Mahogany Predicta Pedestal
 

A friend of mine heard I restored my blonde Predicta pedestal and asked if I would restore his. He brought over this mahogany version with optional UHF tuner. The flyback looks pristine and the chassis shows no signs of ever being repaired. So here goes another...

The CRT is the 2.34v CRT and initially tested bad. I thought I was going to have to call and give my friend bad news. I decided to cook it at 3v for 4 hours and see if I could breathe life back into it. After a few hours I brought it back to the CRT tester. Emissions came up into the good section quickly. I hooked it up to a restored Predicta chassis and I was rewarded with a bright raster! Now to get my parts list together and do some cleaning..

The printed circuit board is out and I placed my capacitor order today. This board is very clean with no cold solder joints or questionable repairs. I'll start replacing out of tolerance resistors while I wait for the caps to come in.

All out of tolerance resistors have been replaced on the printed circuit board. Now awaiting my cap order to finish off the pcb.

You forgot the really big ones...They always have a different resistance from the color code. :D

Funny Tom...while I'm waiting on the caps to come in, I took time to clean the case and the CRT housing with lense. The mold was very thick, but Easy Off oven spray made quick work of it.

Just wanted to tell ya I'm riding along and enjoying this thread. Keep posting your progress.

Jonathan

It's actually not mold - that's the tenite plastic decomposing. I'm afraid that it will slowly come back :(

I've never heard of using Easy Off to clean these. Did it cause any harm to the plastic ?

Interesting. I wonder if it is reacting with the atmosphere to decompose.....If it is then perhaps a transparent coating (like lacquer maybe) might stabilize it long term.

I mostly used the oven off on the actual mold on the outside of the CRT case and band strap. I did use it in the lense cover, but very carefully. It cleans the plastic very clean and after minimal buffing, very shiny. Like any cleaner, always use in small amounts first before using. It works very well on plastic and wood, but don't use on Bakelite. It pretty much instantly takes the greasy dirt off of the rubber wire, with very little work. Makes the wire look like new.

Ive also found that if I keep these predictas upstairs and not in the basement, that white haze on the CRT lense does not come back. I think it all has to do with temperature and humidity.

I think coating them won't work. I've seen knobs made of similar plastic that were clear coated and the crud formed underneath causing cloudiness and the coating to start flaking off.

Yes, higher temperature and humidity do seem to accelerate the deterioration. It's been my experience that it will always start coming back. It may take months or years but haze and the stinky smell always return.

My cardboard insert that seperates the video cable from the hv, yoke and CRT filament cables fell apart when I began cleaning the wires. I found that a toilet paper roll works perfect as a replacement.

The main pcb is all recapped. Now onto the rest of the chassis.

The rest of the chassis is recapped, including all of the electrolytics. Now I need to reinstall the pcb and give it a slow power up.

Lacquer will melt this type of plastic VERY EASILY. Don't even try it on something clear. I have preserved decomposing knobs with clear lacquer, and it does work well, however it is a bit risky because the surface of the knobs will dissolve while the lacquer is wet and must be allowed to re-harden. I would never try this on something that needs to be optically clear. You would be better off using a good coat of wax based furniture polish.

I finished putting the set back together and fired it up with a variac slowly. I was rewarded with a nice raster. I then hooked up a DVD player and have great video. Now the problem is the plastic gear on the tuner fine tuning is broken. So the fine tuning knob spins freely. So I'll have to see if I can find another. Sorry I took the picture upside down.

To clean and preserve that CRT front cover I suggest Novus #1. Then if you want anything additional to coat it high is probably not necessary but it's up to you, use Mothers Back to Black which you can find at any car parts store.

George

The fine tuning has a broken part that I have to get from Larry to make it work again. Here is a picture of the set while waiting in that part. I added a little toner on the bottom half and some clear finish just to touch t up. It's almost done and my friend can't wait to watch it.

It was fun to do two of these pedestals back to back. I would love to find a tandem set with the long cable to work on. That's the only Predicta I haven't worked on yet or have in my collection. Maybe one day I'll find one.

Looks really great!!!

I got the fine tuning replacement part from Larry today and finished putting it on. This set works great and is ready to go to my friends house, where he can show it off. This restoration is complete!