The plan was to have the seller disassemble and pack the set into 3 boxes. Since she has sold, packed and shipped sets like this before and her feedback indicates great success, I'll trust her and UPS Ground with $1,000/carton insurance. She has sold quite a few other sets (RCA 630TS & 8TS30's, Crosley 9-408's, Fada TV30's 799's) and I know that she knows what she's doing. Honestly, there are 2 individuals I'd trust to pack this set correctly ... Tim from this forum, and Sharon who sold me this set. Honorable mention goes to Dan for selecting a professional who did a nice job of packing my 630TS for its recent safe arrival.

...

Here is my Admiral 19A15 which is the same as the 19A11 but with a wood cabinet.

This was a $40 basket case from eBay or so I though till I got it home and found out it worked!
I refinished the cabinet (it was water stained on one side but bleached out pretty well) found some knobs and a back and Viola!

Eric

OK, I see that I am only posting 0.17 times per day so here is another picture.

This is an Admiral 24X12 10" it has been electrically restored for the most part and works.

I will always remember the day I won the auction for this set on on eBay: 9/11/01 :(

OK, here's something more colorfull :)

Two 1957 GE/Hotpoint 9" sets. A cheaply made little piece of junk with the crappiest Picture tubes know to man!
Oh well, they do work, the Red one has a Rejuvenated tube and produces a really good picture, The green one has a 40 year old Rebult tube and produces a so-so picture. I also have one in black but it doesn't work because the crummy picture tube is bad :mad:

OK, I'm up to 0.24 per day :cool:
Here's another picture of a bunch of Electostatic sets.

Note the big Curtis Mathes combo they are sitting on, what was I thinking when I bought that :dunno:

All hail Eric! Oh, hail Eric, the keeper of the technology that runs on the same stuff of the universe, the vacuum. ;)

Great pics, great sets dude!

Rob

Here's more news about my collection. I just acquired another Channel 1 set (a Fada 899) which is on its way from RI. This set is a little rough, but it's essentially complete except for one knob. Unfortunately, some unexpected car repairs since winning that auction have forced me to list my Crosley 9-408 a few months before I had planned to sell it. I'm almost finished with the restoration of my Fada TV30, though (new Width coil is on the way, repro hv cage under construction, repro back is here). I expect to have the TV30 working next week. My RCA 630TS will likely be my next project, followed by my Fada 899 and Fada 799. I'll be buying another box of assorted knobs for $20 from a local tv repair shop next week. As much as I hate to sell these sets from a collector's standpoint, I really love being able to make a living by restoring vintage tv sets.

Here's my 630TS, also. As I said before, I haven't started its restoration yet. This one will need one of my reproduction backs, a Channel knob, a Fine Tuning knob (notice that someone has moved the Brightness knob set to the channel selector shaft), a safety glass and a safety glass bottom bracket. I plan to have reproductions of the glass and bracket made by having the safety glass and brackets from my Fada 799 (which are identical) duplicated.

The safety glass is *almost* identical, anyway. What I'll need to do is have a piece of glass cut to the shape of the 630TS face using the same type and thickness of glass as the Fada 799 safety glass. Does anyone have reproduction safety glass available for either model?

John,

Thanx for sharing. You sure are going that extra mile to restore these early marvels.

A good glass and mirror shop that has a wet belt sander can make these glass windows for you. They won't be tempered safety glass though as you cannot cut that stuff, it just explodes. I don't see this as a problem.

Rob

My goal is to preserve as many of these sets as possible for posterity. There were many variations on the same theme (630TS/8TS30 chassis) in that era. Each one, although a variation on the same original design, is unique in its own way. I even saw a 12" set based on the same 30-tube RCA chassis design recently. How many of us know the difference between a 1948 8TS30 and a 1948-1/2 8TS30? As I see it, virtually any set with an unmolested chassis and structurally-intact cabinet is a viable candidate for restoration. I'd rather re-wind a transformer than sacrifice another viable chassis as a "donor" unless several other vital parts had already been harevested from the donor chassis.

My latest auction find, Philco 48-700 straight from the house. Love to find them with all the 50 year old dust covering the chassis, I know I'm the first to look inside in a lot of years.

I brought it up on the variac and got a small raster on the CRT, until the telltale sound of an electrolytic getting ready to blow.


Chuck

Chuck,

That may be the best condition 48-700 Philco I've seen. Good score!

Yes, seeing the carpet of original dust build-up inside is reassuring that the chassis hasn't been messed with.

Rob

Here's the Philco 48-700 after restoration. Again it seems like I put in a thousand caps. Only had one bad electrolytic.

I had to do some actual troubleshooting on the horiz and vertical output sections, a bad bias resistor on one of the vertical output tubes and a bad resistor in the plate circuit of the horizontal driver tube.

Chuck

Here's my latest eBay find. It's an RCA. The model number wasn't in the listing, but it looks like an 8-T-241. Since it's relatively close, I'll be picking it up this week to save shipping costs. From there, I'll be storing it temporarily until its turn on my workbench comes around.

Has anyone ever seen a picture tube shield like this one? It weighs over a pound and is almost 3/16" thick. This thing could shield a nuclear blast.

It rests on a rubber ring at the base of the tube and 3 rubber pieces glued onto the bulb of the tube.

Chuck

ChuckA,

That's Philco for you. They apparently couldn't find a loctal base CRT so they had to do something else strange. :)

No, I've never seen a 7JP4 shielded quite like that.

Rob

Chuck that tube shield is amazing!

my Philco 50T-700/702 sets have a stout shield but it's only about half that thick, they also have a spring thingy that slips inside to hold it snug.

Eric

My latest eBay prize!
 

Here's the latest addition to the collection.
Picked this beauty up on eBay for $19 +$10 Fed Ex:D
Didn't need it, got 3 more like it but hey $19!! couldn't NOT bid on it.

CRT checks like new and it's in really good condition except for the plastic screen for which I have a spare.

Has a raster but no sound or video, not even any snow, may just be missing a voltage somewhere (tubes checked OK)

Eric

Hi Folks, I am Charlie and just joined this forum you guys have going here. I've gathered a small handfull of sets over the years, and wanted to share with you. I have been looking at the ones you guys have here, and they all look fantastic!

ERIC H....

I see that big Curtis Mathes set you have! Well, it was kinda hard to miss <laugh>. May I take a stab at your set having the "8E" chassis? (Sams 615-1) I have the same set pictured below, but in a different style. This was the first TV that started my collection, and the first set I learned to work on. For a beginner, I found it very easy. The chassis was a breeze to go through. The picture I ended up with came out pretty good. The stereo in this thing rocks! Has a very impressive speaker system in it. I changed the "creepy eye" 6E5 tube in the stereo with the 1629 and adapter, still had the origional Curtis Mathes 6E5 in it. The cabinet my set is in has a very nice finish to it. This has been my daily watcher now for 7 years, and has been trouble-free. That big cabinet is sturdy for stacking, as you have also demonstrated with your Curtis Mathes picture!

Charlie,

Welcome aboard! That is a really fine console. I see some really large woofers hiding behind those grilles. Can you tell us more about the speakers and audio amp in that beauty? There are a few people here at audiokarma who are interested in sound equipment. ;)

How about posting pics of your other sets too.

Thanx for sharing.

Rob

Hey Rob

Thanks for the welcome!

The Curtis Mathes pumps up the volume with 12" inch woofers, and the accompaning mids/tweeters. Sound is pushed out with a set of 6BQ5's. Unfortunately, the tv is not putting out its sound in stereo, but the quality of the sound is so impressive that a person might not notice. The amp has inputs for an aux, so, I plug in a CD player there from time to time. It has a very clean sound. I would have never expected something from 1963 to play so well.

A few years back, I came across a guy that had 3 CM multiplex adapters that I picked up for 20 bucks. One of them had never been out of the box, and was the correct unit to connect to this system. Now, I can listen to the FM in stereo. I have saved the other two mpx adapters. So Eric H, if you are reading this, I think I have another mpx adapter that will probably fit your CM system... if you don't have one already.

There is my predicta. I got it from a man here in town. I spent some time on this to get it running, and learned very quickly that these are a pain to work on! It plays now, but still needs a few tube sockets changed out and the flyback could use some dope to fill in the cracks of the insulation. Of course, you see one Predicta, you see 'em all. I assume that the stand-up barber poles are easier to work on.

I have a late 50's wooden Magnavox 17" with chassis V2704AA. I found this in a junk shop in town, and couldn't understand how it got there! This set looks almost mint! The inside was extremely clean and nothing had been changed other that a few tubes. It played ok when I got it home, but I changed a few coupler caps and the picture became more stable. The picture now is really good... only thing i need to do to it is turn the deflection yoke just a hair. The front has alot of shiny trim to it, but I feel that they could have used more attractive knobs. This set was supposed to have legs, so I plan to get some made one day.

Also below is a Motorola 21" that a relative gave me. I think it is from 1959. It needed new tubes in the tuner. I went thru all of the caps and tubes, but it still have a sync problem. The stronger the signal, the worse the sync. I thought maybe the AGC needed to be turned down, but this set has no provision for adjusting the AGC. It has a copper chassis (TS564). I have always liked the styles of Motorola TVs and radios. I think they are easy to pick out in a crowd. I feel that this set will put out a great picture once the sync is fixed. .

On top of the Motor is a Telefunken Jubilate 105 radio I got while driving thru New Mexico. It just needed a little cleaning on the inside. The cabinet has a very attractive grain in the wood and a very shiny finish. It is loaded with Telefunken 12AX7's.

Below the Motor is a Magnavox record player with wood cabinet. A friend gave me this one, although record players are not something I look for. I think the amp in it runs on 6V6's. Has good sound to it, but I think it runs a hair slow.

My Sentinel is there as well. Found it in Houston and probably paid too much for it. It plays, but needs work. I have not messed with this one yet. One day I will get in there to see what it needs. Probably needs caps.

Hope you guys like the sets below.

Charlie,

The 6AQ5 was a popular small power tube for hi-end consoles in the 60's and some all tube integrated amps and receivers. As long as you stayed under 18 watts they could sound really good. The 6V6 octal is another great output tube in the low power class.

That 21" Motorola set on the wooden turned legs looks similar in design to a 1965 RCA color set I have which I havent had a chance to start restoring yet. It's H. output tube hot plates.

Please put any pictures of your vintage radios in the Antiquities Forum as we just deal with TV here.

Great pictures! Thanx,


Rob

Stereo conversion
 

Charlie-
You can have stereo out of that TV! Of course the obvious way is to buy a cheep stereo VCR and hide it inside, but if you want to do something really cool, take one of those extra multiplex units and modify for TV. You need to retune the coils for something around 15 kHz (I forget the exact frequency) instead of the 19 kHz used by FM. I used a Dyna FM3 for this purpose many years ago when stereo VCRs were more than $600. The coils can not be tuned that far by themselves, and you will need to add parallel capacitors across the windings.
The other thing you will have to do is to remove de-emphasis capacitor on sound output detector in tv audio which filters out the required 15 kHz stereo pilot signal. Good Luck!

Dave

That's a good idea, converting an old FM-MPX decoder to operate with MTS tv audio, BUT, remember that MTS audio's L-R component is compressed with dbx noise reduction and must be re-expanded to sound right. Many cheap tv sets and vcr's use a cheaper circuit to achieve the required expansion, but they do re-expand the dynamic range of the L-R component before it reaches the matrix that reconstructs the L and R signals from the L+R and L-R components. The MTS pilot tone is 15.734kHz (same as the horizontal sweep rate), by the way. Did you know that b/w sets originally used 15.750 kHz as the horizontal sweep frequency and 60Hz as the vertical? When color sets were introduced, the sweep rates were slightly altered to 15.734kHz and 59.97Hz respectively to eliminate some pesky interference that was a byproduct of the chroma channel.

Hi Charlie, nice to know I'm not the only one crazy enough to have one of these monsters!

I don't know which chassis it has but I have an extra one because for one day I owned TWO of these things.

The second one never made it off the truck, It was a beater with a bad CRT and the cabinet was junk so I stripped out all the guts and busted the cab small enough fit in my trash can.

I found this one at a thrift store for $15 and it is near pristine!
The CRT is somewhat weak but watchable, the tuner was messed up so I had it rebuilt. I haven't done much with it since, it works but needs some caps.

Mine doesn't have the eye tube, it has the CM logo in that spot on the dial. Is the octal socket on the back of the radio where the multiplexer plugs in?

Eric

Eric H
 

Yeah, I would have done the same as you... keep the better cabinet of the two, and get the guts out of the other. It takes a big house with many rooms to keep more than one of those. They are nice looking pieces if you have a spot for it somewhere.

The model numbers on the TV and stereo chassis are stamped on in ink. If I remember right, the model of my stereo is 29C. You must have a slightly different model if your stereo doesn't have the "creepy eye". Too bad, because it would display really cool on the front of your system. I kinda wish mine was on the front like yours instead of the top. Then I could stack more stuff on the cabinet without having worry about getting to the slide doors on top! My cabinet looks more "old fashioned" and yours looks more "modern" for the early 60's

Yes, the octal socket on the back of the stereo is for the MPX adapter. Also, there will be 3 rca connections. If yours still have the labels on them, one should say MPX out and the other two should be MPX in. Yours would probably use the same adapter as mine as I assume that they probably had one adapter that covered several different stereo models. My uncle told me this was a pretty pricey system when he bought it. You would think that the MPX would have come with it instead of being an "optional accessory".

Another set of RCA's back there are for the tape input, which should be the 2nd position on your front selector switch. I plug my cd player in there and it sounds great.
:boink:

Charlie COOL TV's!!
 

COOL TV Sets!!
Some very COOL collectible sets you have! Looks like there are in very good shape.I do not have much more room,but collecting these would be a great experience!

madpioneer
 

Mark...

We never have enough room! But somehow, we always manage! Glad you like the sets. There are SEVERAL cool sets in here... and in the color set thread as well. I especially liked seeing Mr. Spock on that round picture tube! :)

My 8TV41 console. TV / Phono / AM-FM-SW radio.

This one was a bear to get working, the horizontal wouldn't lock up. Ended up being an open 2.2 ohm resistor in the filament circuit to the 6AL5 Synchrolock discriminator, which is inside the HV cage - hidden from view, and the resistor is next to the tuner - go figure!

Chuck

Chuck, that is a fantastic set!

I just picked up a 721-TS Here are a couple pics of the chassis.

It looks like it hasn't been touched in decades

http://www.vintagetvsets.com/images/721dirty2.jpg

And this is after cleaning it with a brush and vacuum cleaner

http://www.vintagetvsets.com/images/721clean2.jpg

Eric

Eric,

Looks like a nice set, chassis wise. How's the cabinet condition?

Missed one of those on Ebay the other morning, $75 buy it now, and just a few miles from home.

Did you get the schematic for it? If not I can scan it in a few pieces and email to you.

Chuck

Chuck,

That is one heck of a nice console. Looks H E A V Y. Congrats on the restoration.

Rob

Eric,

That 721 chassis sure came clean. No corrosion either. Bonus! :) I have a 721 also but haven't had a chance to look inside yet. It is just on display as-is. Your photo shows the first electromagnetic ion trap I've ever seen. Amazing! I guess my set has one too.

I can scan the 721 schematic for you if needed from my Riders TV if it is in there (probably is). Let me know.

Rob

I also have a schematic for the 721TS. I have two Sams libraries (1-2284 and 1-1871) and will be listing the smaller of them (1-1871) on eBay soon.

Finally got a somewhat viewable picture on this "small" set so I thought I'd share with the group a set you would have watched sporting events at your local tavern around 1947.

This is a US Television T-525 projection set, the picture is 25" x 19", it stands just over 6' tall. The design is surely pre-war as all tubes are octal except for the modified tuner which uses miniatures and the addition of an add on chassis for horizontal sync. The power supply is one step above a brute force type from pre-war, uses an RF oscillator and tripler putting out 30KV.

Here's a picture from the T-525. The mirror is dull so the picture is dim and a bit fuzzy. I have some new front surface mirrors from modern projection sets that I'll try and cut down and use.

Rob, I have a Sams now, I copied it from the Library.

The set is giving me fits trying to get the vertical sweep to work :(
I have replaced many of the small caps and checked resistors and transformers but still no luck. I just ordered all the Lytics from Mouser, I think I wiil change those before I try anything else.

Eric