zenith roundie chinese cabinet
 

I spotted this set on craigslist tuesday, http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/clt/930918497.html , already e-mailed and called the guy and told him I could probably pick it up on sunday morning. My Buick isn't running, but I think tomorrow I'm just going to go and rent a van to bring it back in. After seeing that "cat box" thread in the b/w forum I'm getting worried somebody might just show up tomorrow and have similar plans for this set. Anyway, I've never seen this particular chinese cabinet before, and it looks like it also has space command.

Strike while the iron's hot, Adam ! That's GOTTA be a Rare Byrd... Hope ya get it, get it home & it has Glorious Lollipop Color...(grin)

When I saw the topic heading, I thought this was going to be some abomination of a roundie picture tube inside a black-box cabinet or something (why someone would attempt that, I have no idea, but I guess anything's possible after reading that litter box idiocy). Adam, I hope you get it, since you obviously regard a nice old set the way it SHOULD be.

Doug owns a similar one to this but in black laquer and the restoration came out quite good. Keep us posted as i hope you get it. Definately a rare one.
-Tony

what a find!

Cool to have something like that in your back yard too :yes:

Hope you snag it.

Never seen the white one!!! What a find; Congrats Adam!

Charles

Thats got to be the rarest one! That cabinet is 100% original too, with the artwork painted on it. I have a 1964 brochure and it shows this model as the "orientale". This one has the '65 control panel though, so I bet it has the 25MC33 chassis. Its a space command 400. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to get the space command 400 color remote for it too. Those 400 color remotes seem as rare as the TV's. Great find, even better that it will be saved!

OK. I rented a van, and will be on my way to pick this set up in a few minutes.

I got it back here, now I have to figure out how to get it out of the van, it weighs a ton. The people I got it from didn't even know it had a remote, so no remote. They had their whole house looking like it was the mid50s-early60s. They had even been using this Zenith as a daily watcher until recently when they had problems with it. If it wasn't for the big modern 40" crt set they got to replace this one, in the living room you would have thought it was 1964.

Great news. Glad you saved it. Look forward to seeing the pics. And yes, it is a heavy unit. The cabinet is of extremely high quality on these, no particle board to be found anywhere. The one I have supposedly cost around $1000 new from what the grandson told be through his grandfather who originally purchased it in 1963.

Suprized it was actually in use until recently. Looks like it has the original CRT too. Probably a low hour set.

Figures on the remote being gone. Seems like they never come with the TV, yet we see thousands of them on ebay........

Well, Adam, PLEASE be careful & don't hurt yrself or the TV...(grin)

Another CRT set....they must be intelligent :D

Chassis: 25MC33, Model: 6275UD. Here's the pics. It really doesn't look like it was used much, the chassis is very clean and it still has all original Zenith tubes. Also the 21FJP22 tests very good on all 3 guns. The guy I got it from said he only got it a few years ago, I'm guessing it was sitting not being used for most of it's life before that. No cataracts on the crt. The worst thing I see is where the paint came off in a few places on the top, also it is chipped on many of the corners and edges, it looks as if somebody at some point wasn't very careful moving it.

Wow, another Zenith roundie saved. That is in great shape. I bet it looks great when you get it going.

very interesting TV color version. but was produced by ZENITH or was made after by the owner?

That thing is gorgeous! Excellent save! I've never seen a white one, only the black with gold trim.

The cabinet was made by Zenith, they made two different chinese cabinets for their early color televisions that I know of, one was this white one with the designs on the front, the other a black one with just the gold striping on the edges.

Adam,
I'm glad you got it. At least we know its in good hands now. Cant wait to see a picture on it!
-Tony

Good job! You didn't happen to get any pictures of that living room, did you? (Well I guess that the owners might not have approved, but it sounds pretty incredible).

I thought about it but I didn't have a camera on me.

I pulled the chassis. The guy I got it from said that he was using it as a daily watcher for the past few years, until the breaker started going off when the tv warmed up, and this is when he decided to sell it. So the first thing I did was to check the diodes, they were good. Then the 160mfd electrolytics, not so good. I think I'm going to just replace all the electrolytics. I swapped the bumblebee caps out with orange drops this afternoon.(There were actually quite a few in this set - I wasn't expecting them in this late model of a set) I'll replace the electrolytics in a few days.

This is a real 100% Zenith produced at the factory. Zenith contracted with Drexel furniture for the cabinet, but it was all put together at the Chicago plant.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/att...0&d=1228024739

Heat sinks on the power transformer? Must get pretty hot in normal operation, no margin if there's a leaky power supply cap...

Back then we were not worried about leaky caps. Also Zenith was not replacing transformers either! It was a well designed chassis albeit obsolete for the day. Zenith would not spend the money to "modernize" their assembly line which made an expensively built chassis.

Those transformers do get pretty hot, especially after watching the set all day like I do sometimes.

Oh yes... You burn your hand if you try to carry the chassis by the transformer after the set's been running. Same with CTC-16s et al. Those transformers hold in heat like a Thermos bottle!

Charles

Clean chassis. Did you work on it, or was it that way ?

I've heard that in the prewar era Zenith has trouble with transformers being underrated; I wonder if that was still on their mind?

Not sure, but I do know they had a bad reputation for failed field coils in the prewar radios, since the field coil was also the input choke for the power supply. Any load, such as a leaky filter, would overheat and open the field coil. Shoulda put a fuse!

Charles

That was the way the chassis was when I got it.

I recapped the electrolytics and checked all the tubes. All the tubes were good, and except for the damper they were all original. I would guess this was a very low hour set. The guy I got it from said he had it shipped out to CA from Kansas a few years ago. It probably saw more use in those few years he used it as a daily watcher than it did when it was new.

pics of the chassis after I cleaned it up and recapped: http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/sh...&size=big&cat=
http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/sh...&size=big&cat=

Very Nice! So how does it play??

It's not back together yet, probably won't be for another week or so.

I got this back together. The 2 problems it has are with the color and the power tuning. It works on all 3 guns, and does sync the color, but a resistor burned out on the convergence board when I first turned it on, I tried replacing it, but the convergence is still way, way off. I can't even get good separate red, green and blue lines when I flip the service switch. I mostly get a thick bright white line that won't even go away if I turn the controls all the way down. The power tuning is a mechanical problem, I hear something going in there when I flip the switch, but it doesn't actually move the tuner.

I picked up an SC400 remote off of ebay, it arrived today. http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/sh...php?photo=5480

I made some progress on this today. I replaced 2 bad resistors on the convergence board, R192 and R193, if you're following along in the sams. Also replaced the 2 paper caps on the convergence board C124, C125. And replaced the selenium rectifiers (even though they tested ok) Now the convergence is basically good (it still needs adjustment, but it's not way off anymore) That solved one problem...
But the picture was still way too blue. And I still had a large thick blue line in the setup mode, red and green lines were ok. I started checking voltages at the crt. I checked the G2 voltages, all good. I checked the voltages at the cathodes, and they were ok. Finally, I went to check the G1 voltages and noticed that the blue wire was loose in the crt socket, I stuffed it back in the socket, and that fixed it. But I suppose I should take the socket apart (you have to drill out 3 rivets to get in this one) and solder it back on...
I still haven't looked at the power tuning.

I figured out what's wrong with the power tuning. The plastic gear on the end of the shaft coming out of the motor separated and broke in three pieces, allowing the motor to turn inside it without actually moving anything. I might try to glue it on there with some kind of heavy duty epoxy or something, but I don't have anything like that on me, I'll have to make a trip to the hardware store tomorrow. Here's a pic. http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/sh...ze=big&cat=503 You can see the upper part separated from the lower part on the shaft. It's not visible, but the lower part is also separated into 2 pieces.

Any way to get a part number for that?

The sams has a part number for the entire motor, but not just the gears.

I glued it back together, and it seems to be holding. I glued not just the plastic bits together, but also glued it all to the shaft, thinking that would make it hold together better. Like I said, it seems to work, but if I ever do need to replace it, now it won't come off so easily.

The range on the remote is greater than any other I've had, with the set in the livingroom, I can walk to the back of the kitchen (more than 20' away where there's no direct line between me and the set) and it still works. And I actually kind of like having the transistorized remote receiver, I don't have to turn it on and let it warm up before I can use the remote to turn on the set.

The reception on this set is also better when hooked to the antenna in comparison to my other roundies.

But, the uhf doesn't work at all. Turning the uhf tuning knob has absolutely no effect on the picture. Now I checked to see if there was power getting to the uhf tuner, and there was. I also plugged and unplugged the wire carrying the signal from the uhf to vhf tuner, and this does cause effects in the picture. So I'm thinking the problem has to be internal to the uhf tuner.

...

The problem with the uhf also appears to be mechanical. The tuner was frozen stuck, and rather than turning it, when I moved the controls, it just pushed the tuner at a slight angle to the gear turned by the control. So when I turned the knob, it wasn't actually moving the tuner. I won't know if there's anything else wrong until I take this apart, clean and lube it up so it turns easier, then put it all back together, but I suspect that this is it. I also need to replace the light bulb for the uhf.

I have the same problem with the gear being broken in my avatar set, I have a SC 400 black and white with a rotted cabinet that is to be the donor of a "new gear". If I run across two in my storage area that I am cleaning up this weekend, you can have the extra but there is no promise, I can't remember if I have two or not. When the motor shaft jumps out to turn the tuning gear, sometimes the teeth don't align and it breaks the gear that is now getting brittle with age. I wonder if there are any NOS replacements out there. Good luck with your set, it is a beauty.

I fixed the uhf, it was just the mechanical trouble with the tuner. But the uhf light wasn't going on, not because the bulb was bad, but from dirty contacts in the switch that turns it on.

I often wonder what will happen when the parts for these sets dry up. Now I may be in trouble if I need something like these plastic gears, but stuff like tubes are still readily available. But it's not like they're making more of many of the tubes our sets use. I want to keep using my big old color roundie consoles as daily watchers, but eventually we're all going to run out of 6GH8s and we'll all be in trouble.