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I'm a little more advanced but not much! I've managed to get a couple dozen of these postwar sets up and functioning pretty well. I love most the TVs from 1947-1955 with RCA as a favorite brand. All sound advice here. I'll add a couple from a beginner's perspective. Wait until the real experts here chime in and point out any mistakes I've made before you employ my suggestions as technique:
1. All of the warnings regarding hot chassis, high voltage often in the 10Kv range and above are the first and foremost thing that needs to be respected. One thing I've heard is the HV anode can really hurt but the voltages in the flyback can kill you. High capacitance, new and old, electrolytic caps can hold charge for a while, especially ones in the power section. They don't hurt...they just give an uncomfortable buzz.
2. Don't buy cheap, hard to believe how many you can get, electrolytic and film capacitor "sets" from China. When I searched Amazon, I was astounded I could get 100uf electrolytic filter caps at a little more than a dollar per cap, so I bought a ton of them. They caused more issues than they were worth. I could not run down a horizontal instability issue in an 8" RCA PT-8-3034. Turns out it was the main "Uxell" filter cap in the power supply that created all the issues. Don't buy cheap stuff. You can use these to test something...just as a tack in but don't rely on them for service use and if you have a problem, suspect them first.
3. If you buy old analytic equipment, be sure it's working well and you can trust the results you are getting. Again, a lesson I learned in the TV school of hard knocks.
4. Don't replace everything first and then test. Start with the power supply. I have a dim bulb setup and I start running the TV with a 60 watt bulb for about 15-20 minutes and then progress through 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 watts. REMOVE the lead off the horizontal output tube until you get to the higher wattage bulbs. The horizontal oscillator will not start until it gets a certain voltage and the lack of oscillation can drive excess voltage through the Horiz. Output Tube (HOT) and fry it. If I suspect the main power electrolytic caps are bad and can't be reformed or test shorted, I'll replace them before first power up. A shorted electrolytic in this section can fry the power transformer. Ask me how I know that!
5. Service Power, Sweep and get a raster...then go for a picture. Check the TV function often if you can. Don't get carried away and replace a dozen caps and resistors to find you don't have a working TV. You won't know where to start to run it down. If you test...replace...test etc. it's the easiest way to be sure you don't create issues rather than solve them. Again, ask me how I know that!
6. Find the expert restorers on YouTube and watch their videos. My go to are Bandersentv (he posted in your thread) and Shango66 but there are many others.
7. Test the CRT before you do anything else. A dead and rare CRT is usually a showstopper unless there's a way to modify the circuit and substitute it with another type CRT.
I'll probably think of more from the rookie mistake file I have. The experts here sometimes forget how stupid the novices are! Not their fault. When you talk like you know what you're doing they assume you know what you're doing!
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