First tv I ever bought.
 

Howdy all today I start the first tv I've ever bought $20 at the thrift store. It took me hours to figure out it. Is an admiral. I'm totally guessing,1951. I have tube experience and tools but I've always stayed away from crt tv. I can't find any numbers except two chassis serial numbers. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Tnanks Rob

Advice, eh ? Well, me dear boy, DROP this foolish, ridiculous, insane hobby NOW, whilst you only have 20 bux invested in it.. YOU STILL have a chance in retaining yr Sanity, friends, spouse, family, financial wherewithal, but if you continue down this treacherous road, you can ASSUREDLY kiss ALL that "Goodbye"...You have been Warned..(Grin)

Chassis or model number is the only positive identifier.... serial is like the vin on a car only there is usually NO information encoded in it. Chassis number is better since it IDs the electronics...makers would offer 1-4 chassis any model year and stick each chassis into a wide variety of cabinets (each cabinet style/color receiving it's own number), and sometimes models got added late in the model year or custom ordered and didn't make the service literature index books.

A picture can sometimes ID a set. If you can get a tube layout there are books that help ID make/model based on tube layout. Take off the back and look for a tube layout inside and at any numbers ink stamped on the back of the chassis you may find chassis or model number on it.

Before you invest money in replacing all the electrolytic and paper caps (which you need to do if you plan to run it for more than a minute) first find a CRT tester and make sure your CRT is good or at the very least has some emission (most testers set the good-bad scale for color CRTs which need more emission to get a picture)...A replacement CRT could set you back more than the set is worth. If it is initially a dead CRT give it an hour to sit running on the tester...CRT cathodes can go to sleep if left dormant for over a year, and when they do they take a bit of time to wake up.

Early post war Admirals into the mid-50s typically make good starter resto TVs (it is good to work on radios and or audio first) and are easy to work on with good performance when restored.

Good advice ben. I have a crt tester but one of the digits on the crt. Is illegible.

If it's an Admiral from that era, it probably has a 17BP4, 16TP4 or similar.
That's where the chassis number come into play. The CRT number should be on the tube location diagram.

I don't have a tube location chart. It very well might be a 16tp4. I tested it as a 16ap4. But. You may be right. I'm gonna test all the tubes in a minute.

With rare exception most CRT's from that period used the same basing and tester settings, so your results testing as a 16ap4 should be fine.

...And, of course, you DO Realise I was just Messin' w/you, doncha ?!? This IS a lovely hobby, typically, what you will get OUT of it way ordinarily exceeds what you put into it. The sense of PRIDE & JOY you'll receive when you bring yr Admiral back from the dead is almost indescribable. MOST of the people I've met in this hobby are top-flight, 1st class. You have a FEW "Pooterheads"-Like MOI-but thankfully, they're in the tiny minority..

One other thing to be aware of if you need to separate the CRT and chassis or work on the HV is that most sets of the time used 9-25KV of HV with very low current. It should not cause injury unless you have a heart condition, but is on par with the meanest static electricity jolt you've ever taken. Glass CRTs have an integral capacitor that can hold HV charge for days (metal cone CRTs typically have a doorknob cap that does the same in the HV cage)...If the HV works and you need to service the set within a week of running it you may need to discharge the HV...To do so (with the set off) take an HV meter with it's negative connected to chassis and measure and measure the HV or connect one end of a 1M ohm resistor to chassis and the other to the metal shaft of a well insulated screwdriver and slip the tip under the HV connection suction cup on the side of the CRT and he it there for a count of 10.
You could dispense with the resistor and short HV to chassis but that tends to cause dielectric bounce back where the cap recovers a portion of it's charge a moment after discharge... that can be almost as bad a jolt as not discharging (says someone who has experienced both).

If you ever get a set that used a 60Hz transformer to supply HV (only a few 1940s sets were made like this) those have very lethal HV supply systems and great caution should be observed.

Thanks for the advice. I forgot to mention the crt was replaced with a 67 vintage. I tested the tubes today and one failed. The crt passed everything but the life test,assuming I'm using the right number. The vertical output tranny is bad.

Bad vertical output tranny? I'd be surprised, but there's a first time for everything...

That thing doesn't look like any Admiral I've ever seen!
Is it a US Admiral or a Canadian model. Also, the cabinet and control panel doesn't look Admiral to me. :scratch2:

The vertical tranny is. Broken I guess dry rot. Maybe mice but there is no indication of mice. I may be wrong but I'm thinking it is an old admiral. The writing on the front. The tuner configuration. And by looking at schematics of that era. This is why my vote is admiral.

I don't remember seeing an Admiral using two chassis for the TV. The pre-1950 models, some had a separate power and audio amp, but the TV chassis was a single unit.
In the early-50's, many smaller manufacturers used a form of design that Admiral and a few others used. I have a Muntz TV chassis that is very similar to an Admiral.

It's a nice looking set. The channel knob and split chassis makes me think Philco, but I've never seen a Philco with that style CRT bezel. There's got to be a tell-tail sign of the manufacture hiding somewhere on it.

National TV-1625.

Manual on the bay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1951-Repair...-/273470715444

not affiliated
jr

Have you checked resistance of the windings of the vertical output transformer (preferably against the schematic)? If you declared it dead solely based on looks you may be surprised... electricity don't much care what the path looks like just that it's conductive.

Sure enough, that's it! :thmbsp:

I'll try to get better pics. I've seen the same metal grill on admiral

Way early in the thread, I was thinking that it could be a National, as I had one many years ago. I never did anything with it, as there was no real interest in a set that old. It had a10" CRT and it wasn't worth spending any time or money on this type of set. That was a sign of the times. :thumbsdn:

I agree national thanks guys. I bought a new horizontal transformer but the primary impedance is off by 1800 ohms less than 10 percent. But the leads won't be long enough. I'm thinking high voltage how would I insulate my splices safely.

The last picture you posted looks like a mouse took a few nibbles from the insulation paper on the vertical output transformer. Unless a winding is open, it could still work fine.

Some of the windings are open

Just ordered the manual from sunset books in ohio. Thanks guys.

The TV in the Sam's folder you posted the ebay listing for looks just like my Meck/Philharmonic TV I'm working on currently cabinet wise...:scratch2:

Some of the smaller makes of TV only built chassis and would order cabinets from cabinet makers... sometimes the cabinet company would sell the same design to multiple TV brands....case in point I had a Grinnell store brand set (which had a chassis made by Olympic) and a newer Majestic that had a larger version of the same cabinet...both were Michigan based brands so there was probably a furniture maker that made that design for both companies.

It looks like I'm missing the ion trap on crt.

My mistake na on my model

I think the FIRST TV I bought, especially after I kinda developed an Unnatural Fondness for TVs was a 1984-85 Panasonic CT-101, that 1.5" color set. I got it from Henard Hardware, they were used to me buying "Oddball" things-I remember they had an FFL & I had them order me Major Uzi-THAT brought on a lot of "What The Hell ZAT thing ?!?" "Why you want THAT ?!?" As did the widdle color set-"$350 ? Man, I could gitchoo a 25" REAL Colored set you could SEE for THAT kinda money..." Civilians... They NEVER unnerstand, do they ? Hehehehehehehe....Still have it, last time I checked, it still worked DANDILY..

Some CRTs did and some didn't use ion traps. If the CRT was ever replaced they may have installed a CRT that don't need a trap... look for a bent electron gun or angled gap between elements to confirm it is an ion trap tube.

What does it say on the label that on the neck? :scratch2:

For decades, I worked at a police department, as a civilian employee, entering stolen vehicles into a database.

FYI, Vehicles 1981 and newer have a LOT of information about the vehicle in the VIN.

The first two characters tell you what country the vehicle was assembled in.
The tenth character tells you the model year.
The eleventh, which assembly plant (of said manufacturer) the vehicle was built in. Other features (Engine, body style, trim level) are encoded (though how such codes are used DO vary with manufacturer).

I would surprise officers by describing the vehicle to them as soon as they finished reading the VIN.

Apologies for the vague sentence. I meant electronic device serial numbers usually don't contain info (or decoding resources have been lost to create effectively the same result)....I'm well aware of the info contained in automotive VINs...A few years back I learned a few things decoding the VIN of my 78 lincoln off of the guide in the service manual.