My latest project (TV related)
 

You might hate me for this, I don't even like publishing it for fear of giving people ideas but...

Some of you may recall I was given a 1948 Admiral Bakelite 24A12 cabinet a short while back.

It was intact but had been outside and was badly weathered, I also got the chassis but no CRT, knobs or back, also the safety screen was cloudy and yellow beyond use, too far gone in otherwords to be restored, at least at a reasonable cost or effort.

Sooo, I decided to retrofit it with a newer set. :twak:

I found a 2003 Samsung, 14" set with a flat CRT and set about installing it in the cabinet WITHOUT making any alterations to the cabinet itself, i.e. no holes drilled, nothing glued on, nothing cut out, the idea was to make it completely reversible in case someone 20 years from now needs a good, unbroken (albeit painted) cabinet.

The CRT was a very good fit, I'll lose about .5" on either side but who'll notice, I may even be able to adjust the scan width to compensate.

I did have to do some very light grinding inside the cabinet so the tube would slide upwards enough to center it, the amount removed was insignificant, maybe .010" on each side and only a couple inches long, I also ground an equal amount off the upper edge of the metal mounting band around the edge of the CRT to get sufficient clearance.
It only needed to slide up 1/4" and the cabinet has a taper towards the top that was preventing this.

I have to paint the cabinet to make it presentable, my options are to use dark Brown more or less like it was originally, or since it's a custom job to start with I can go with something a bit more wild.

I had planned on Red on White like a Coke Machine, maybe even some Coke Decals on the sides, cheesy yes, but so is a color conversion anyway.

For knobs I'd like to find some with the brass covers that were optional, I already have the channel selector and one small knob in that style.

Here are some pics of the cabinet in Primer and with a White base coat.
It actually looks pretty spiffy in bright white!

I don't have a picture of it assembled yet but the CRT fits perfectly flush against the opening of the cabinet, looks really darn good if I do say so myself.

The Samsung set looked like new, I don't think it saw much, if any use.
I managed to find a remote that works with it so everything will be controlled that way, I may fix up the On/Off knob so it can be turned on that way also but it would be a major pain to put all the functions up front.

I think my Wood chassis looks pretty decent, considering all I had to build it with was an air powered Jig Saw and a Belt Sander. :D

The studs holding the CRT in were originally the ones for the speaker.
I cut a new speaker board since the old one was rotten, I need to get some Grille Cloth, if I go with Red & White I might find something at the Crafts Store that will look OK.

The Sammy has two tiny speakers but I don't know if it was actually Stereo, it has two separate sets of wires so perhaps it is.
I was planning on using some better speakers, probably add a Tweeter too for better sound. It uses 8 ohm speakers so it should be easy to find something, or I could just stick my Realistic Minimus Sevens behind the Grille.

LOL - nice job :D What kindo f paint did you use and how did you spray it ? It looks really sweet :yes: I've only painted one small bakelite radio and it gave me headaches.

I might be able to help you out with some of those brass covered knobs. I'll did thgouh my knob stash and let you know.

I used the cheapest cans of paint I could get from the Hardware Store, they worked very well I thought, the Primer went on smooth also and really bonded to the Bakelite.

If you have three of the small knobs in Brass I'd like to buy or trade for them.
I think I might need the rear knobs also.

I like it. I think Admiral was possibly missing the boat not offering their Bakelite sets in a white cabinet. Your paint job looks very professional from here.

One day our old Philips travel set with the built in VHS player was setting in the basement next to my empty 24A12 cabinet. The screen is a tad small, but it's very fun to watch in there. And no spacers are required. Would probably look better yet with the screen mask installed.

[QUOTE=Kevin Kuehn;3012903]I like it. I think Admiral was possibly missing the boat not offering their Bakelite sets in a white cabinet. Your paint job looks very professional from here.

The Koss family, Famous for headphones and high priced mistresses, originally started out, renting TV's to hospital patients. They bought a mess of Admiral bakelite 17" table models and had them painted white.

I think it is cool!

Alrightythen...

For you're consideration, I present one Ugly Admiral.

Maybe Tacky is a better word. :D

It might look good in a Retro Diner but in my Living room?!!!
Maybe it'll grow on me.

I had really wanted to try Turquoise but the color selection at Home Depot is pathetic, they must think there are only five colors in the world.
Purple they had, Turquoise or Teal forget it.

There are two more things to be done, one is to paint the bottom runners Black, the other is to paint a Gold Hammertone around the tube surround, not the whole thing, just that 1/2" ledge that will surround the CRT.

One other thing, I did a sloppy job of masking around the protruding face, it's ragged at the Red/White split so I'll have to touch that up a little.

I painted the new speaker board with that Camo paint that was recommended here, I hope I can find it later...being that it's camouflaged and all...:D

Awe man... I was hoping it was going to stay white, with brown or gold lettering. :scratch2: :D

I'm kind of thinking it should have! :yes:

Never too late.

Yeah, I have to agree with Kevin - pure white was better. Even though I'm sure it would be tough to maintain just like a white car.

A few years back I was offered an Admiral bakelite mini console,the front
area(where the controls are) had been bashed in.Luckily the seller saved
all the pieces.I was very tempted to buy it ,I figured I would glue/fiberglass/ bondo the cabinet back together,and then,you guessed it,paint it white.I too had always thought one of those sets would look great in white.After looking at the pix posted,I wish I had grabbed it

The more I look at it the more I think I should go back to White, or Antique White.
I have a can of "Ivory" out in the garage, that might look good.

The White I used was really white, like Hospital White, a little too bright I think.

I'll give the Ivory a shot (if it's still good) the more coats of paint the glossier it'll be!
I might have to prime it again to cover the Red.

Maybe all Red wouldn't look too bad? :scratch2:

I would like Dark brown, the only brown I ever see is "Kona" Brown, too light, like Milk Chocolate and what I want is Dark Chocolate.

i like it !!
i vote to leave it with the red/white color scheme.

I think an off white would look nice.

Another idea; Since the screen mask is too cloudy "as-is", could you cut the center out and still use the outside mask as a border around the new CRT? You could even paint it some contrasting color to go with the lettering.

Well I decided teh Red & White was to Gaudy, I didn't really want to redo the whole thing though so I went with all Red.

I painted the Gold trim around the CRT opening, painted the White areas Red and painted the feet Black.

It looks good this way, probably look better when it's together and has some nice Brass knobs to set it off.

After it dries for a day or two I'll do some wet sanding to smooth out some areas where the paint oversprayed, that's why I hate second coats, that always happens, you wind up painting the whole thing over trying to chase out the overspray but it never goes away.

Here's a picture I took through the sliding glass door, that's why it's kind of spotty.:yes:

It's dry so I brought it in and installed the chassis.

Still need to do some things like make up a knob panel, and get some grille cloth, also need to extend the IR sensor so I can mount it up front somewhere, I can probably hide it in the speaker grille.
It needs a back too, I mounted the chassis so the inputs will just stick out, it has two sets of inputs, one was on the front, it plugs into the chassis so I may just omit it.

It is a Stereo set so I'll need to mount two speakers inside, it has a great picture, the set seems to be a cut above the no name BPC junk.

I'd like to get into the service menu (if it has one) and adjust the picture size to fit the opening, it's not really noticeable but it extends past the opening a half inch on the sides and maybe 1/4" on the top and bottom.

Anyone know the trick to access the Service menu on a 2003 Samsung?

Um.....

http://www.mebeep.com/No_Comment_746.jpg

:yippy:

I dunno, but maybe this will help. Too new fer me.

http://www.riddledtv.com/forums/sams...rptv-t291.html

Cheers,

CRT sets:

Selection sequence:

STAND-BY - MUTE - 1 -8 - 2 - POWER ON

2. The FACTORY MODE message will be displayed. The Factory Mode
has four components : Adjustment, MPX, PIP, Option Byte and Factory
Reset.
3. Access the Adjustment Mode by pressing the VOLUME keys
The adjustment parameters are listed in the accompanying table.
Select them by pressing the CHANNEL keys.
4. After completing the Factory Mode adjustments, turn the power switch
OFF.

Some sets have wierd names for stuff - like East-West Amplitude would be the Horizontal size, and East-West Centering would be Horizontal Centering. Others are for Pincushion, and use the same East-West nomenclature.

HS is generally Horizontal Shift, which can affect width.

Write down the parameter's value before adjusting, so you can come back to it if nothing is working.

Hope this helps,

Brian, that worked, thank you! The key was it needed to be in Stand By first, (Green pilot light on, set off).

I was able to adjust the Vertical size but the Horizontal only seems to have Centering, it doesn't seem to affect the width.

This will be a lot easier once I get the IR sensor moved to the front of the set, I have to point the remote inside the back now to turn it on and off, not the easiest way to adjust things.

You don't really notice the missing side information, it's probably less than the overscan on the original set.

When I get ready to try it again I'll take a picture of the adjustment screen so I have a record of the settings.

A little more progress.

I went to Jo-Anne's and picked up some fabric that's reasonably appropriate for Grille Cloth.

Next I decided what speakers to use, I have been wondering what to do with this little pair of Realistic Minimus Seven's for a long time, now I know.

The TV has a pathetic 2.5 watts per channel of audio power @8 ohms, the original speakers were barely listenable without their original enclosure, also I wanted something with a crossover and a tweeter, these fit the bill perfectly.

They play quite loudly so they must be pretty efficient, small enough to mount side by side on the speaker board too.
I did a hack job on cutting out the openings, oh well, it was hot and dark in the garage and I just wanted to get it done, it won't be seen anyway.

I need a good staple gun now so I can attach the cloth to the board, I have a regular office type Swingline stapler but it's not up to the job.

Anyone have some tips on installing the cloth I'm all ears, I usually botch stuff like this up. I have plenty of extra cloth though so I can try again if needed.

Oh yeah, I figured out what to do with either the extra set of inputs or the tuner, I'm going to install a Digital Converter box in the empty space at the bottom, I'll run the IR sensor up front so it can be operated with the remote.

I think I can hide both IR sensors in the speaker grille area, possibly in a crevice of the cris-cross pattern in the Bakelite.

Hey, I like that cloth! It looks like a passable match for a GE810. Maybe I'll finally get rid of my burlap :o

Do you recall the pattern name ?

Sorry - no tips from me. I'm terrible with grille cloth :(

I have no idea of the name but I have gobs of it, I'll be happy to send a piece to you.

With grill cloth you basically want to divide and conquer.

Start in the center of one edge and tack, then pull taunt and tack the opposite edge. Then go out to one corner and pull a little tension at 45degrees from center, tack. Crossover to the opposite corner, tack, then repeat for the two remaining corners. Now focus on finishing the first two parallel edges, subdividing down while alternate tacking side to side.

Next tack the center of one of two remaining edges, pulling slightly outward, in an attempt to match the stretch at the corners. Repeat the dividing process as with the first two parallel sides, only now you focus on matching the stretch initialized at the corners. I generally do longest sides first, because that’s where the most stretching needs to occur. Don’t go crazy with the stretching, that only makes it more difficult to keep things even, plus the cloth will tend to pull from under the staples later on. Watch the pattern in the cloth as you stretch it, working out from the centers.

Hope that makes some sense.

I suppose you may want your grill cloth glued onto the speaker board? To do that, I've first fastened two edges of the fabric to some wood strips that act as handles. Spray the speaker board and backside of the fabric with some contact adhesive. After the glue tacks up, then gently stretch the fabric using the wood handles, all while lowering the fabric down onto the speaker board. I've even heard of some using a wood picture frame or a large needlepoint hoop for holding the fabric. Apparently hide glue was originally used for attaching some speaker cloth. I suppose the old formula hide glue sets up pretty quickly when applied hot. You probably should still staple the edges after gluing. Personally, with that size speaker board I'd just go with the staples, but it depends on how sturdy the fabric is.

Thanks for the great tips. Maybe these should be moved to a sticky post in the tech forum ?

There should probably be pictures of the process before a sticky.

OK, out with the Red, in with the Ivory, I think this is a huge improvement!

A big Red TV is OK if you're furnishing a Retro Diner or a Childs room, but not in the Living Room of the average home. :no:

Yes, much better :yes: I really like the gold on Ivory look and the metal knobs will look great. The grille cloth looks good too.
After several layers of paint, is the recessed lettering still distinct enough to rub in paint ? I hope so.
Looks like you left the feet unpainted / dark - nice touch :)

I like it. Once the gold knobs (and possibly gold lettering) are added, that will look really sharp.

I worked on the knobs on my lunch hour today.
I made a board to mount them on and attached three machine screws to it and one 1/4" bolt for the tuner knob, grind a flat on them and instant knob shafts.

I also extended the IR sensor for the remote with some ribbon cable, also the LED power indicator.

For the power indicator I wanted it to look neat without drilling a hole in the cabinet to mount it, my solution was to drill a hole in one of the knobs instead.

I removed the Brass plated cover and drilled a hole in the knob about the same diameter as the LED, I didn't want it sticking out through the cover though so I only drilled out two of the small squares on the cover and slotted it out as best I could with a drill bit.

The result is a discreet pilot light that doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, at least I hope it doesn't, I haven't turned it on yet to see how it actually looks.

The flash made the LED glow green in the picture so that's a pretty good indication of how it'll look.

The Escutcheon is from a Teletone, it had most of the numbers worn off so I polished it up nice and shiny, I think it looks good, if incorrect. (like that matters here!)

I'd like to install a power button behind the original on/off knob, it'll be push on push off, it shouldn't be too hard to install a micro switch behind a spring loaded shaft, I think there's quite a bit of room behind the knob board and the TV chassis.

Here are some new pics.

Hmm, the green light is only on in standby, oh well, it still looks cool.

You could always connect the LED to a power supply line that is only on when the set is if you prefer a pilot light to a standby light...

What typeface is used for that funny chart? I've been looking for a typeface that is just a little to the practical side as opposed to Comic Sans.

Filled in the lettering today with some brown acrylic paint, water based, just work it in with a fingertip and clean off the excess with a damp paper towel.

Looks awesome! :thmbsp:

http://vintagetvsets.com/temp/arf/ad...ntrolpaint.jpg

That does look very sharp. :thmbsp:

Nice job :tresbon: I wouldn't worry about clear coating it. I use that same kind of paint and it holds up well over time.

I was thinking when it was red and white that it should have had a Coca Cola logo on the side of it. :D