I am want to do when I'm in fits.
I have a number of oddities hidden in my basement. For instance there's this. And these.
Amongst the stuff is a collection of antique/vintage telephones. Some work. Some don't. You may wonder why I care whether or not a relic of a phone with an actual dial on it works or not. I like them. I like old phones. I like old things. And I particularly like old thing that can still be used. There's a certain nostalgia and sentimentality about using a big old handset. Plus if you're on it you can tell people you can't talk any longer 'cause you're stuck to the wall and you need to get things done. That excuse doesn't work if you're talking on a portable phone.
There's one in particular I've been wanting to get up and running for a long time.
This phone was in my grandmother's house in Renfrew, Ontario. It's not only in perfect condition, it's one of a couple of phones in my basement that have been part of my family for generations.
So some time before Christmas I decided to look up how to rewire some of my old phones with their vintage 3 wires ...
... to a modern phone line. One would think it's just a matter of attaching red to red, green to green and so on. But it's not. Sometimes this connection will get the phone to work to make and receive calls, but the ringer won't work. Or it'll make calls but can't receive them. Or vice versa. It's a messy business this phone wiring thing. They're like Fiats. Or Lindsay Lohan's brain. Nobody really knows how the wiring works.
I looked up a few tutorials on-line and a few videos on YouTube and one video seemed to have great potential. All you have to do is attach red to red, combine the green and yellow from the phone and attach them to the green of the phone jack line.
I'm not sure why I was shocked when it didn't work but it was the Opening a Wine bottle with a Tree Trunk all over again.
Around 3 hours into it I realized, this probably wasn't gonna work out for you folks. I would NOT be doing a post on how to make your vintage telephone ring.
But I wasn't giving up on mine. You see, I have that gene in me. That little slice of DNA that won't allow me to stop. I can't give up. I will get so angry and frustrated at points that I need to eat potato chips just to calm down.
Because of the Great and Stupid Paleo experiment, we don't have any potato chips.
So I got more angry and more frustrated and decided to work through it by eating a block of cheese. Which isn't very good alone in large portions so I also had some crackers. I'm O.K. with that.
You know why? That little respite from the stupid Paleo plan was enough to get me to settle down and figure it out.
I had another old wall phone downstairs that was wired properly so I dragged that upstairs and compared the guts. They were similar. Similar enough that I could figure out how to hard wire the new phone jack line into the old phone. It made calls and received them. No ring.
So I made some uneducated guesses moving wires and changing things and finally ... it rang.
The phone now holds court in the living room.
If I'd had a bag of potato chips around instead of just cheese and crackers I'm fairly certain I would have been able to resolve any and all conflicts in the Middle East.
And because you were kind of screwed out of any learning anything at all in this post, I have made for you this little video proving that my phone does indeed ring and work.
Vintage Phone ring
Proof of vintage phone working.
Yet another reason to love the olden day phones. No Skype.
Debbie from Illinois
Love the phone! Love the video even more!
marilyn
hahahaha betty,betty,betty...love the ring tone on that old beauty!
tammy carter
I love someone who knows that Fiats, just don't work! Grew up riding in one, just getting in and out was like brain surgery!
Karen
Awesome! I would LOVE a phone like that except I might miss the caller ID to avoid the sales calls. There's something about the character of antique/vintage things that just beg to be preserved.
Gina
Awesome.
Amy in Stl
I'm facing a similar wiring dilemma, but kind of reversed. I have boiler heat and central air and both use a different thermostat. One from the 30s and one from the 70s. I bought a fancy new programmable wifi thermostat but the old wires aren't the proper colors and they are soldered on so if I screw up, I might have a $150 brick and no heat. Have you ever wired a thermostat? The only advice I've gotten so far is call an installer. :(
Karen
Amy - I have wired a thermostat, but it was so long ago I can't remember how to do it or explain it to you. Did you get one of those Nest thermostats??? ~ karen
Amy in StL
I wanted one, but the research I did revealed they aren't compatible with both systems. I needed one I could set to heat only/no fan and apparently they're unable to do that. I bought a Honeywell 8xxx and it's very simple; but the innards of the old ones have nothing marked or colored!
Cindy Marlow
I have that exact phone. So, you unhook that one red and attach the red/yellow combo then you unhook that one green and attach the green. Does the black just go off into lala land? I'm guessing that one cannot make calls on this phone (well, maybe YOU can because you might have perfected the "boop, beep, beep, boop, boop" tones with your mouth) since it wouldn't have tone dialing. Does pulse dialing still work?
Karen
HI Cindy - Yes, you can still make calls on it. You just can't "push 1 for assistance" etc. Rewiring this old phone was a little more complicated for some reason. I had to change the hook up of the wires inside. And yes. The black wire from the "wall" basically does nothing. ~ karen
Kim Merry
I used to have an old black dial phone hanging in my sewing room a few years back. One of my daughters friends asked to call her mom, I said sure just use that phone. A few minutes later I looked over and she was trying to push into the little holes! She said "It doesn't work", I had to show her how to DIAL the number! I still get a chuckle thinking about it!
Love the video!!!!
Kim
Pati
Kim, I had a 1960's dial phone and I had to do the same thing with my stepson ! And he was 17 at the time !!!!! Amazing,ain't it ????
Lisa
Good job!..you should have called me...(oh wait..you couldn't..phone didn't work..lol).This is my job..to make phones work (3 wires on the old sets..tip..ring..ground)Beautiful phone,btw!Nothing like hearing the old bells ring again,eh :)
Karen
Lisa - This old phone didn't work like that. Technically it should have, but I had to move the wiring on the inside around for some reason. Like I was changing a switch. If you're really desperate I have another phone that I can't get to ring for the LIFE of me. I think someone disabled the ring years ago so the inside wires are screwed up to begin with. Bleh. ~ karen!
Lisa
Well..whatever you did..you did it right! I know those real old sets got macgyvered so many times over the years (party-lines..one ring ..two ring...burppp)that I am surprised the wiring is still inside..lol.And if you are real desperate and want to ship it out west I'd be more than happy to give it a go..or find someone who can within the company.Or if you let me know the model I may be able to find a decent schematic..:)
Karen
Thanks Lisa - I'll look into what model it is and look for the schematic on-line. If I can't find it I'll see if you can find one for me! ~ karen!
Tootie
I'm ready to send you mine to fix
fand pay you. I'm in CA.
Tootie
Lisa
Tootie..if you are in California..it might be cheaper to find someone down that way to take a look at it...I'm in Manitoba Canada...far far away..lol
DSK
"The title of this post is lie number one of a litany of lies to be found on the Internet." But it did wake up my interest, not a bad lie :-)
I, and many others would like to guide you trough the process of doing this at this forum: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum
dsk
Michelle
I disabled the ringer on one of those fancy schmancy pant looking ones (not as cool) only because when it ring,it was the loudest most horrifying electronic buzzer ring - ever! Maybe rest assured, yours could be the same.
Hilary
Hi Lisa
I found your reply on the 'theartofdoingstuff.com - i have an old bakelite telephone, which has a UK adaptor to fit into a phone socket in the wall - do you happen to know if I can adapt this somehow to work in Canada?
Thanks for your help,
Hilary
Lisa
Hilary..sometimes its possible to adapt your phone by just by re-wiring your old set with a new cable/wires from a newer phone (one made in the 80's or 90s) .And just replacing the connections inside the set with the newer cable.Unfortunately there may have been some modifications made inside the older set depending on the configuration it was designed for in it's past (partyline ringing sequence or just single line ringing) I am not sure of Karen's policy on exchanging emails here but if we are able to get in contact with each other I may be able to "talk" you thru it..:)
Pammiloo
How would I contact you if u think u could fix my 1970 ( ? ) push-button/rotary look
cred
I hate skype, too for all those reasons your video reveals.
Christine
Another cool thing about the old phones is that you always know where it is.
RosieW
I would SO take on a project like this, i.e., exactly like this. Great to know it's possible. My daughter's home in Buford, GA was the first in the city to get a telephone installed. Would be great to find one from that era. Meanwhile wonder who in the world the homeowners called since only a few businesses had them. House is circa 1915-16.
You go, gal.
Rosie, Sugar Hill, GA
Moe
Ok, so I'm impressed. My hubby and I spend ALL afternoon yesterday changing out a couple of light fixtures and there were only three wires and they didn't need to ring. NOT a fun job.
If I send you a HUGE bag of potato chips can you help me figure out why my vacuum sealer sucks the air out of the bag but then stops and lets the air back in when it's sealing the bag? It's commencing to piss me off really bad :(
The new/old phone looks amazing by the way. And so do you.... Mother should be proud :)
Karen
Moe - Oh dear lord. If you think that I look amazing in that video I have not set the bar nearly high enough. ~ karen
Hazel
I'm impressed. I recently bought a 1970's phone from ebay because I was a) fed up of the cordless phones breaking and having to buy new ones b) fed up of them not working when we have a power cut (fairly often here) c) I liked the idea of a tomato red telephone.
I have to say I asked a nice ex-telecom engineer to come and rewire it, which he did, and for less money than he should have done because he enjoyed the nostalgia. I think he also thought I was slightly deranged for wanting it and therefore shouldn't be taken advantage of.
I love it and the children have finally realised that it's switched on as soon as you pick up the receiver.
The only downside is that (in the UK anyway) it doesn't register when the recorded voice says "push one for X".
Nick
"Push 1 for X" would mean you would have to put your index finger in the "1" hole and turn clockwise and release when your finger hits the metal thingy.
Nick
Either that or it's a speed issue (pulse vs. tone).
Ruth
Your mother is going to be livid when she sees the video! LOL! I'm sure you'll get cool points for figuring out how to fix the phone though.... especially if the grandmother in question is HER mother.
ulli
moehahahahahaaaaa
hi-la-rious!!
another job well done!
x
Toronto Boy
I have to admire your tenacity and resolve!
Incidentally, I was taking a look at your Youtube channel and realized that you haven't posted a link in either the video or on your channel. I suspect that doing so would garner a few more views to your web site! People on Youtube are missing out on some much needed comedic relief à la Karen! BUHAHAHAHAA! Cheers!
Ashley W
I think you are epic and amazing and wonderful! Thanks for the daily joy. :) (sorry to Fella for the emoticon..... <3)
Laura
You are brilliant! Your mother will be proud in spite of your rouge-less face.
Raymonde
Good job on the repair Karen! Besides, that tree stump table and phone were made for each other!