Vintage TV Restoration is Insane
 

So, I fit in pretty well.

I rescued our family's first TV and shipped it 2,000 miles because I thought it would be a nice, nostalgic piece of furniture. This is a 1950 Motorola 12T2, in very good condition, but the picture went out in 1969. When I got it home, I had to take the chassis out of the cabinet to clean debris from the front of the screen.

With the chassis out, I plugged it in and I was entranced by the seductive, soft glow the vacuum tubes. With no background in electronics, but with expert guidance, I have been attempting a full restoration for several months.

I've recapped the paper and electrolytics, recoated the CRT, upgraded selenium rectifiers to diodes, and replaced a few clearly defective small components. Now remember, when I started this project the only component I could identify was "knobs." Right now I'm stuck with a dead focus coil.

But my story gets worse! While looking for a focus coil I picked up a delightful Bakelite 1948 Admiral 17T12 that actually works.

Is this going to be my fate? Am I going to lose my wife and my home and live in a cheap hotel room with hundreds of derelict TV sets?

In any case, I'm thrilled to join the forum. I'll be picking brains, looking for parts, and help others in any way I can (I still know almost nothing about electronics but, as you see, I haven't electrocuted myself...yet).

I take lots of photos, so if anyone is interested in either the Motorola 12T2 or the Admiral 17T12, here are links to my PicasaWeb albums (under the name "coldrb.")

http://picasaweb.google.com/coldrb/M...14324729845682

http://picasaweb.google.com/coldrb/A...90650566868642

Welcome to VK :wave:

Could be :scratch2: - I know I'm slowly being buried alive under sets :nutz:

Nice sets. I have a Motorola 12K2 and Admiral 19A11 both similar to yours. Good luck with restoring them.

And this is a problem HOW ?!? Welcome to th' Monkey House ! Relax, you're amongst friends !

You can always bury them in the yard............... like nuts.

Welcome to VK!

Don't worry.....
It WILL get worse!
Sitting on one TV working on another is where you will end up:banana:

Hah - at the moment I'm using two consoles I'm working on as additional workbenches! I don't think the wife is amused:o

On the other hand, my brother said he wants a couple of smaller console sets to use as end tables when the house gets done :D

Thanks, everyone, for the warm welcome.

Your'e sucked in now!! Muhhhaaaaaahaaahaaahaaaa!!
Lol, you will enjoy this site. The people here are like family, and very friendly and knowladgable..

Consider this "group therapy" - we're all afflicted - slaves to our collections.

Welcome to VK!

Cheers,

1955 zenith
 

my wife knew this from the beginning ,when i was dating her back in 1985 i had stuff all over my house since i was a kid i was collecting. she put up with it, i just moved everthing to the basement .then it happened in june of 1996 we had a flood there was 4 feet of water in my basement ,and the west wall fell in and i lost everything 9 roundie's color console's, zenith, rca's, were lost now she's encouraging me start collecting again .you got buy them something every once in awhile keep them happy , i just bought a mint condition 1955 zenith r 2360ru off craigs list ,the outside is purfect it just needs recapped maybe a picture tube . i almost didnt buy it but i remembered what squirrel boy said just buy it i can always bury it the back yard :D

If you think this hobby is crazy, then you're obviously sane and should continue persuing it. If you don't think it's crazy, then you're obviously insane and still should continue persuing it. That's the Catch......Bwahahahaha!

You won't lose your home because you'll soon realize how important it is to keep it for housing and protecting the collection. You won't lose you wife right away either but she'll move out and get her own place. This is good because this will open up valuable space. The furniture will get in the way soon too. When you toss those out you'll have additional room available for more TV's. Welcome!!

Rusty

You know, I know a few guys like that........

Gotta agree with you, but hobbies rarely make much sense.
Especally financially! At least old TV's are easy to find and
restoration is mostly labor.
Steve

i wish they where easy to find in northern indiana , you ask people if they have any old tv's first thing they show you is something from the late 90's . and if tell them your looking for tv's from the 60's or 50's they look at you like your crazzy, they had tv in the 60's puzzeled look . and if you ask for tv's that use tube's they point at the picture tube . esp craigslist they list a tv as a tube tv, and you look and it's a tv from 2005 or something like that .

This hobby ain't so crazy. There are guys who collect washers, dryers, and stoves. There are no table models of those.

Come to think of it, a cool mix would be a B&W roundie operating TV built into a dryer...should be an option to have the picture spin around (electronically, of course.)

L.O.L :thmbsp:

yes.... I'm new (just registered THIS morning actually)

It starts with ONE set, that your Dad gave you 15 years ago. THEN, you lose your Dad :-( ...but find out that he had a small COLLECTION of the little TVs.

You schlep them all back to San Diego from LA to keep the rest of the family from just TOSSING them. You have to buy a little plastic shelving unit from Target, and engineer some power strips so the sets will run all in one place just for shock value. THEN you decide you want ALL of them to come on with the simple push of a remote X10 switch.....for even MORE shock value.

Before you know it, you are learning to "care and feed" the sets that get sick.... and then you buy ANOTHER shelving unit, because you became enamored by some particular design and now have TWELVE of those. One day you look up, and realize you could light the apartment with JUST the cool glow of almost 50 little 2"-5" CRTs. Just when you think "This is silly, I don't even speak Spanish", you read about someone making their OWN little TV station in the house JUST for this sort of collection.

You KNOW it's too late when you are walking the swap meet....and realize you ONLY went there with a single image to look for. The unmistakeable shape of a 5" gray CRT peering out from among someone's junk. You've GOTTA look.....and in the case of the little Sony 8-301 I just found Sunday, you've GOTTA have it. The thought of something so cool just being tossed away and being GONE....or not KNOWING if this set is alive or not, needs some minor tweaking, or is going to turn you into a different form of collector....like maybe you go find the SAMS photofact and decide to restore something, and not just look at it.

I have like FIFTY of these little TV sets now...from like a dozen less than six months ago. Good thing my "alternative" lifestyle will never piss off any wife :-)

Great story and keep at it, you're in good company here. More honest technical help than you could ever use!:thmbsp:

BTW, my wife was well aware of my collection when we met. :D we used to dance to 78 RPM records played on my 1934 Philco "house rocker"

I wish I had room for "consoles" like the sort that would play records. I would end up buying roundies or something, and becoming familiar with tubes. I've lately caught myself going DAYS without even turning on the big 55" Samsung LCD set.....because I'd rather the small and comfy little sound and pic of the little 5" Sanyo color set on the coffee table.

Having always been a videophile of sorts.....I can't even IMAGINE saying that ten years ago.

Yes, and this is a problem how? :)

MUCH more fun than stamps or something like that, I think.