My latest project (TV related)

[Eric H]

You might hate me for this, I don't even like publishing it for fear of giving people ideas but...

Some of you may recall I was given a 1948 Admiral Bakelite 24A12 cabinet a short while back.

It was intact but had been outside and was badly weathered, I also got the chassis but no CRT, knobs or back, also the safety screen was cloudy and yellow beyond use, too far gone in otherwords to be restored, at least at a reasonable cost or effort.

Sooo, I decided to retrofit it with a newer set.

I found a 2003 Samsung, 14" set with a flat CRT and set about installing it in the cabinet WITHOUT making any alterations to the cabinet itself, i.e. no holes drilled, nothing glued on, nothing cut out, the idea was to make it completely reversible in case someone 20 years from now needs a good, unbroken (albeit painted) cabinet.

The CRT was a very good fit, I'll lose about .5" on either side but who'll notice, I may even be able to adjust the scan width to compensate.

I did have to do some very light grinding inside the cabinet so the tube would slide upwards enough to center it, the amount removed was insignificant, maybe .010" on each side and only a couple inches long, I also ground an equal amount off the upper edge of the metal mounting band around the edge of the CRT to get sufficient clearance.
It only needed to slide up 1/4" and the cabinet has a taper towards the top that was preventing this.

I have to paint the cabinet to make it presentable, my options are to use dark Brown more or less like it was originally, or since it's a custom job to start with I can go with something a bit more wild.

I had planned on Red on White like a Coke Machine, maybe even some Coke Decals on the sides, cheesy yes, but so is a color conversion anyway.

For knobs I'd like to find some with the brass covers that were optional, I already have the channel selector and one small knob in that style.

Here are some pics of the cabinet in Primer and with a White base coat.
It actually looks pretty spiffy in bright white!

I don't have a picture of it assembled yet but the CRT fits perfectly flush against the opening of the cabinet, looks really darn good if I do say so myself.

The Samsung set looked like new, I don't think it saw much, if any use.
I managed to find a remote that works with it so everything will be controlled that way, I may fix up the On/Off knob so it can be turned on that way also but it would be a major pain to put all the functions up front.

I think my Wood chassis looks pretty decent, considering all I had to build it with was an air powered Jig Saw and a Belt Sander.

The studs holding the CRT in were originally the ones for the speaker.
I cut a new speaker board since the old one was rotten, I need to get some Grille Cloth, if I go with Red & White I might find something at the Crafts Store that will look OK.

The Sammy has two tiny speakers but I don't know if it was actually Stereo, it has two separate sets of wires so perhaps it is.
I was planning on using some better speakers, probably add a Tweeter too for better sound. It uses 8 ohm speakers so it should be easy to find something, or I could just stick my Realistic Minimus Sevens behind the Grille.