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Motorola 16CK1 restoration complete
I am pleased to present the finished restoration of my Motorola 16CK1 to the collector community.
I acquired this set last fall from a couple in Naperville Ill. The set was purchased NEW by her father who worked for the railroad. He an avid techno geek during his day. He stored the set away for many years and when he pass away a couple years ago, the daugher kept the set from being tossed out. She had the set stored in her garage and decided to put it up for sale last fall and I was the fortunate person to acquire it. The seller had a sentimental attachment to her father's old tv set and so I promised that I would restore it to good as new condition; and that it would live on as an important collectable in my collection for many years to come, and long after I have passed on. So here it is. Now a little about the restoration. The cabinet was in good physical condition.. No damage to the veneer but the finish was very poor. So first order of business was to dismantle everything down to the raw cabinet. Then I took the carcass to a fellow that I know who does furniture refinishing on the side. He hand stripped the set and refinished it. It is just beautiful. Cost $180 and worth every penny of that. Motorola sets always have had a bit of Glitz about them visually, and this set was no exception. On both the right and left side of the cabinet, there is a full length, zinc, die cast column. There is also a zinc die cast control door in the center of the set. All of these zinc castings were originally given a cheap finish. They were originally polished and then nickel plated and sprayed with a tinted yellow lacquer to simulate a "brass" like finish. Well to make a long story short, the fake brass finish was in very bad shape. So I sent the two side columns and the control door to a company that I use in a small town in Iowa. The company is The Antique Service Center. They have a web site and you can find them if you google the name of the company. They restore and refinish old hardware items like hinges, drawer pulls, lamps and other assorted antique hardware. I had them refinish the parts for the Moto in a beautiful satin brass finish. They turned out wonederful and look better than the day Motorola put them on the set. Cost $170. The horizontal aluminum panel behind the control door, was sprayed with a tinted lacquer too, and it had faded. I resprayed it with lacquer that I custom tinted to approximate the brass finish on the control door and the side columns. The knobs had the common knob fungus. I cleaned them and posished them with polishing compound. The left and right center knobs were missing the brass inserts. I plowed through 15 boxes of knobs and came up with some knobs that had the correct brass insert. I removed the inserts, stripped and posished them, and then transplanted them onto the original Motorola knobs. Then the knobs were sprayed with clear gloss lacquer (Ace brand in a spray can) and force dried with a blow dryer. The original grill cloth was very dirty and faded. But it was in otherwise good physical condition with no rips or tears. I was able to remove the cloth from the speaker board, and I cleaned it in hot water and concentrated Oxy Clean. A ton of brown liquid came out of the cloth. After that I blocked it to prevent shrinkage and let it air dry. Unfortunately it was badly faded and I needed to do something about that. I got several bottles of liquid Rit Dye in some colors that were appropriate and mixed up a batch that was sort of burgundy colored. I like the way it looks on the set, however the dye also stuck to the metalic threads woven into the material and now the sparkles are no longer visable. Oh well, you can't have everything, and it looks fairly nice in any event. And if you know me, I am not a stickler for originality. If it's original and looks like crap, I don't want it. It has to look great and I don't care if it isn't original. It was now time to tackle the usual re-cap of the chassis. It was a fairly easy re-cap job because this chassis is well laid out and has plenty of room to work. One nice feature is that the entire chroma section is on a verticle sub chassis that is easily removable from the main chassis. It made re-capping the chroma chassis a breeze. I also removed and restuffed all the cans. The chassis uses the old selenium rectifiers and I bypassed those and installed silicon diodes. Installing the diodes caused the original sub standard B++ of 362vdc, which the inefficient selenium rectifiers were producing, to go to over 475vdc. Because the only schematic of this set in existance has no voltages, John Folsom and I took a guess that somewhere around 425 to 430vdc was probably more appropriate so I added a 7.5 ohm 25W resistor in series with the output of the transformer to put us in the range of what we wanted. Ultor voltage regulation on this chassis was originally done with the infamous Victoreene Corotron gas voltager regulator tube. I sent the one from this set off to my buddy John Fosom and he put it on his high voltage DC power supply and found it to be regulating at around 16KV, 3 KV to low. Of course Victoreene Corotrons are pure unobtanium, and so I needed to develop a work around for this issue. I decided that I would rob the circuit design from the RCA CTC2 and use a 6BK4 for the task of regulating the HV. Fortunately there was some extra room in the HV cage where I could mount an elevated socket and there was a nice spot on the rear of the chassis inside the HV cage where I could mount a control. I also created a new HV shield around the 3A3 rectifier and corona cup made from Plexiglass. I mounted the 160 meg resistor from the high voltage divider network in a small length of plexiglass tubing and mounted it along side the flyback. The flyback was in good operating condition and runs cool cool cool. After bringing the set up on the variac I was getting a raster. I set the new voltage regulator pot for 19KV at zero brightness, which is spec for the 15GP22. At 19KV I was getting lots of corona hissing from the crt. I later found out that it was caused by being dirty. I eliminated the corona hiss all together by simply removing the crt and the protective plastic HV insulator from around the crt, and cleaning both the crt and the inside and outside of the plastic insulator with lacquer thinner and paper towels. The lacquer thinner removed a heavy layer of brownish residue (possibly cigerette smoke), and after I put it back together ALL the HV hissing was gone. From here on in it was a lot of tweeking of the traps and transformers to get a good picture. Convergence is acceptable, but not perfect, but it is as good as it is ever going to get on this particuar set. Another nice feature is that the crt is mounted on a crt truck which allows the removal of the crt from the cabinet. The chassis is removable from the crt truck and so you can have the chassis and the crt sitting on your bench side by side with extender cables running from the chassis to the crt truck. This seperation of crt and chassis, make it very easy to work on the chassis LIVE with the crt right next to you, as if you had a 15GP22 color crt test jig. After I was satisfied that it was working pretty well I hauled the crt truck up to the living room and installed it in the cabinet. Then I followed it with the chassis and hooked it all up. I did some last minute tweeks and hooked up a converter box outputing chanel 4 and with some final adjustments (about 3 hours worth) I was finally happy. And I am not a person that is easily made happy. All in all I have to say that the effort was well worth it. It is producing a very pretty picture. The screen shots don't do it justice. I tuned in a golf match on NBC this afternoon. The colors were "Knock your Socks" beautiful. And even the graphics are readable if they are of decent point size. So I guess that's it. I hope you enjoy the photos and if you are ever in Milwaukee, I will be happy to demo the set for you. See ya at the ETF Convention! Bob FRONT VIEW AS RECEIVED http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/DSC00725.jpg TOP VIEW AS RECEIVED http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/DSC00727.jpg CONTROL DOOR AS RECEIVED http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/DSC00726.jpg SIDE VIEW AS RECEIVED http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/DSC00728.jpg RE-CAPPED CHASSIS ON THE BENCH http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0065.jpg TOP VIEW OF 6BK4 MOD http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0063.jpg SIDE VIEW OF 6BK4 MOD http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0060.jpg FRONT VIEW OF CRT TRUCK http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0066.jpg SIDE VIEW OF CRT TRUCK http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0067.jpg COMPLETED SET REAR VIEW http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0070.jpg COMPLETED SET FRONT VIEW http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0071.jpg OPERATING WITH COLOR BARS http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0083.jpg OPERATING WITH CROSS HATCH http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0081.jpg SCREEN SHOT WITH LETERING DETAIL http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0086.jpg SCREEN SHOT OF NBC LOGO http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0090.jpg |
gotta love it!i could watch that set all day.great find and a super restoration with no detail left out.crt looks very good and the convergence is as good as i ve seen on something of this vintage.amazing!
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That's a really cool set. Does it have two Flybacks?
Maybe it's just laid out differently but it seems so much less complicated than a CT-100 chassis, from the back you might think it was a B&W set. |
No Eric. Just one flyback. The flyback has two windings. The lower coil you see is the primary, and the upper "donut" winding is the secondary high voltage winding. I like the design and having the primary seperate from the secondary, allows the windings to opperate much cooler because the air circulates nicely around both coils. It barely gets above body temperature after several hours of operation.
EDIT: I took another look at the side view photo of the 6BK4 modification, and I thiink you are looking at the convergence pot at the rear of the chassis, and in the photo it sort of looks like there is another flyback at the rear of the chassis. Bob |
Wow. That is simply beautiful. Is the CRT a rebuild or was it good as found? I think the Motorola early color sets are more attractive cabinet wise that the RCA ones. I hope whoever you got it from can see it working again.
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CRT was original and has fairly good emission.
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Wow Bob, that is great! But you just couldn't wait for me to get back to Milwaukee to help you restore it could you? I look forward to seeing it in person.
Steve |
My holy grail of 25+ years (wish me luck, haha) is a 19CK1, so I have a great appreciation for the early Motorolas. Your restoration of this one is outstanding! The regulator modification is a great example of engineering and craftsmanship...not to mention it prolly works better than new. :)
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Steve, if you're looking for projects, I'm only a couple more hours to the west. :D
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David:
We'll talk at ETF! Steve |
That is a great set, and a very nice restoration, Bob.
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That's absolutely gorgeous. Nice restoration!
John |
I'm blown away...Unbelievable...The amount & depth of knowlege here is just remarkable, to say nothing of the level of skills & craftsmanship in evidence...There are several folks here whom I would place in the same league as Rembrant, Raphael, Michelangelo were masters in theirs...
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Excellent! This is the stuff I was talking about in the ct-100 post, these things deserve this kind of treatment, I could have never provided heart and soul for that ct-100 in this manner as this set has gotten. Heart and soul is evident in this restoration.
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That is fantastic! Great job...:banana::banana::banana::banana:
lots of hard work and dedication can be seen in this "showroom new" looking set. I have always thought that the Motorolas were the best looking of the early color sets! Anybody have an estimate of the number of these sets that were produced? jr |
Wow, that's great!
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Wow!
That's a great restoration.
Thanks for sharing your resources with us. It's always nice to have another proven metal hardware refinisher in the wings. |
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Some aspects of the set are rather crude, and prototype like. IE: the HV cage is made from two halves of smaller cages (probably from a B&W set) that are spot welded together to make one larger cage. The back of the set (not shown) is from a B&W set that was re-silk screened for this color set. At the top of the back they painted over a label that indicated the set had a "roto antenna installed" in the set. The main chassis has a number of punch outs for items that were installed when the chassis was used to build some other model. Things like this point to the fact that Motorola was not convinced that they would sell very many sets, and used parts from other sets to keep development costs down. If large production numbers had been contemplated, they probably would have had special dedicated parts made instead of recycling and modifying parts from other sets Bob |
"Based on the survivor rate of the CT100 of about 12 to 13%"
Ok, I am confused here... on another thread, Pete Deksnis said: "The traditional estimate of 5000 CT-100 sets produced comes from the original RCA press release issued on the first day of production, March 25, 1954. However, based on my eleven-year quest for CT-100 serial numbers of the approximately 140 known survivors indicates just 4100 sets were produced by RCA, which is far more than any other manufacturer of 15-in. color sets in 1954." This would be about 3.4% :scratch2: Are there considerably differing estimates of production numbers, or perhaps a guess that perhaps only about 25% of the survivors are "known" by collectors? Also, if 3 Motorolas are "known" and if indeed that might be 13% of total production, would that not imply about 25 rather than 500 produced? just curious, jr |
JR you are correct... My Bad! Don't know how I came up with the percentage that I got.
So if that holds true, maybe they only made 100 15" sets???? Seems like a rather small number. I would guess it was more like double that at least. In any event there probably were not very many produced. |
I have a radio kinda like that, an R-389. It is a "Lowfer" set, picks up from 15 KC to 1500KC, most of the BCB. There were only 750 of 'em made, MAYBE 300 left. Mine had been a "Hangar Queen" for apparently most of its life, somebody or something had pranged it REAL hard on the back panel, & bent some screw shafts. Otherwise, it was pristine. But even tho it is a Collins, who were the creme de la creme of military electronics back then (1954), there are certain little "foibles" about it that make me wonder if they ever really got the "Advanced Prototype" stage. Pretty good radio, tho-A guy had one in Denver, & during the winter of '96, was able to pick up BCB stations from France...That's not too uncommon on the east coast/maritime provinces, but pretty much unheard of 2/3 the way acrost the country...The only trick mine did was to pick up WHAS 840 outta Louisville like it was a local FM station w/only a 2' length of speaker wire crammed in the antenna socket...
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Fantastic Job! Bob, How did you touch up the speckled finish on the CRT bezel? Also, the brass(?) finish on the pencil box nameplate looks pretty scruffy in the "before" shot but really nice in the "after."
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Fortunately the speckeled finish on the vacuum formed plastic crt bezel was in fine shape. Just needed to be cleaned to remove the cigarette smoke. The control door was sent out to be replated copper, nickel, brass, along with the two side coloumns. The center area of the control door is accented with a coat of metalic gold spray paint and then coated with clear spray enamel to gloss it out. I used masking tape to mask off the areas of the door that were not to be painted. Lastly I took a very tiny artist brush and painted the raised letters MOTOROLA with black Testors enamel from the hobby shop. There are also accent areas on both coloumns that are painted in the same manor as the gold accent on the control door. |
Great to see another early set restored. congratulations on a super job!
Question: Is the horizontal output tube a 6CD6G, or a 6BG6G? Can't really tell from the photos. I wouldn't think it would be the older tube, given the drive requirements, but with Motorola one never knows, do one?! Kevin |
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Totally awesome job Bob!!!
Nice to see the set cosmetically as well as electronically restored to superb condition!!! I bet that couple you bought it from would be thrilled to know how well this set has been restored. I do notice in the photo of the colour bars displayed on the screen that the yellow bar appears to be light green, is this just the digital camera not picking up the CRT colours properly in the photo shoot? Anyways superb job!!! :) |
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Thanks for the kind comments. There is a two fold issue on the yellow. The camera changes the color somewhat. I tried many different setting for the white balance on the camera but this was as close as I could get. Second: This set seems to amplify the green more than I want and I have done everything I can think of to balance the green down and the blue up but when I get it just about correct, the 3.58 falls out of sync. So I have struck a fair compromise. In person the yellow is better than in the photo, but only about 80% as good as I would like it. But still it produces a very nice picture if you are a good tweeker of the hue, contrast, brightness, and saturation. But then; these old sets were known for needing an engineer to constantly keep tweeking the settings. Here is another screen shot of the chassis when it was still on the bench taken in a darkened room with the same camera. Depending on the lighting conditions and how the camera is set, the camera will produce different results. http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/IMG_0032.jpg |
Zowie. What an interesting set. Great job on the restoration!
Phil Nelson |
We marvel at these nowadays, when its hard/impossible to find a new B/W set, imagine how they must have felt back in '54/'55 when these bad boys were IT...
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Bob,
Outstanding restoration of the cabinet and chassis. The technical workarounds speak to your expertise in solving problems when original parts are no longer available. Great addition to the 15" family of color sets. My only, and minor, critique would be the dyeing of the grill cloth. See you at the ETF, -Steve D. |
WOW its like lookin' at a perfect nut on an easy to get to branch on a sunny cool morning.........
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You did it again Bob! WOW! I'd love to come see this in person!!!! It's gonna be hard to top this one:yes:
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What is that chalky substance that gets on (and, it seems to me, into) Motorola knobs, and how do you clear it out?
P.S.: stunningly beautiful work! |
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As for cleaning the stuff off of the knobs: I use a stiff plastic bristle brush and also use my finger nails to scrape the thick layers of white stuff off. Then I polish the plastic with white automotive polishing compound and a terry cloth rag. After cleaned and polished and nice and clean, I then spray with the ACE clear gloss lacquer and force blow dry with a hair dryer. Test the spraying of the lacquer on some old knobs to perfect your technique before you spray the knobs you are restoring. You wouldnt want to botch the spraying of the lacquer by applying to much or not enough etc. FYI CAB plastic will melt in lacquer thinner, so this whole spraying procedure needs to be done to perfection and you can easily botch the job if you don't get it right the first time. So practice, practice, practice on old knobs before you risk doing this to the knobs you intend to restore. If you decide not to protect the knobs with clear lacquer, your knobs will continue to get that chalky residue again.. It is some sort of oxidation from the atmosphere and only clear coating with lacquer will inhibit the reformation of that stuff. Bob |
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typical Bob Restoration!
Somehow I missed this thread on your 15in Motorola untill now. I guess I was distracted by my 21CT55's demise. It ranks right in there along with your 21CT55. I knew you were working on one, glad it turned out soooo good! I was really impressed with your last color bar screen shot. The colors are so vivid and the red is the purest I’ve ever seen. Maybe all the hype about the original phosfers is true? Does your 21CT55 with the 21AXP22 have the same reds and greens, they must be side by side upstairs by now. I’d like to see the color bars on both sets using the same camera settings. That ought to prove if they used the same phosphers........Tom
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Hi Tom,
Yes, both sets are side by side in the livingroom now. In a side by side comparison, I can tell the two sets are nto set up the same. Because of that issue it is hard to make a phosphor comparison. The Moto is leaning toward the green and the CT55 is leaning toward the red. I would tinker but my living room is very tiny and I have barely enough room to place the sets, let alone move them into a position to work on them. So I think for now at least, I am going to just let them as is. If I get time I will post a side by side photo of the two sets, with color bars adjusted to as identical as possible, so you can see the very aparent color mis-alignment. Bob |
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