Completed RCA 630 TS Restoration
 

As promised, here is a link to a very abbreviated photo monatage that summarizes a 6 month saga to a nearly ground-up restoration of my RCA 630 TS.

Enjoy...

LJB 8)

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p...edium=text_url

Woah !! That thing looks like its brand-new, outta the box ! Great job !

Wow, spectacular, and inspirational as well, I just got one and would love to do as nice a job.

What did you do to make the chassis look so nice, is it paint or?

The pictures hardly do the TV justice. Refinishing & restoration is my forte. The Chassis looks as it does because I removed as many components as I could, and individually cleaned/emory papered/polished/painted them all. The top of the Chassis is just cleaned, not replated or painted. The sides of the chassis were emory papered, tacked, and dusted with an aluminum-based paint just enough to cover, but, not look like paint.

All the shields, brackets, transformers, cages, covers, etc were cleaned, sanded, refinished with the appropriate finish. I masked and preserved all stamps, parts numbers, inspection marks, etc on the Chassis and the Cabinet.

The Cabinet was completely disassembled, stripped, vineers reglued, etc with the appropriate agents and finishes. It was NOT overrestored, i.e, shiny on the inside of the cabinet, etc. All production marks and stamps were reapplied. All Labels were recreated via Photoshop of the origionals, or of other 630 TS's. Phil Nelson supplied the images of the "Eyewitness" and the Serial Number labels. My chassis still had the rest of them. But, the "Golden Voice" label we located on line, and Barbara, my GF, resized it to the proper dimensions. All Labels were digitally cleaned up and printed with the correct colors. Decals were repros for. a 621TS, and were applied. You can pick your teeth in the cabinet's finish. 8 coats, hand rubbed down to 2000 grit emory paper.

The Electronics were, of course, the most challenging. This set was modified down thru the years, and I reverted it back to it's stock, early/mid production condition. I did not restuff caps, figuring this was my first TV restoration, and better to take it easy. But, above the Chassis, it appears bone stock. I replaced all 15 electrolytics and about 70 various caps. All Tube Caps were, obviously, replaced. The 1500 mmf mica caps were left alone. A goodly amount of the high value resistors were replaced with flame proof ones. They don't appear above the chassis. All the old electrolytic cans were left in place. Wafer Boards below support the new electrolytics.

There's a lot I left out. Been working on this set for 6 months, and, it's finally complete, right down to the stickers. Still have a minor drifting problem with the picture, but, I'll get that tomorrow with some freeze spray.

Now I'm looking for ANOTHER TV to completely restore. It's a disease...

LJB:smoke:

Nice! :thmbsp: I've got a customer in Pittsfield that has one of those, and was eager to get it completely restored. Then I told him what it would probably cost him. End of story--at least for now.

Some day or another I might take this up as a hobby again, but working in a music store as electronics technician soured me some. Some day.... :sigh:

But I'm just the same impressed with what you have done, and my hat's off to you.

Good luck with your freeze mist in locating the horiz AFC drift problem. :thmbsp:

...oh, and sharp eyes will notice the speaker grille cloth is non-stock. I could not locate the stock material, or a repro. I picked an RCA Speaker Cloth from a bunch of swaths because it's gold & black pattern harmonized with the Cabinet's color and finish, and because the Bakelite Switch's Decals were the same colors.

The Serial Number Tag on the back, is NOT in the usual location (under the High Voltage Cage) because this set has a Keyed AGC where this label usually goes. As near as I can figure, it was installed at the Factory, as the wiring, caps, resistors, etc all look stock vintage. The Serial Number Tag went on the wire would resistor cover. If anybody knows where it really goes, I'd like to know...

LJB:smoke:

PS: I'm ordering a bunch of DVD's of Newsreels from the 40's thru 60's. They'll look great on the 630TS. Also, I'm getting a bunch of Nuclear Bomb 40's and 50's stuff.

"Duck, and Cover!"

The serial tag usually goes below the high voltage cage.

Yeah, I know. But, as far as I can tell, this TV left the Factory with the Keyed AGC Pot on the back panel, right where the Serial Number Plate goes. I placed it in the only logical place I know, the Resistor Cover. If anybody knows where it would go, let me know.

I don't mind it where it is now. I knda like it...

LJB:smoke:

OK, I get what you mean now, where does it go on a chassis with the agc controls, that I don't know.

I have one other 630 chassis I could look at but it's not easy to get to right now, I think it had the usual setup anyway.

OK, I found this picture I grabbed from eBay a long time ago, it has the tag next to the resistor box where you have the Eyewitness tag.

This set doesn't have an eyewitness tag so perhaps it was located on the back instead of the chassis?

The 8-T-243 and the T-120 have both the Golden Throat and the Eyewitness tags glued to the back, someone here or at the ARF must have an original 630 back they could check.

Edit, my 630 has the Eyewitness tag in the same location as yours but it has the serial tag in the normal spot, I don't have a back, what does it mean, I haven't a clue, I'm totally confused now...
Maybe the AGC sets got the other tags on the back instead of the chassis.

Yeah, that Chassis looks like mine. I can barely see the "Golden Voice" Label on the corner of the Wooden Cabinet's floor, so, that goes where it always goes. Notice the Black Hi Voltage Cage. That's like mine. Earlier ones were Dark Bronze, I believe.

Looks like they just omitted the "Eyewitness" Label, and put a Serial Number Tag there instead. Christ, and Barbara, My GF, spent soooo much time repro'ing it.

LJB:smoke:

Ah! Noticed something on the back of that Set.

There is the remains of a "UL Approved" circular label on the back of the metal Chassis.

Anybody have a digital close-up shot of that, intact? I want to repro it for my Set.

Thanks!

LJB:smoke:

Here are some shots.

"Mmmmmmm....Early Production 630 TS....!"

LJB...Making Homer Simpson Sounds:smoke:

PS: Thank You!

You would think so based on the components, but with a serial number of 030360 I would think this is a later chassis?

Darryl

Yeah, I was going to ask you what the S.N. was. The Chassis S.N. all begin with "C", regardless of what Model it was (?)

I'm told the Single Top Brass Clip signifies an early production 630TS. Keyed AGC came mid production (?) and some, like mine (serial number unknown) has both.

LJB:smoke:

Uhmmm...begging your pardon, but isn't that RCA tm "Golden Throat" ....?

If you ever get mad at that 630 & decide that it MUST leave, I'd love to give it a home where it'd be loved, petted, played with 'n' called "George"...An' I ain't too persnickety about the decals, Golden Throats, Deep Throats, none o' that...(grin)

Darryl, I have serial #30300, with some 17000 odd 621's thrown in to the mix I would think 30,000 would be a fairly early production set.

I have a picture of a 630 with a serial in the 10,000 range and have been told of a 621 in the 20,000's.

I've been told the "C" stands for the Camden N.J. plant.

But, She is already getting all that attention, and more. It would be like giving away a member of the Family.

Every square inch was restored. I can't let Her go.

I'm looking for a Playmate for Her...Any Suggestions on a next TV Project?

LJB:smoke:

PS: Christ, I have it Bad...

Yup...I misspoke.

LJB:smoke:

Go for it...Gitchoo a Fifties color set & give it "The Treatment"...

:lmao: The Abominable Snowman! Memories..... :D

"Gosh...It's Hot !"

A.S.

It makes sense, from a Warranty standpoint, that the Serial Number Label should be to the right of the Resistor Cover, ON the Chassis itself, and NOT on the (removable & potentially swappable) Resistor Cover. I'll make up a fresh Serial Number Label, and put it on the Chassis, to the Right of the black cover. On AGC Sets, looks like NO "EyeWitness" Label appeared anywhere on the Chassis.

...unless, SOMEONE out there has a pic of one.

LJB:smoke:

Thanks for the info Eric. 30,000 seemed like a high serial number, but if this run included the 621, then it is kind of low. Interesting that our sets are only 60 apart!

BTW, very nice job on the restoration LJB.


Darryl

Thanks, Darryl.

LJB:smoke:

621TS seems like the ideal companion. Even prettier, takes up less space, and the electronics should hold no mysteries after this project.

You may already have read about Hugo Holden's 621 remanufacturing project on the ETF website.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/holden_621.html

Going to those lengths is not to my taste, but there's a lot of good information in that article.

A 621 will cost more upfront than a 630, but if you pay yourself $1 per hour during the restoration, you can earn back that investment in no time :-)

Good job on this project. If you run out of things to do, you can finish my incomplete RCA CTC-11 color roundie, which has been languishing on the workbench.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Yup. A 621TS would be nice. If you know of a good restoration candidate, let me know.

By The Way, both You and Hugo Holden were the inspiration for my Project. As you can see from the finished resto, I closely followed both of your work.

Thanks!

LJB:smoke:

Ummmm. I have an RCA T-100 in the cellar with an "A" before the serial Number. Built in Camden, NJ.

The Prefixes must stand for something else.

LJB:smoke:

How do you know it was built there, is it stamped on the chassis or marked ?

It says "Camden, NJ" on the Serial Number Label, you know, the Silver one, glued to the back of the metal chassis.

LJB:smoke:

I think it says Camden on the label because RCA was based in Camden.

From what I was told the first letter of the serial denotes which plant it was built in. I don't know what "A" would mean, perhaps Albany?
I'm going to try to find out though.