Does your interest in TVs rise and fall ?
 

Does your interest in TV restoration rise and fall?
Right now though I still have interest, I don't have the
energy and enthusiasm as I had 2 years ago. Got 2
TV's stacked up in the garage to work on and a third one
sitting on my workbench for several months. I guess
right now my time and energy is focused on some autos
I have --- perhaps something will spark me to wanting
to focus on TVs with enthusiasm. Do you guys jump from
one hobby to the other? Right now I'm turning wrenches
instead of holding a soldering iron :-)

Carl

It is only a question of time.
I am better with TV repairs than with car fixing.:blah:
Another problem is to clean the hands after working on a car.:thumbsdn:
I have a lot of wrenches, but however I can`t do everything starting
with the missing tools (Kent & Moore stuff ).
Garages in Germany are much smaller than in the US!
The result of all is, that my cars are today in the "mother-in-law"
position.:nono:

TV-Collector:stupid:

:cool: Hi Carl ,

Yes sir , interest in hobbies most certainly does come and go , Let me tell ya bout the roomful of $20K worth of RC plane equipment that mostly hasn't been touched in over 2 years ! (and yea , $20K does buy about 3 hobbyshop's worth of planes when done right :D ) . I figure either I'll get back around to em eventually or someday maybe my heirs will have one hell of a yard sale ( retired guy here , so could be sooner than later :sigh: ) ... Anyway , thing is to do what you enjoy doing at whatever time your interested in doing it , and you'll find that eventually the wrenchin' thing on the car will get old and you'll be back tinkering with the TVs . Or not , , but whatever ya do , stay away from the Lionel trains , those things are like Crack for old farts like us :D

:yuck: Oh , and to TV collector ,

I got NO idea what this "Mother in law position" is you refer to , And I know I'll probabally regret this , But please share , what exactly IS this scary position of which you speak ?? :wtf:

HA!

I didn't get it either......

I pretty much turned my hobby stuff into seasonal activities. I do some electronics,
stove work, and other welding activities in the winter, when I don't wanna be outside
anyway. Summer is of course for cutting grass (5 acres) so it takes 4 hours each weekend
day. Then there are electable car repairs, stuff I can see coming, and don't
wanna do in the winter, brakes, muffler re-wrapping, oil, etc.

But I always keep my eye out for a tv to add to the "to do" tv list. But as the room is
getting full, and I have a few of my all time fav's already, I'm more choosey, and not
willing to drive very far anymore....

Too many interests, too many daily activities, and too little time limit what ya can do...

I try to be realistic in trying to get it only if I believe "I will" eventually get to it....

And all the things listed above are easily defeated if it's a nice day for a long bike ride....
And this goes anytime of the year.... If it's Feb. and a 60 degree day comes along, I'll
be on the bike.....

Not so much as my available time to do things fluctuates...Though other things sometimes capture my interest more strongly for short periods...Usually when I loose interest in something I almost completely abandon it.

My interest comes and goes. Basically takes an interesting project once in a while to rejuvenate my interest... All tvs are not equal and too much of anything is boring. I like working on cars too what has your attention?

My TV repair interest came back with reinforcements a long, long time after I had abandoned it and other hobbies. The other things soon followed. I have pretty much came full-circle since my early teens. I'll go for just about any type of vintage electronic device imaginable, but unlike my early teen years, the TV interest came out on top.

Thanks to The Impossible Project, I can still shoot with integrated instant film.

The Impossible Project, is that the company that started making Polaroid Film again....?
I heard about that, It was on Marketplace one night over a year ago if I'm not mistaken..

Do they make it for just the SX-70's or for the manual pull it out yerfelf camera's too..?

I still got a One Shot I think it was called.... Took 88, 108, 107, and some other one too...

I think the 107 was B&W, 108 was Wide Screen color, and 88 was 4:3 Color....

HA ! HA ! Pretty funny ! ! !

They make film for SX-70, 600 and Spectra System cameras, the latter two of which I own. I own an Impulse AF and an original Spectra System camera. No need for them to make the pack film at the moment, Fuji still makes it.

You may have meant OneStep, I've never heard of One Shot.

I have muffler problems and other car problems only in winter,
just because it is so nice to work outside with freezing hands!:rant:

@ init4fun
Please think at the old Ford model A with the mother-in-law seat!:D
She is always with you, but you try to keep her in distance!:finger:

TV-Collector :stupid:

Got a little more interested so I went to ebay to look for the old Polaroid cameras
the one I have is the Square Shooter 2, a really dull looking all plastic body
with pull starter and wrist strap permanently attached to the camera body.
I bought it new when I was a really little kid for around $21.89 at Korvettes, it was
on sale, and for $24.88 I could have got the Square Shooter Plus, but didn't have
the extra money.... The Square Shooter Plus, and that may not have been the name,
but that one had a built in mechanical wind up timer on the side of the bellows part
of the body..... On ebay they have a Square Shooter 4 with the timer on the side, so
who knows, there may have been a plus, or there may not. One day I gotta pull mine
out, I don't remember the 2, or 4, being on my camera..... I guess my brain is getting old.....

I remember the news story when Polaroid stopped making their film, I remember one of
my early drivers licenses was made using a Polaroid, it did either 2 or 4 at a time.
We had to wait till the did the 2 or 4 people to get ours.

I really liked that camera, it took great pictures, it had a focus on it, and adjustment for light,
I remember taking good pictures in all light levels, really a good camera.

My dad still has a SX-70 at the house, that was a really sweet camera too.... I use to make
all kinds of stuff with the old batteries. Popular Science I think did a piece on the batteries,
they were exceptionally strong for their size, and weight.....

A lot of very cool innovations came out of Polaroid.....


http://en.polaroid-passion.com/polar...ilms.php?id=55

Found another website, this lists a Super Shooter, and Super Shooter Plus, so now I
think Mine must be a Super Shooter..... And the blue writing on the front seems to
bring back a faded memory, and the Super Shooter Plus has the timer.... They can be seen
on ebay.....

I bet each time sales dipped a bit, they redid the graphics and re named the camera and
that was it.... Look at all the camera's that took that 88 film, they look the names up on
ebay, and they all look pretty much the same..... Still a dam good camera.

.

The batteries used in these films were also used in the sinclear pocket tv.

My interest has always been there it's just a matter of figuring out the time to fit projects in!

The Impulse AF was my first instant camera, it cost me just over 90 bucks I think in 1993 from a camera shop in what turned into a dead mall and is now an office/medical building. I recently bought a NOS unit. My first one was a display model with two shots left on the film. I got the optional carrying case made just for that type of camera, no idea why that was thrown in. Pretty hard to come by these days, picture of one attached.

Oh yeah, I recall my Impulse AF being an exceptional performer in low light, which is more than can be said about today's lower-cost digital cameras, even my Canon with its "high sensitivity" image sensor. Darn thing is much harder to get good pictures with in any light level.

I had a Super Shooter Plus that was given to me at one point, never used it though.

I have noticed all the differently-named Polaroid pack film cameras on eBay that looked pretty much the same aside from the labeling. Marketing scheme for sure.

What has my attention? Haven't worked on TV's or Radios for over a year.
One of my goals was to pull an Engine out of a car. 3 years ago I purchased
an Engine Crane from Harbor freight and just a few weeks ago for the first
time I was able to pull the Engine and Transmission from my wrecked SUV.
Wife is happy that its getting closer having that junker rid of. Seems my
passion of late is shopping Harbor Freight Tools, reading internet forums
about cars, and working on my vehicles.

But, I still love to read restoration progress threads on TVs on this forum.

My interest in TVs plateaus and wanes depending on other factors in my life. Often times, I focus more in on my hi-fi/audio hobby. I am however, always seeking out nice examples of vintage TV sets.

I've been doing very little with the collection over the last year or so, mostly just trying to pare it down. My only real projects are some radios that other people have asked me to fix for them, and they've all been sitting way too long. Yesterday I was thinking that it wouldn't hurt to have a massive clearance-maybe get rid of 2/3 or more of the collection. So hard to do, not mentally so much as physically. I have no doubt that I'll have times ahead when I feel more like playing with the old sets.

Boy, if an interest is arcane, it's probably one of mine. Less dedication here than I thought, and I'm of an even smaller group preferring early solid-state. Seems the only way for me to get a social life would be to go drinking, which I'm not about to do.

My TV interest waned for quite a few years then Darius came up with a clever design for a standards converter and building that rekindled my interest. Restoring a friend's large collection of old cars tends to dominate my spare time though.

Peter

Like some members above, my interest goes up and down. It is down right now because I am in the process of moving from MD to FL and have moved most of my stuff already. However, the move is on hold right now (unfortunately) do to some family issues that need to be addressed. Not bad stuff, just stuff that needs attention right now. That said, I am still paying property tax to MD AKA "The Free State" whatever in the heck that means! Oh yeah, we now have a Rain Tax.

But seriously, I miss working on my electronics and "Stole" a moment whilst in FL last time to re-cap a Heathkit C-3 Condenser Checker. It was nice to work on electronics again.

I will keep my eyes open and like a dummy, missed (yesterday) our meeting of the Mid Atlantic Antique Radio Club. Darn...

I've thought about relocating to Florida.
What areas to you like for retired guys who like to tinker with
stuff rather than play golf and lounge around the country club?

Carl

Carl, I think alot of vintage stuff moved to Florida along with owners in the 50s-60s, and was left there when they got too old to be so far from their kids again and moved back north.

ARC lists a vintage electronics club in FLORIDA
Jacksonville Antique Radio Soc.
www.jarsradioclub.com

. Maintaining a dry, bug-free space there would be a challenge, though.

I took a long break from electronics once I became a homeowner in 1988, and had to learn plumbing, roofing and everything else while keeping several vehicles roadworthy. At the time, a 1977 Magnavox Touch-tune T995 chassis set, Hi-fi VCR and audio equipment was all trouble-free. I still did install TV antennas though.:D as cable was not all over like it is now.

But I kept everything in a dry basement. It was not until a friend put me in the paper 14 years later that I got into it again. then I got all kinds of interesting offers and started repairing radios again.
Today, I look at my old Pontiacs (and do-lists in each) with resignation:sigh:, which are surrounded by a TV-Radio collection now, and would rather engage in the only hobby I can afford.

Hi Carl. I don't think that I will ever find stuff in Florida like the stuff in the Mid-Atlantic states. I don't play golf, don't intend to play golf but live in a golf course community. Prices of homes was not hard to take and I won't have to shovel snow any more. However I will hang the snow shovel on the wall in the garage.

Seriously, I got tired of cutting lots of grass and dealing with a long, long driveway when it snows. I figure since I am retired, if I have to, I can go to the location of any new "acquisitions". But most importantly, I need to do the stuff that I already have!!!

BTW, I bought in Nassau County, Florida, Fernandina Beach. It is in the most northeast portion of Florida. (Some like to call our location "South Georgia") Weather is great all year long albeit somewhat hot in the summer.

Yes indeed. Besides antique TV sets (and a few radios, VCRs, and test equipment to go with them), at various times I am involved in ham radio, computer building and setup, a 1970s GMC motorhome, home theater, and a long string of repair/remodeling projects on my house. By switching from one to another, they all stay interesting in the long term.

I first started buying and doing repairs on antique TV sets around 1979 but did not find many resources for them other than Sams Photofacts folders, so I didn't know about replacing every paper capacitor and therefore never got any set truly working well back then. I kept all of the sets and even bought a few more from time to time but really let the hobby go dormant for over 20 years. Then, I saw a mention of Audiokarma by Bob Galanter on another Web site in 2005-07 and that got me interested again, especially with all of the great resources available online. Since then, I have been active with restoration work along with those other hobbies mentioned above.