Bob,

I don't know if you go to a Hamfest from time to time or are a member of a local club. What I did was buy a box of NOS electrolytic cans a few years ago at one of our club auctions. That way, I can just cut off the tabs to remove the capacitor Then I replace the steel "common" ring with a new one. However if one saws the can off, this would not work. I always un-crimp the can and pull the guts. I do really like the looks of a "stuffed" electrolytic can over placing discrete capacitors below. Maybe most of what I have done is stereo tube integrated amplifiers (HH Scott) and there is little to no extra room below deck. Takes me about an hour to do one.

Just a thought.

Glad to see progress. I love these old sets. Who Wudda Thunk that 60 years later, anyone would care about these sets?

I was able to get the larger can out through the bracket and the lower terminal strip with a bit of patience and wiggling. I removed the wires from the capacitor and straightened the mounting tabs. The smaller upper can was still in place at the time.

Gotcha. I was coming from the mindset of a half century ago when we were replacing with new off the shelf parts.

Hi All;
Bob, I took out all of the cans at once, which was a mistake for sure.. But, now I know.. So, I am Paying for that mistake now.. Live and Learn.. And I have all three manuals / schematics, Sams, Riders and RCA.. If, you do have to loosen the Transformer Screws, it shouldn't need more than about a 1/2 turn, or so.. My only thought about talking the smaller cap out first, was that it would give you some more wiggle room.. And since it has a common resistor tied to both caps, it would be easier that way.. Your choice..
THANK YOU Marty

try Mouser; on page 906 those new 12 mm E-caps too restuff the cans with!!..you can reuse the can to cover up you're restuffing!:banana::banana:Jody

I probably would have just hacksawed those caps off in place. But I'd have to take steps to protect the wiring I see down underneath, next to the transformer. Then thread new cap leads thru the rubber gasket to the cap terminals. It would look like hell, though :D

Hi All;
Personally, I wouldn't Hacksaw a Cap, to me that would be an insult to the idea of Restoration..
THANK YOU Marty

a Dremel tool with a cutoff disk would be awhole lot better:yes::D

Thanks for all the tips :yes:
Yep, already ordered them a few weeks ago :D Incredibly small, very long life (10,000 hrs), 105C and high ripple current. The best caps on the market AFAIK. Also a bit expensive but I figured this set was worth it.

I've gone back and forth between un/recrimping the cans and cutting them open. Here's an Admiral chassis I'm also currently working on with one of those new skinny caps in my hand for comparison. I used a very sharp utility blade to cut them open cleanly right at the shoulder.

I will be un/recrimping the RCA caps though.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8385/8...2725de79_c.jpg

I was able to remove that large electrolytic from my 630 just by removing the wires and solder, straightening the locking tabs, and wiggling it out. Here is how they turned out after the uncrimp, restuff, and recrimp. It certainly is a tight fit, but I had just enough room to get it out and back in.

Dave

That's how I did those cans, too. It has been so long since I did my 630 that I had to find old photos to check.

These days, I would usually cut the cans at the base, but there isn't much room for cutting there. Use a solder sucker and wiggle things, and you can get the tabs loose eventually. If you lose a tab in the process, it's not the end of the world.

Phil Nelson

You guys are lucky, your 630 had those cans at least, someone had removed them from mine and just wired in loose caps will-nilly, stuffed some of them through the fiber washer to hold them in place, others hanging in space, hacked up the wiring, it was a nightmare fixing it, luckily I had the cans from a junked set to restuff.

I just got this 630 from my tech. yesterday. He fully restored the chassis. Interestingly, while the cabinet's fine original condition would lead you to believe it had limited use, the chassis has a replacement CRT, and needed several tubes replaced. It was well used!
This is the third 630 I owned and this one will be a keeper!
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...psfbec422c.jpg

I just received a reproduction back from Amptech Systems and it's a perfect fit :)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8526/8...f477bc3e_c.jpg

I also got one for my 721TS and a custom one for my Stromberg Carlson TV12.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8109/8...d566b54b51.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8382/8...d36dfbae78.jpg

[QUOTE=bandersen;3065702]I just received a reproduction back from Amptech Systems and it's a perfect fit :)
I also got one for my 721TS and a custom one for my Stromberg Carlson TV12QUOTE]

Excellent Bob! It's amazing what is available nowadays.

Those backs are very nice.

I Love Lucy... Show #69 Lucy And Ethel Buy The Same Dress.

Looks good on a correct era set.

I've got the whole Lucy series on 16mm film.

Your good!:thmbsp:
The clarity is so much better in person on the set. We've all seen these shows many times over, but they are still great classic. Also there is no other early show the equals in picture quality with it. Desi has to be thanked for coming up with using motion picture film on them instead of 16MM kinescopes!

Desi's big beef with CBS was that he and Lucy were dead-set against moving to NYC to do the show live, then have the 'lousy' kinescopes for the rest of the country.

Since CBS owns the show, now, I imagine that they are glad they gave in to him on this.

The Arnaz family must still be getting royalties from the series. :yes:
It's been said that it's the most syndicated program ever!
Numorous foreign languanges were either dubbed in or subtitled. :D

[QUOTE=holmesuser01;3065741]Desi's big beef with CBS was that he and Lucy were dead-set against moving to NYC to do the show live.....[QUOTE]

They likely would have come to NYC to do the show with no problem, but they had just purchased their dream ranch home in Chatsworth, CA and that's what caused the resistance. The studio also did not want Desi for the part of Lucy's husband, but, once again, Lucy got her way!

Amazingly, I found a spare mahogany lid! The finish on it was miserable so I've been stripping it off. It's very thick which makes me wonder if additional layers of finish were added over the years.
I think it will look a whole lot better than the face cut walnut top it came with :yes:

If anyone is in need of a 630TS/830TS walnut top, just let me know.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8390/8...69716c54_c.jpg

I'm back to working on this set and encountered an issue right away. R150 is 150K while the schematic and parts list clearly shows it as 47K. It sure looks like the original though.
Could someone have gotten confused on the assembly line and used a 150 for R150 instead of 47 ? Or is it a production run change ?

Does anyone have a 630TS chassis handy they can check ?

It's used in a voltage divider network for the brightness control and DC Restorer.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3826/9...ac469258_c.jpg

My restored 630 (#36103) chassis has that resistor replaced with a 47K. A picture of that area before restoration has bad focus, but does look like its fuzzy colors are 47K.

Dave

Thanks. I'll go with 47K for now and see what happens.

I encountered another difference this evening - R177 is 2700 in my set but 1800 on the Rider's schematic. However, the RCA service info that came with the set shows 2700. I also notice at the bottom of the page Rider's has W93530-20 while the RCA just has W93530. Both do show 150K for R150 though.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3769/9...cd259b73_c.jpg

I've have been making progress in spite of the schematic confusion and have this section just about done. I'm surprised at all the cap brands - Aerovox, Cornel Dubilier (C-D), Sprague, Micamold, etc.
No way that electrolytic in the middle could be reformed since it's blown a gasket.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5501/9...3f6becd2_c.jpg

I assumed the cardboard cover was held on by a blob of tar and tried heating it. No luck so eventually I just torn it off and discovered some sort of varnish was used.
Oh well. I'll cut it open, restuff and fabricated a new tube from something.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7366/9...89c915a1_c.jpg

I cut the can open, unrolled the insides and found evidence of a short.
I wonder if that's why the main voltage divider power resistor was open :scratch2:
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5503/9...c1697a02_z.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3765/9...5034ab7e_z.jpg

I managed to extracate the two caps under the chassis without too much trouble.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5523/9...452b13f5_c.jpg

Most of the caps have shown signs of leakage externally and shorts internally.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/9...11957558_z.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3712/9...3ebfcbe9_z.jpg

I don't need reminding why it's not a good idea to use old dried out caps, but others might....

I managed to get them all opened up and installed new caps. Plenty of room with these "skinny" Nichicons.
Next, I'll re-crimp the bases and start the unpleasant task of reinstalling them correctly!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7453/9...325143e4_c.jpg

Hi All;
Bob, it makes me wonder, if maybe some one had tried to plug in the set, at a later time, and that caused the Cap-shorts and the Burned out Resistor-dividers.. Just a thought.. Glad you are making good progress.. It looks good..
THANK YOU Marty

Bob-

Nice work on those capacitors. I gave up on unsoldering the ones that were grounded to the chassis on my 8TS30, because I could not get enough heat on the terminals, even with a 140-watt gun. How did you do it?

I used my Weller WES51 iron with temperature controlled tip. It will pump more current into the tip to try to keep the temp up. Even so, it was just barely up to the task on some lugs. Another 10 watts or so and it'd be perfect.

I find guns to be nearly useless because the tips cool down rapidly. That includes my Weller 260 watt gun.

The biggest challenge so far in this set is actually the wiring. It appears to be waxed cloth over a tar like substance. That tar has gone rock hard over the years and is very brittle. I can make the wires pliable by gently warming them with a heat gun but as soon as they cool down, they're rock hard again. Too much heat and the tar oozes out.

I've been using Sprague "orange drops" when they'll fit. Otherwise axial Mallory caps.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7303/9...090e2af8_z.jpg

I've made a couple concessions to modern components so far.

One is this 5K, 5W resistor which had already been replaced with a big dogbone. The modern replacement is so small and brown it's hardly noticeable anyway.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5337/9...3e0fe5bf_z.jpg

The other are the AC line bypass caps. I expect these old Micamolds would make a nice bang if I tried to use them.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2878/9...d73065f2_z.jpg

I've reached about the halfway point :)
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5342/9...7f4e4b0f_c.jpg

Re: different branded caps: the set was postwar and the manufacturers were cranking out radios and televisions as fast as they could after the war's shutdown of consumer electronics: I suspect they bought parts from wherever they could find them, as also seen in sets using a mix of styles of tubes.

That makes sense. I've also found some resistors in parallel to get the right value.

Might as well polish before installing. No more yellowy nicotine tinge.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5458/9...283551ed_z.jpg

Here's another puzzler. This 150K resistor isn't shown in the RCA or Riders service info.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2806/9...03ac51c0_z.jpg

I did find it in the Sams but it says for 630TCS (console) version only :scratch2:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2879/9...435615c1_z.jpg

Tight quarters down in this area so I decided to pull the control out.
I found a 330K that read 3.3M lurking down in there,
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3684/9...2708fed6_z.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3788/9...8c63e1c4_z.jpg

That is a tricky area on these sets, especially when you're restuffing and have to put those big caps back into the set. I wish I had thought of removing the control when I was working on mine.

It definitely helps, but it's still tricky.

I've taken a break from under the chassis to finish cleaning the topside.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3704/9...3c2f2c38_c.jpg

I discovered this trap slug had broken loose and gives me a chance to see what's inside. So glad it didn't get lost or damaged!
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5327/9...97bcdab8_c.jpg

Bob, how do you recommend repairing that broken trap slug? I have a broken one on my Crosley too. In fact, think it's the exact same one that's broken too.