Found a Videodyne on CL

[Steve D.]

Videodyne set/w mask on display at the ETF Museum. Also a closeup of the knobs.

-Steve D.

[Kevin Kuehn]

It's beginning to look like they used a few different knob styles.

[Eric H]

I'm going to stick with these, they are.really Nice and look good on the set.
They shined up really good too!

[azbigsam]

Great find Eric! And for a great price. What do you plan on doing for the mask?

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by azbigsam

Great find Eric! And for a great price. What do you plan on doing for the mask?

Eric,

Not sure if you attend the ETF Convention. Maybe you could have a 3-D copy made in Columbus, Oh. from the ETF set? If Steve McVoy would lend you the mask.

-Steve D.

[Eric H]

I pulled the chassis out and took some pictures, it's a most unusual set.

The chassis is quite interesting, made from Aluminum, everything is screwed in, no rivets, it seems to be built around a massive Aluminum top casting with the sides bolted to it and the top welded on, it's so thick on top that the sockets inside the HV cage are recessed into the chassis and the tubes only go halfway into the sockets, also the tubes ride on the tops of the screws holding the sockets in, making the situation worse. It feels like something from a small company working out of a garage, even the cabinet, which looks really slick but isn't all that complicated in construction.

The amount of labor required to bolt it all together must have been substantial, stamped steel and rivets would have cut the work significantly, but maybe that's why they were out of business by 1950.

Interesting that the 5U4 LV Rectifier is inside the HV cage while the 5V4 Damper tube is outside by the Filter cans, I checked the schematic thinking they had been switched but no, that's the correct layout. Maybe one of those engineering Doh! moments when they realized they made a mistake but it was too late to change it?

The CRT has a ground wire taped to it, when the mask was removed it allowed the CRT to slide forward enough to lose contact with the ground springs, the solution was to tape a ground to the tube and screw it to the chassis. The age of this hack tells me that the mask was removed long, long ago, no doubt so the visible area of the screen would be larger, maybe he saw a Porthole set somewhere and got the idea.

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Steve D.

Eric,

Not sure if you attend the ETF Convention. Maybe you could have a 3-D copy made in Columbus, Oh. from the ETF set? If Steve McVoy would lend you the mask.

-Steve D.

I doubt I will make it to the ETF convention, though one of these times I really must.

If there was way to simply put the mask in a 3D scanner and copy it that would be great, I don't know if that tech exists yet or is practical if it does, so making a copy will probably involve a Rubber mold of some sort, not the kind of thing that could be done in a short visit.

I noticed the 10FM is on the ETF's list of rare Post-War sets with two verified examples, three now I guess.

[electronjohn]

That is so cool, Eric!

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I'm not sure if I wanted buy a TV, from a firm named "Fink Engineering".
Steve Allen, used to have a lot of fun with the name "Fink" on his show.

I also remember sneaking a watch of Steve Allen's late show, but my mom would insist I turn it off and go to sleep. So I wouldn't fall asleep in Mrs Murphy's boring 4th grade class.

I was around 9 or so, and had thought "fink" was the "F" word. I was a little behind in my vocabulary at the time.

Someone with the name Donald Fink wrote a television broadcast reference book. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_G._Fink

When this Videodyne TV was made, they may have gotten a great deal on surplus aluminum, as there was tons of it left over from WW2 military equipment manufacturing.

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

I also remember sneaking a watch of Steve Allen's late show, but my mom would insist I turn it off and go to sleep. So I wouldn't fall asleep in Mrs Murphy's boring 4th grade class.

I was around 9 or so, and had thought "fink" was the "F" word. I was a little behind in my vocabulary at the time.

Someone with the name Donald Fink wrote a television broadcast reference book. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_G._Fink

When this Videodyne TV was made, they may have gotten a great deal on surplus aluminum, as there was tons of it left over from WW2 military equipment manufacturing.

Sorry to go OT. But... I went to Catholic school. In High School, 1962-66, we were taught by Marianist Brothers. I was brought in after school for using that word. I was very close to getting suspended. My, how times have changed...

[EdKozk2]

Eric,
That 10FM or 12FM is in very good shape all around. Great find. The FM version
uses the better tuner I think.
Ed

[broadcaster]

I've owned two Videodynes. They are neat sets. One thing to examine are the screws that attach the sub chassis to the main chassis. These work loose over time, and cause weird effects with ground loops. These sets were offered as kits, and were well designed. You have a rare winner!

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by kvflyer

...I was brought in after school for using that word. I was very close to getting suspended. My, how times have changed...

What, for saying fink?

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by old_coot88

What, for saying fink?

Yes, I was. Catholic school, goofy Marionist Brother.

[Eric H]

I started work on it tonight.

Nothing major, just pulled all the tubes, sprayed out the controls and tube sockets and cleaned the dirt off the chassis. Most of it was loose fluff and it came off easily with a brush and vacuum cleaner, then a little spritz of cleaner here and there.

I noticed that both of the potentiometers have switches on them, one is on/off, Brightness the other is on/off Contrast (the cover page of Sams has an error where it calls them both out as Contrast controls). The second one switches of the "Y" section of the power supply only, I haven't figured out what that is yet but possibly it cuts out the TV circuits when you want to listen to the radio?