Admiral Regent/C322C2 Score!
 

Snagged this guy for $500 up in Ocala. 21AX tests good at first look, but I still need to let it cook for awhile. Cabinet is in remarkable shape too. It's missing most of its tubes and is covered with a thick layer of dust. Checked the flyback and there definitely is some wax drip, but I dont think that is a cause for concern. Uses the 29Z1 run 18 chassis. I probably wont really be able to get to this one till I finish the 4. I dont dare power it up until I replace the filters. I'll get the camera out and take better pictures here soon. Make that 9 surviving examples!

Started to remove the layers of dust in the CRT areas. Set is confirmed to be from from 56' due to matching tube dates on the hv tubes and the crt. Chassis seems about 95% original. Flyback primaries ohm out good.

More photos

Fantastic find ! You da man:thmbsp:
After the filter cans take it slow. Get a raster up THEN slowly recap
starting with problem areas. Sry you know the drill......

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Very nice. And if you save those bumble bee pulls and sell them on eBay, you might just pay for the set......:D

http://www.ebay.com/itm/585-Sprague-...p2047675.l2557

:screwy: Those audiophiles....

Continued to clean the set up. Let's do the safety glass next. I am pleased with how it came out. There is so much dust built up in this set!

Awesome rare set. It almost looks like it's a console, missing the legs. Can't wait to see the restoration in this set! I'm still trying to finish my RCA Westcott like yours.

It is indeed a consolette. It was missing its legs so I bought a set of highboy legs for it. I will probably have to stain the legs though as they are not quite the right shade of mahogany.

Very cool indeed. 61 year old set, who wudda thunk they would still be around and of interest to anyone?

Nice...

Yes! Great score, looking forward to many more progress pictures on this restoration, very nice start, chassis looks un-molested, isn't rusty, CRT usable, large "plus-es!"

Now to remove those proverbial, pesky white latex paint specks! Turned out pretty good I think. Some tiny specks just wouldn't come off though!

Congratulations on acquiring this rare guy.

Thanks everyone! I went ahead and did some more work on the cabinet. Next I added restor a finish to the top and left side of the cabinet. The results are really nice.

I cant seem to find the getters on the 21ax. I know they are normally located in a slot on the neck near the end of the gun assembly, but I cant seem to find it. I do see what looks like silver getter material in the base though near the heaters of the guns. Were the getters ever placed inside the base of the tube rather than on the end of the gun? :scratch2:

It does indeed look like getter flash in the base of the tube.

That seems like a very strange location. My rebuilt GE tube has nothing like that, but of course rebuilt means it could have been flashed completely differently from the original.

I have seen it in only one other 21ax and that was the one in Ben Moyer's colorcaster.

It may be just evaporated metal from the 3 heaters... IIRC the getters are in the neck, closer to the screen.

Found a pix... there are 6 stirrup getters arranged in a circle toward the screen from the convergence pole pieces. There are no getters near the base.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4338/...788285_z_d.jpg

Sorry about the poor contrast.

Update: found an article with a better pix of the gun assembly.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/pdf/R...-Kinescope.pdf

jr

Ok here are the official tests on the CRT. The tube tests NOS! This has to be one of the best testing CRTs I've ever seen!

That TV either was not used much by its former owner(s), or else the CRT you tested is a replacement for the original tube. I cannot believe a 50-60 year-old CRT can be in such good condition. The set may have been used by a little old lady who only watched it, at most, once a week or less, and had the original tube replaced in the '60s-'70s.

The 21AXP22A in my 21CT55 looks the same. There is a picture of it in post #81 of the thread:
http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=257587&page=6

Mine has a date code of 5704, about 8 weeks after your date code. It also tested good and makes a nice picture. My avatar is a picture from that set. I say don't worry about the CRT until you get the set operating well enough to get a raster. Nice save!

Dave

A couple of questions - When you had the tester on it and got those unusually 'good' high readings, were the heaters glowing a nice healthy orange?

If not, was the neck around the gun area getting really, really hot really fast?

Seemed like the typical orange glow. Got really hot after about 10 mins. Hope it's not gassy?

That's good. It's under vacuum. (If a jug has gone to air, the heaters won't glow, but the neck gets sizzling hot in half a minute due to conduction.)

That would be normal.

Awesome! It should display a beautiful picture then.

I do intend to document almost everything I do while I restore this set both cosmetically and electrically. I am doing this to use it a reference and as a step by step series of the restoration of this set due to how rare it is. Next I decided to get the latex paint specks off of the tuning knob. It was a lot harder to remove the paint on the knob than it was on the cabinet due to the risk of harming the fragile plastic. I soaked the affected areas in olive oil to loosen up the paint and then used a pencil eraser to remove as much as I could. As you can see, I wasn't able to get all of it off, but it looks a whole lot better than it did. :thmbsp:

Gee $50-$100 for bumble bee and wax caps? Most always they are bad, leaky, or way off value. When I get a TV or radio with those in it I replace them with modern types. Gosh I have thrown tons of those away. I should have saved them and became rich!

You need to variac the chassis real quick to verify the crt has not gone to air, getting super high readings like that makes me question whether it has gas in it. In my experience an AX that has top of the scale readings on all guns is usually gassy, even the tube in MY COLORCASTER (I bought Ben's set) tests like new, but it doesn't tip the scales all the way on all guns like that one does.

If it is indeed good, you have a winner there. But until you've had HV and a picture on it, all bets are off. Remember: a gassy tube that hasn't yet burned out its heaters will show good readings on test, but still glow purple upon HV application. Hence the only quantitive test is to run it on a chassis, if you get something on the screen it's good.

I would like to add,

When I first tested the CRT, it did not test this good at all. All guns tested maybe right above the G on the good scale. It didnt test this good until I let it cook for about 10 minutes at 6.3.

So I put it on the variac and after maybe an hour and a half I was up to 100 volts and the 6CB5 started to red plate in the middle of the plate (No HV either). The set is missing most of its tubes, but I did have in the HV cage tubes, the damper, the H out tube, and the vertical out tube. I forgot to add the horizontal multiplier tube so that may account for the red plating 6CB5 and lack of HV. Current draw was about 2.5 amps and normal current is 3 amps at 117v. I must say I am very weary of applying full line voltage to the set with all the original filters, but I need to see if the Jug is gassy (Which I dont think it is.)by applying some HV to it. Everything else seemed to be normal, no burning smells and the power transformer only got lukewarm after being on for an hour and a half.

You can also power it with HV from another chassis, but it would be best to get the native horizontal circuit functioning.

Eureka!
 

Aha! Cant believe I forgot the horizontal mult tube! We now have a nice and relatively bright raster with great height and width! This set sure is a winner!

There you have it, don't you feel better knowing you won't have to search for a CRT?

A lot better. I would have probably paid close to double what I paid for the set if I needed a new CRT.

We are now a consolette!

Wow, what a great score, and the early signs are encouraging.

To quote Bertie Wooster, "I shall watch your future progress with considerable interest!"

Regards,

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Thanks Phil. Here's another bit of progress. I went ahead and repainted the channel numbers on the channel knob with a gold pen. It was painstakingly difficult, but I think it turned out nice.

Very nice work on that channel knob!

Amazing purchase!

I'm Jelly.....Matter of fact "I'm the slime" <--Frank Zappa (it is a funny song) :D

Once I'm back on my feet with finances I'll have to make you an offer on it.

Awesome detail work. It encourages me as I typically get them working and move on to another TV. Seeing the Sams Schematic for this TV in my file 35+ years ago, I was sure Id never hear of a survivor and here it is.