r/Payphone

Finally convinced my dad to give me his old pay phone. I used to have it working in my bedroom as a kid (54 now) and always wanted it for my own house. It’s in great condition, but could use new cards.

April 25th 2026

Started with a dead payphone and somehow ended up learning a ton and having a blast along the way. 😂
This thing now lives in my house beside my bar and is fully functional… minus the coin operation.
The project started when I picked up an old payphone that was locked up with no keys. So the first step was buying carbide bits and Dremel tools and spending a couple hours carefully removing the locks just to get inside of it. 😅
Once I finally got it open, I discovered why it didn’t work…
The onboard battery had leaked acid all over the original Ernest Telecom board and basically cooked the electronics. I replaced the battery hoping for a miracle… but nope. Still dead.
That’s when the project went completely off the rails.
Naturally I decided:
“Why repair it the easy way when I can completely over-engineer it?” 😂
So I bought a modern red Amazon phone for the guts and started figuring out how to transplant the modern electronics into the original payphone housing.
That turned into:
• Mapping the keypad matrix manually so the original metal keypad would talk to the modern phone board
• Figuring out ATA/VoIP programming with the Obihai box so it could make real calls
• Rewiring switches and hooks
• Adapting old-school pulse style hardware to modern electronics
• Using a radiator clamp and zip ties to trigger the hook switch because sometimes engineering becomes caveman engineering
• Hours of continuity testing, connector measuring, soldering, trial and error, and questioning my life choices
But now:
✔ Original keypad works
✔ Original handset works
✔ Mechanical bells work
✔ Lights work
✔ Incoming and outgoing calls work
✔ Fully functional payphone in the house
I eventually found a backplate and wall mounted booth on Marketplace which really completed the whole setup.
Honestly this project was way more fun than I expected. I learned a ton about old telecom hardware, keypad matrices, VoIP systems, and just how insanely overbuilt these old payphones were.
I absolutely love the way it turned out. I even bought dry erase markers so friends and family can graffiti the booth when they come over. 😂
Definitely one of the coolest things in my bar/game room now. ☎️🍻.

Oxford, England.
It has dial tone and you can actually call the number and it rings.

I'm new to the hobby of phone collecting!

I purchased this Verizon Nortel Millennium Wall Mounted Pay Phone at an estate sale. It came from a Seattle office building is all they knew about it.

After checking all sides of the pay phone I only found one lock hole... It's a T shape with a deep hole.

I don't know if there was another lock that was removed or if that was it?

I don't see evidence of a lock being drilled out and it won't open

How can I unlock this?

I'd appreciate any information and/or tips!

I may be making a few posts on this subreddit as I get more into this hobby and work to restore this phone.

Thanks for the your time!

No handset, can’t check for dial tone

Seen inside the Chesapeake House rest area on I-95 in Maryland. Right outside of the men's room. No dial tone.

An NOS (New Old Stock) computerized payphone being brought back into service using a few hacks.

You guys liked a post I made in here about somebody doing something similar, so hopefully you will enjoy this one as well:

https://youtu.be/j8DygtESGeE?si=eo6yzWoEt8jHPI\_N

Dave did a good job a explaining it, good enough that I think I might have understood at least half of it!