Westinghouse H840CK15 Restoration
 

New project.

We hope this tread proves useful and provides inspiration to others in the hobby.

The set was described as having an “excellent” 15GP22 CRT with a complete, but unknown chassis condition. Three photos of the flyback area look clean. The set is on its way to us for restoration.

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Read about the restoration here: https://visions4netjournal.com/westinghouse/

We will update along the way. Hope all go’s well.

Update, July 11, 2018

After a long delay, the Westinghouse H840CK15 is finally on its way to Mike in Arizona. Here you see the set crated. The only way to go when shipping 2000 miles.

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https://visions4netjournal.com/westinghouse/#

Looks sturdy! How is the jug packaged?

jr

The jug was kept in the cabinet. You might understand the crating and shipping cost if the jug were shipped separately. We had four other consoles crated this way with no mishap. It has five layers of protection and emobilised so the set can’t move inside the crate.

We made sure the chassis and CRT were secured properly. There is a cut out surrounded by foam for the neck. Then a piece of foam was added to fill the opening of the cut out. This allows the neck to be flush with the main cabinet instead of protruding. Also shrink wrap, fiber paper, popcorn to fill into the gaps, another layer of foam, then cardboard and lastly the plywood, banded, two hooks to secure in transit and a pallet. The set is suspended on foam to help absorb road shocks.

There is always a first time for a mishap, but we took the extra precaution of reducing the truck stop/exchanges during transit.

Marshall,

Congratulations. Looking forward to your restoration of the Westinghouse K840CK15. As with your previous restorations, a wonderful detailed account, I'm sure will be provided. Wishing your new addition a safe journey to Arizona. :thmbsp:

Best,
-Steve D.

The Westinghouse arrived at Mike’s place yesterday. I’m very dissatisfied with the grating job. No blocking or peanuts! No special care for the neck as far as I can see. First pictures. Hope everything is good. More to come.

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This company is under new ownership. They did a great job on the 21CT55 like this.

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That makes me cringe a bit...I sure hope the CRT is still okay.

Same here. They will hear about it after the uncrating.

Meeting and unloading here.

https://visions4netjournal.com/westinghouse/

Update, July 21, 2018
Uncrating completed. Good news, no apparent visual damage. We won’t know more until basic testing. Full recap will be done prior to attempting to light the tube. More photos to come.
https://visions4netjournal.com/westinghouse/#

Watching this with interest, as I'm now the owner of an H840CK15 as well!

When I pick it up, it'll have a completely restored chassis. And a dead 15G :( . Can't ask for everything I guess :)

Belated thank you to Steve and congratulations Kamakiri.

NO! My sincerest CONDOLENCES to Kamakiri

Doug McDonald
Owner of a restored CT100 and dead 15GP22

A TV collector's true hobby is not collecting TVs. It is beating dead horses :D

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GO HERE FOR FULL RSOLUTION PHOTOS.

https://visions4netjournal.com/westinghouse/

What tester? Are those numbers in uA? Or is that some arbitrary scale?

0.6 uA on the green gun and you're screwed; tracking will never be correct and green will always be insufficient.

If it is some arbitrary scale, then it's anyone's guess.

Find someone with a Beltron and a Tesla coil to test it...

And about the huge control: it was placed on the back because it was erroneously believed that the hue control wouldn't require much adjustment on the customer's end. Any change in phase caused by transmission and the set itself was believed to be more or less constant.

Some sets have drifty chroma circuits, others not so much. The museum's H840CK15 seems relatively stable for a set running on mostly original caps.

The rear of the Westinghouse H840CK15 color chassis. The hue control is upper left.

-Steve D.

Update
 

UPDATE, AUGUST 10, 2018

From Mike:
Tonight I began the chassis removal process. I am collecting photos which will come later. I was very disturbed to discover that there were NO CHASSIS BOLTS at all holding the main chassis to the cabinet.

The chassis serial number is on a tag glued to the high voltage cage and it appears to be ME000147

I take that to be the 147th one produced. The ME is likely a location code of where it was built. Any ideas?

No serial numbers on the crt neck or socket but the code date (which is visible in your picture) is 4-13.

I take that to be the 13th week of 1954 which likely makes this the original crt.



Author: I wanted to make sure the chassis bolts were tightened and that they be checked prior to crating. I was assured this would be done. Very disappointing!

Possibly ME stands for Metuchen, NY. Where the first sets went into production.

According to Marlin Mackey’s site, the set serial numbers don’t jive with the chassis numbers. An example: Television serial number MW006012, chassis number ME000812.

Thanks for the numbers, I agree. More to come.

Possibly ME stands for Metuchen, NY. Where the first sets went into production.

That's New Jersey :)

Thanks. Mislead by this.

( News clipping )

UPDATE, August 12, 2018

From Mike. OK, onward to removing the chassis and crt. This will be sent over a few emails due to the number of pictures.

Pictures 1 and 2 Front panels and knobs being removed.

Picture 3 Broken knob (the white one). Not sure of its function just yet.

Picture 4 Chassis on the bench. Note: there were NO chassis bolts holding the main chassis to the cabinet. The power supply chassis is mounted in the lower part of the cabinet and it will be removed soon.
Picture 5 and 6 show magnetic shield mis-alignment bottom and then top. I believe when this piece is properly installed it should mate nicely with the other parts.

Picture 7 These pieces fell out from under the chassis as I removed it from the cabinet. One screw that I might likely find the place for later, the second looks like a tuning slug from one of the tuned transformers. (the next picture shows where this possibly came from). And then, what looks like a broken tuning slug core from some tuned transformer.

Picture 8 a tuned transformer with seemingly a missing tuning screw. The core piece may be inside the transformer.
Picture 9 Chassis top left.

Picture 10 Degassing coil plug.

Picture 11 and 12 Disconnecting the High Voltage connector.
Picture 13 Blocking the face end of the crt before removing screws. This insures minimum loading on the neck of the tube as the screws are removed.

Picture 14 Removing the necessary 3 screws on each side to unmount the crt from the chassis.

Picture 15 CRT removed.

Picture 16 CRT on bench. The tube will be boxed and placed in another building with my other CRT’s until I am ready for it later in the restoration process.
Picture 17 Serious issues with the quality of the aquadag on the CRT.

Picture 18 These flakes of “DAG” were found on the chassis after the crt was removed. I guess it’s a good thing that I purchased a supply of aquadag liquid from Scott Avitt before he closed up Hawkeye. This issue, I’m sure, will be a very easy part of the restoration process.

Picture 19 The chassis bottom.

Thus far, I have been doing some thinking on how this restoration will go. I will be doing this one a lot differently than ever before. Most of the repairs will be done without a crt at all and using only test equipment to breath life back in to the individual circuits. That way the CRT stays “safe” until I am ready for it. I may use a monochrome crt mounted to the chassis for some of the testing process. The signals from the individual circuits can then be patched in to the monochrome gun one at a time so the quality of the images can be seen as needed. This way, the Luminance and Chrominance signals can be evaluated without the use of the 15EGP22 being in the set.

Let the games begin.

Mike

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Good Afternoon Mike,

I have all 19 photos. Thank you. Breathed a sigh of relief after reading your last comment about the dag.
Sound like an excellent plan. Great idea to remove the “beast” from the chassis to allow easier serviceing.
Marshall
As always, tap on any image to open the image carousel. Tap icon again for full resolution images.

GO HERE FOR FULL RESOLUTION IMAGES. https://visions4netjournal.com/westinghouse/

Slip plate is a good substitute for aquadag...It is just a paint on conductive coating so dag flaking is not an issue for an unrestored non-working set. (were the set run with flaking dag there is risk of the fallen flakes causing shorts on the chassis, and if the flaking leaves dag islands or disconnects the ground connections for the CRT that could be bad) Any competent TV restorer knows to handle dag issues before power up.

If your repairman has a color CRT test jig most of those can be configured to work with these chassis (mine lacked settings/adapter listings for my 21CT55, but I reverse engineered those). Just need to set the jig yoke impedance selector to the correct setting for tube sets, and make adapters for the CRT and yoke connectors. Dynamic convergence won't work on the jig, but that is not important during the bench portion of the restoration.

Mike has a RE21FBP22 test CRT. Good to know about the substitute. I see Amazon has dag solutions.

I’d like to point out in pix# 2, a user “convergence” control. Pix#8, notice the cable leading to rear mounted hue control. I’d like to rig the cable forward and exiting at the bottom of the cabinet. In this way I can actually see the adjustments on the screen. The mirror idea seems ridiculous on a restored set. For purists, we can easily restore to it’s original position. Pix #13, blocking while releasing tension loading.

We shall see as the restoration progress’s.

An option I'd research if I had one of these sets is the possibility of locating the hue control in the pencil box. If any of the user controls in the pencil box are non-concentric shaft controls, and if any of those are standard pot resistance values what I'd do is find a concentric pot with inner shaft (rear pot) resistance matching the hue and outer shaft (front pot) resistance matching the existing pencil box pot (or vice versa if it was a control I adjust less frequently than hue). Then I'd remove and save the original single pot from the pencil box and install the new concentric shaft dual pot and wire the original function and the hue to the respective sections of the new pot...It would be cleaner than dangling wires for the hue control out the bottom of the cabinet and your MUCH less likely to mash up the hue pot/wiring when moving the set.

Agree, it’s a better solution and my first choice. If we go with option B, I envision the control being out of sight, but cabinet mounted.

Has Mike even looked at the schematic for this set?

That isn't a degaussing coil; it's the field neutralization coil. A small amount of DC current passes through it to help counteract the existing magnetic field at the face of the tube (from the earth itself etc) to allow for decent purity.

Also, have you purchased a replacement convergence transformer from John Folsom yet?

Many of them are open at the start of a restoration, and many others will open or short during a restoration. It's best to replace it with new part now to avoid damaging hard to find potentiometers.

From Mike late last night: I have been studying the Westinghouse documents and learned that the degaussing ring on the front of the crt is in fact the opposite. Interesting to me, it is a gaussing coil that actually sets up a magnetic field that is adjustable, at the faceplate of the tube. So, I think we can change the wording on the page. IF I learn differently I will let you know. And again, Let the games begin. This will likely be the biggest accomplishment yet for me in my restoration projects. I remain optimistic. And it looks like I have a lot of parts to order for this one.
A piece of the wiring fell out of the high voltage cage when I set the chassis on the bench. It looks like a wire from one of the filament leads to a high voltage rectifier but I have yet to figure it out for sure. Also, I noticed that the metal cover is missing from the high voltage cage on the right side. This will be easy to make but it will not be of the original material unless I can find copper clad of that size locally. Not a big deal, just an observation that I will have to deal with. I suspect that a tech has left it off to give more cooling to the flyback. Maybe not a bad idea to leave it off but we can discuss that sometime.

No. Sounds like a good idea. Had no idea he has one. I will pass this along to Mike.

From Mike. “I guess I figured out the "gauss" thing. thanks benman94! And I am just starting this project and I can use the help on this one from people with experience with the technology. With your comment about the convergence transformer, is it in reference to T702 on the Westinghouse schematic? Or are you referring to T701?

Marshall, please connect me with this guy so I can talk to him more.

email, phone number, whatever. Thanks.

Thanks, Mike”

Greetings Marshall. We are packing up the cabinet and brass pieces today. We should leave here by around 8:00 on Monday morning and see you by 11:00 or so. FYI, in case you want to research it, and in case we need it later, the Westinghouse part number for the flyback is:

V-12977-C1

We never know what might show up out there and it would be a very, very good thing to have a spare, if possible. Before I can do anything on this set I will be building a bigger workbench. So as soon as the cabinet is in your hands I will have the space to press on. I have done some visual examination especially around the high voltage and flyback area and learned that the wiring around all of the rectifier sockets is very poor so that will have to be addressed early on in the restoration stage, after I get the power supply somewhat working. Also, my plan is to eliminate the filament wiring for the H.V. rectifiers and convert them from the original 3A3 tubes to solid state devices such as ECG508 Sylvania/Phillips devices. I am on a mission to find QTY 3 of those now. The focus rectifier tube will also be replaced with a solid state device of some type as well. By doing these modifications it not only eliminates vacuum tube heat, it also eliminates a lot of unnecessary wiring that has the potential to cause arcing which of course is very undesirable.


See you tomorrow.

Okay, see you tomorrow. We will place the cabinet in the garage as I will be taking it to our community wood shop for refinishing. I will post this in VK in hopes of a lead. Sad about Senator McCain.

Hey Marshall,

You certainly have found a treasure in that fellow restoring your Westy chassis. Assume the same guy that restored your 21CT55. If possible this will be an even more interesting restoration. Look forward to following the progress and the back & forth between you and your tech you post here on VK.

Regards,
-Steve D.

Steve, I’m very lucky to find Mike. We met in 2011 and he restored 4 other sets for me. We’ve become good friends.

I will be restoring the cabinet and brass pieces at our workshop.

In my garage today. Soon, I will be taking the cabinet to our community workshop for refinishing.

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Thanks to the gentleman offering a R-3A3. Mike will contact you.

We found a cabinet number and serial numbers on the tag glued to the inside of the cabinet.

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I don’t know what the numbers represent.

Two horizontal output tubes. Two dampers. Three HV rectifiers. Three 5U4s.

The Authorized Westinghouse Service Man must have been a busy guy.

I've always found it educational to look at the grime surrounding the knobs. The more grime, the more often this particular control was adjusted. All three of the hold controls look relatively clean so they weren't adjusted frequently. On the other hand, the convergence control looks like it was adjusted very often. Since the hue control is in the rear, we don't have any way to gauge how much it has been adjusted.

Speaking about the hue control, I don't know if it is a good idea trying to move the control to the front panel. The hue is adjusted by running a slug up and down in a coil form. Occasion adjustment might be OK, but daily adjustment or adjustment with every program might subject the coil to undue wear and tear.

Tom9589,

I’m leaning to plan B in regard to the hue control. Thinking about it, a hole would be required to be drilled in the pencil box materially changing the visible appearance of the set.

The Beginning
 

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018
Due to the enormous Westinghouse chassis, Mike rebuilt his work bench to accommodate it. Here you see the main and sub chassis. I’ve seen Mike’s test equipment which are not shown in these photos, and it looks like these photos were taken shortly after completion of the bench. Power supply parts have been ordered and the restoration begins.

From Mike:

“The “beginning”. The bench is complete with power strip and overhead shelf for test equipment. The giant color chassis fits the new bench well. I noticed that the copper plate cover that I retrieved from the cabinet is not the one that I thought it was. It is actually the one for the bottom of the flyback area so we still need to find out if the original is available from ETF. I have allowed room on the new bench for yet another “jig tube” for when I get serious about testing the operation of the chassis after I get the power supply and sweep circuits going. I will be using the oscilloscope for much of the early testing of the power supply and sweep circuits. And I will pay especially close attention to safety of the flyback transformer.

Mike”
I spoke with Steve and the missing panel from the flyback box was not left behind at the ETF.
Tap on images for full view. This page blurs the images, so go here for full view. https://visions4netjournal.com/westinghouse/

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