'56 Hoffman Color-caster
 

I just got a '56 Hoffman Color-caster that needs an electrical restoration and tube re-build. Took the cover off,Good night.....How in the world do I do this? The chassis looks almost impossible to remove and so does the tube......Does anyone here have any experience with these sets? Thanks.

I would start seeking a Sams Photofact for the set - they often gave instructions on pulling the chassis as well as the other information that will prove invaluable in your restoration.

There isn't a Sams on those, if it has the upright chassis or if it has the 19" CBS tube. However, if you didn't notice, the whole side of the cabinet comes off in one piece to expose the bottom of the chassis. Inside that cabinet panel is a schematic (or at least there was when the set was new). Both of mine have them, but they're not accessable at this time or I'd get you a photo.

The blond modern one has a visible panel that is just the size of the chassis, but the traditional mahogany cabinet version has a secret release for the whole side of the TV. Look below the chassis shelf, and you'll see a slide bolt pointing downward. As far as I remember, that one slide bolt releases the whole side.

If yours is a later model; late '56 or '57, it may have a different configuration. The early one has a control panel to the right of the screen, with the tuner on top, and 5 or 6 smaller knobs in a row down from there. The later one has a large knob at the bottom right, for on-off-vol, if I recall, and there should be a Sams on the later one.

Charles

If your Colorcaster is the earlier 21" with the removeable side panel it has the 703 chassis.IT is in SAMS folder 305-11. Hoffman also produced a later 1957 21" color receiver which was basically an RCA CTC-5 clone. SAMS 385-3.

-Steve D.

Where are you located? Helps to put that information in your profile, so we know if we can help you locally or not. :thmbsp:

Hell Paso,TX. Not the greatest place but thats where the Army put me.

Should have mentioned it in my previous post. Is there a model/chassis # on the back of the set?
Could you post a photo of the set?

Thanks,
-Steve D.

Pictures and more info are here:
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=246707

Chuck,

Thanks to Bryan for kindly steering us to the Colorcaster photos. It is the later 21" 1957 receiver. Your's looks to be the "General" console in Mahogany model M4041. I believe it has the CTC-5 clone Super chassis. The SAMS 385-3 folder will let you know. The Hoffman Colorcaster "President" series for that model year used the CTC-5 Deluxe chassis.

-Steve D.

Thanks for the info Steve. Upon closer inspection of the chassis,it looks like someone hacked some of the circuitry. I was told DO NOT plug the set in before it was checked out like I didn't know that already. I never plug a old set in without prior inspection.

Chuck,

While we refer to this chassis as an RCA CTC-5 clone, it's not a 100% clone. Hoffman did make some slight circuit mods in the chassis. Check the proper SAMS before starting restoration.

-Steve D.

Steve, I am trying to get the SAMS for this set and you have a very nice vintage TV site. Let me ask you, In your opinion, I seen the sets on your site and all look new. Would you recommend me have the cabinets on both my sets re-finished or just leave them as they are. All the cuts,scrapes and gouges or actually restore them to new condition? I don't mind them showing a little age but these are beyond that. I plan on them being on display at our new house or in "My room" as my wife calls it. She said that all my stuff like the TV's and my old Majestic are all going in one room. Kind of like a "Chill room". She has no problem with all these sets taking up room in the apt. we have for now,She even loves my 1984 Sears set I got. Says it reminds her of her childhood because her dad had a Zenith set that looks like it.

Thanks for the help guys.

I'm glad you have the later chassis... The earlier one is a little more tricky than the CTC-5-ish one.

And Steve D, I'm curious now on the Sams 305... I don't have that folder, and I think I remember 25 years ago, discovering that the Hoffman in #305 was the other chassis (in addition to the CTC-5-ish one) that was different from the two sets I had from Gary H.... There was a fellow in Sherman Oaks who had two ColorCasters, with that chassis in the Sams 305. I want to be sure I get it straight on this. Gary Miller and I beat our heads in, trying to fix a problem in the horizontal on my mahogany one... All we had was the schematic pasted inside the panel.

I was thinking that the chassis in the early ColorCasters as mine, had a mutation of the prototype chassis as in the Hoffman 15GP22 & 19" CBS-tubed sets.

Charles

Hey Chuck,

Every collector has his own thoughts on this. For instance. My CT-100 had been painted antique white by the previous owner. There was no question that I was going to strip that paint off and refinish the cabinet. My only other set, the CTC-5 is in original condition. Complete refinishing of a cabinet takes much patience, skill and experience. On the other hand, it is amazing what a good cleaning with quality furniture wax can do for old wood. And a polish up of the knobs & trim also help. You might start with some scratch remover in the appropriate color and perhaps some careful filling of gouges with a wood filler, sanding and stain. I'm no expert on this, but I'm sure there are others who may jump in with other suggestions. Your Hoffman is a rare find and you might want to keep it as original as possible. If you can get it up and running again, then try and get the cabinet cleaned up. Don't get to many projects going at once.

-Steve D.

Hi Charles,

The SAMS 305 folder is for the 21" Colorcaster with the 703A-21 chassis. I assume this is the receiver with the removable side panel as seen in the article "Installing Hoffman Color Sets" included in "Color Television" 1957 Edition. That's the paper back issue published by Radio & Television News. You may have this book in your collection. Article on page 108. If you can, please PM your regular e-mail address to me.

Thanks,
-Steve D.

Hey Steve,

Right now the Packard Bell is on a back burner for now since it does currently work. (Just a crackle in the back by the HV cage and sometimes diagonal lines on a black screen.) The Hoffman is my main thing right now. I don't know alot about old electronics so what I thought would be smarter is since it is a "Rare" find, (I'm not sure how rare it truely is. Would be nice to know.) I am going to have someone who is a pro in doing these kinds of things restore the chassis. Most I'm doing now is simply cleaning up 50+ years of dust grime and dirt. All purpose cleaner, Q-tips,paper towels and an old rag got the chassis to a real close polish. But them old circuits, Especially them old wax/paper caps are a B#$%# to clean to read them. I'm cleaning this one now since I have the chassis out and getting ready for the "Hospital". I know for a fact, The cleaner the object your working on, The easier it is. And since I know the guy and the amount of work I'm about to give him, I want everything to be easier for him. This poor set had to be in a smokers house, The speaker wires are grimy and sticky, Actually, almost all the wires are like that. Where is a place to get a new grille cloth and knobs for this set? Removing them old knobs,one broke off and the others are badly discolored and look brittle. I've decided that I'm going to have the Hoffman cabinet re-finished so she can relive her glory days. I hate seeing her like this. Cabinet beat to hell, Chassis inop, supposedly a bad tube, List goes on....But I have the determination to get all my old toys as close to new as possible. Still haven't been able to see a SAMS photofact to see how to remove the tube. It has a plastic housing that covers it that is busted in many places.

Chuck,

I doubt you'll be able to find those Hoffman knobs. They may have used the same type knobs on their B&W models. So that may help you out. Use great care removing all the knobs and trim pieces. Try some super glue to save the broken knob. Be patient. Don't pry anything that's stuck. Put the knobs in some mild dish soap w/warm water. Let them soak and use a fine toothbrush to clean them up. The grille cloth may have to be a close match. Check with Radio Daze www.radiodaze.com or Antique Electronic Supply www.tubesandmore.com/. There are other suppliers on the net. Looks like the plastic shroud that covers your 21AXP22 is in bad shape. Another junker color set, if you can find one, using the 21AX may have a good one. Or you can replace the tube with a later 21" tube. This will present some new problems in mounting the later glass tube in this set as the plastic shroud is part of the mounting hardware and probably won't work with the later glass tubes. Have your tech friend advise you on this. Color sets of this era are far more complex then B&W 50's sets. WAIT for the SAMS before removing the picture tube. Or anything else chassis wise. Lots of connections, cables ect to remove before you even loosen the chassis bolts. I know you want to get right on this. But don't hurry this project. Good luck in your restoration. I hope your tech friend has experience in repairing these vintage color sets. Not many of this model color receiver stll around. Finally, here's an article on these sets posted on the ETF site: ETF - 1957 Hoffman Colorcasters
Address:http://www.earlytelevision.org/hoffm...lorcaster.html Any other VKer's feel free to jump in on this.

-Steve D.

The Sams will go out in the mail Tuesday morning. Very, very close to the RCA CTC-5. I would have to have the schematics side-by-side to pick out differences.

As I mentioned elsewhere, it looks like the crt has already been changed to the newer type. (it has cataracts, which means they used a later bonded tube.) They may have damaged that cover in doing the conversion.

Can you take a close-up photo of the neck/socket on the crt? Would be interesting to know if it is really cracked. I need to go back and study your photos some more regardless.

Best of luck-this will be an adventure, but if I can get a CTC-5 working I guess anyone can!

Thanks bgadow. I'm hoping this restoration can go smoothly. I will get a picture tomorrow.

You'd BETTER-There's a whole bunch of us frothin' at the Mouth to see yr "new" playpretty...(grin)

Here are the pictures,Not the greatest, Had to sneak past the wife to get them.

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1061.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1060.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1059.jpg

Hope this helps.

BTW, Why is this Hoffman so "Rare and special"? I'm really curious. Is there like a registry as to how many are actually left or something?

Happened to look at some of my files and I have the original Hoffman Service Data file for chassis 706. In comparing it to the info contained in Sams 385-3, it looks to have a more detailed parts list and more detailed disassembly and alignment instructions. PM me if you are interested in getting a copy of these.

Bryan

Got some status pictures up.
Here they are in order,
Little after work began (or before I started), Close up of old caps, Chassis as it sits on the bench now, and a completed circuit board.

Its not much, But given what it was last Saturday and what it is now, It's alot.

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1063.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1066.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1064.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1067.jpg

On the last one, I know there is still some gunk on it but I got what I could without actually removing the circuits. Q-tips can only go so far.

Homina ! Homina ! Homina !...(grin)

Lol, If someone could instruct me on how to remove the tube, I can begin cleaning the cabinet and trim pieces and show ya'll.

The pc boards you show look an awful lot like the boards in my CTC-5. I think Steve D's right when he mentioned Hoffman doing a ctc-5 clone.

Got the tube out. Its a 21FJP22A Made by RCA. Date code of Nov.6 1956.
I'm uploading some pictures of it now.

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1085.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1082.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1078.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...DSCF1080-1.jpg

And my cabinet:

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1071.jpg
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...DSCF1076-1.jpg
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1075.jpg
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1074.jpg
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...DSCF1073-1.jpg
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1069.jpg

I would imagine the date code you see is stamped on the plastic crt cover? That is probably the date the cover (or maybe the set) was made. I say that because the 21FJP22A was not built until the 1960s. (edit: I couldn't see the photos when I wrote this)

The photos of the neck are good-and I don't see anything to indicate breakage. One pin looks a little bent-you just want to be careful with that one so it doesn't break. I think chances are very good that the crt is okay. If you can get ahold of pretty much any old crt tester that is still functioning, you could test it. An easy way to see if it is still under vacuum would be to connect the filament pins to 6v. A lantern battery would work fine for this. If they glow, it is at least a little alive.

The Hoffman is special because they were a relatively small company; they did not have strong national distribution. (I don't think I ever saw one around here) Plus, any color TV from the 50s is pretty rare. The only company that was cranking them out in any quantity back in '56/57 was RCA, and even they are scarce. Companies like Hoffman wanted to offer a color tv, maybe as a matter of pride as much as anything, but engineering one from scratch wasn't easy. Most outfits ended up either buying the makings of a color TV from RCA and putting them together themselves, or they licensed the design and built their own chassis.

You really did do well to find this set. You will not find many folks who have one. Fixed up nice and working, it will be worth a nice amount.

It might be when the set was made,but if so then it might...well...I don't know. It has the sticker but a different date code...Maybe the 2 tubes used the same mounting brackets but different types?

All those wax paper caps must be replaced. They are guaranteed to be bad and leaky today. But be careful of the old circuit boards, as the glue they used to hold the copper traces won't take a lot of soldering iron heat else they will peel off. What I often do is just clip the leads of the old cap right at the body of the old cap, leaving me with wire leads I can splice the new cap's leads onto. J hook method. Especially if getting to the other side of the board is difficult. Do one cap at a time, so you don't forget where what cap goes where.

The Hoffman company is still in business as Hoffman Video Systems in LA. They did make it as far east as Texas as I have several of their B&W sets. I heard that they had a plant in St. Louis MO. at one time.

I use a 25 watt iron on PC boards. This seems to work well does not damage the board. The only time I have had to use a soldier gun near the boards is to disconnect soldiered chassis ground connections as used in the Philco Seventeener, etc.

That is the date the set was made, it's stamped on the plastic High Voltage cover that someone has hacked to bits to install a glass tube. :sigh:

the 21AXP4 is a metal cone tube, hence the plastic cover.

Now Eric.............. :nono:

Charles

The chassis is cleaned and ready for restoration. I could of done more but when a wire broke off the volume control by barely touching it,I'm calling it quits. I have pictures I'm uploading soon.

Chassis overview:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1096.jpg

Another view:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1097.jpg

PC Board close up:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1099.jpg

Another view:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1100.jpg

Under chassis:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1089.jpg

Hack wire job:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1092.jpg

Another hack:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1091.jpg

Transformer or Electrolytic Leaking:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1095.jpg

Uhhhhhhhh....
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1093.jpg

What a great job at cleaning!!!! I know how much work that is, and especially if that one had the heavy waxy greasy coating on the PC boards.

Charles

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the CTC-5U (deluxe chassis) designed and manufactured by RCA. The boards are the same, the wire runs are the same, the fuse locations are the same, the HV cage and control locations are the same and the date stamp on the plastic CRT shroud is identical in style and ink "slop" to my CTC-5U. In fact, the two chassis were made within a few weeks of each other! Hoffman obviously bought the naked guts from RCA and packaged them in their own cabinet. This set should be a beauty when its been recapped and brought up to snuff!

You did an excellent job on that! Those boards are sucky to clean. The dark spots on the bottom of the board is "tube scorch" Be really careful when removing or installing tubes in those sockets as the board can crack. It's best to squirt a small amount of deoxit under the tube to loosen it up if it's tight in a socket on a burned board. The tube wiggles right out with no stress on the brittle parts. You have a great set, I look forward to seeing it work.

Doh!! I meant 21AXP22 of course. :stupid:

Just shy of using 300 Q-tips,Half a bottle of simple green,lot of scrub time,4 days of work,no free time,one really mad wife, But I got it done. Like I said,I could of done more cleaning but when that wire broke I called it good. It took alot of Folgers coffee last night to finish it. On those PC boards,I found that no matter how much you scrub and wipe them, You still get those "streak" marks on them. Ah well. The cleaning is done. Now its time to get her back to her like new/original working condition.

Got the screen surround cleaned REAL good.
However, I have some residue coming off it.

Whole thing:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1106.jpg

Close up:
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1107.jpg

Oxidation?
http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1110.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1111.jpg

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1113.jpg



And this is the flyback on my Packard Bell, Could this one be dying on me?

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1102.jpg

I found the source of my crackling,
The HV anode to the CRT in the HV cage has a crack in the insulation and is grounding to the cage.

If you look at the right side where there is no rust that is where I'm getting the electrical show.....It is such high voltage,I had it on and went to get a picture, Hit the shutter button on the camera, Friggin thing literally jumped up and bit me and grounded through the camera!

http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/DSCF1103.jpg


I'm taking both the Hoffman and PB chassis to my guy tomorrow for a full restoration and/or touch-ups depending on what they need. The Hoffman cabinet is getting done either this week or next week, If I can afford it.

I'm getting them there slowly but surely.