Emerson 639 restoration

[bandersen]

Here's a closer look at the Emerson 639 I just picked up at the ARCI swapfest. The cabinet could use some new veneer, the tuner is rusty and the HV cover is missing. Other than that it's in decent shape.

About 2/3 of the tubes appear to be Emerson branded.









I found the service info in Riders vol 4 and was surprised to see just a single selenium rectifier rather than a voltage doubler configuration.
So this set runs on just 120 VDC and I suspect rather cool. I wonder how well it will perform ?

[ohohyodafarted]

I saw that one at the swap meet. I took a pass. But it was very reasonably priced. I think you got a good deal on that considering the one on ebay sold for big numbers. Looks like you have a lot of headroom to put some sweat equity into this one. If I had known it was so desireable and worth so much I probably would have snapped it up. It was there for at least an hour and I looked at it twice. Congrats!

[bandersen]

Thanks. I was going to pass on it as well, but I've wanted one of these for a while. It was still there as they were packing up and I talked them down from their original asking price.

The rust I don't mind so much, but the cabinet is going to be tough. The whole left side was reattached at some point with what appears to be expanding foam adhesive. That created a 1/16" gap between the joints. I hope I can carefully break the joints apart and glue it properly. Then I'll put on some new veneer, grain fill and toner lacquer.
Here it is after some cleaning. One of the 25L6s has gone to air.


I tested the 7JP4 with my Sencore CR70 and detected a G1 short. A quick blast from the remove short function cleared that right up and it has excellent emission and life test.

It will have to sit on the to-do pile while I finish off a few others project.

[dieseljeep]

That set's going to turn out great in your hands. That reverse painted front bezel, and those original knobs realy made it an excellent find.

[Electronic M]

If they did not have it priced at 80$(which is a lot of money to me) I'd have grabbed it. I did buy the two tone GE portable the seller had. I was going to test the CRT in my GE, but they lowered it to 5$ and I decided to buy it without testing. I now sort of wish I had tested it now, but at least I have another identical set to make one good one out of if need be.

I don't know if you attended the donation "auction", but with the rain it was interesting to say the least.

Good luck on your restoration!

Tom C.

[cwmoser]

Bandersen, you are one of the very best restoration experts.
Be fun and interesting reading if you post detailed restoration steps and describe your techniqes when you do the work on your Emerson 639.
I've always enjoyed your restoration postings and have learned a lot from your writing and photos. Thanks for what you do helping others in this hobby.

I restored an Emerson 639 a year ago, my second TV restoration, but mine started off in better shape and not as challenging as what you are having to start with.
The Emerson 639 7JP4 electrostatic deflection CRT puts out a very viewable image and has much greater brightness than the Zenith portholes of the same vintage. The nice things about this TV is that it is not that heavy, everything is on a single chassis (power supply, CRT, and speaker). The cons are that some components are kind tightly placed making recapping tedius, it needs an isolation transformer to do testing, and I found the quality of soldering during assembly on mine not as well done as with my Zenith Porthole.

Still its a cute little set that I found performs very well and is very attractive when displayed.

Carl

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

That set's going to turn out great in your hands. That reverse painted front bezel, and those original knobs realy made it an excellent find.

It was the original back and knobs that sealed the deal for me. There are a few weird blemishes on the bezel, but otherwise it's in good condition.

Originally Posted by Electronic M

If they did not have it priced at 80$(which is a lot of money to me) I'd have grabbed it. I did buy the two tone GE portable the seller had. I was going to test the CRT in my GE, but they lowered it to 5$ and I decided to buy it without testing. I now sort of wish I had tested it now, but at least I have another identical set to make one good one out of if need be.

I don't know if you attended the donation "auction", but with the rain it was interesting to say the least.

Good luck on your restoration!

Tom C.

Thanks! That two-tone GE was a pretty sharp orange / white as I recall. I waited until mid-afternoon to pick it up and knock a little off the price.
No, I didn't stick around for the auction but I noticed the donation pile was larger every time I walked by it.

Originally Posted by cwmoser

Bandersen, you are one of the very best restoration experts.
...
Still its a cute little set that I found performs very well and is very attractive when displayed.

Carl

Thanks! Ah yes, I remember following your restoration. At the time I didn't expect to ever be working on one myself It's the smallest and lightest of all my 40s sets for sure.

I've started working on the cabinet a little. I discovered some white fuzzy mold inside. You can see it on the sides in this shot.


First, I wiped it off with some multi-purpose disinfecting cleaner. Then, I wiped id down with diluted bleach and set it out to dry in the sun.
Finally, I sealed all the interior surfaces and bottom using JB Weld Liquid Hardener.
I've used this stuff on a few projects now and I really like it



Here it is post mold removal and sealing and another angle at a horrible terrible job.
That white goo oozing out of the seams is the crappy glue that was used in the old repair attempt.

[dieseljeep]

I found the service info in Riders vol 4 and was surprised to see just a single selenium rectifier rather than a voltage doubler configuration.
So this set runs on just 120 VDC and I suspect rather cool. I wonder how well it will perform ?

There must have been some brilliant engineers working for Emerson at the time. All the larger companies were working with voltage doublers, triplers and even power transformers to get the voltage needed for deflection etc. Also, they designed a set that could be used on DC supplies, so common in New York and other large cities. Notice the chassis is isolated from the B- line.

[bandersen]

Thanks for the info. I had noticed "DC" operation mentioned in the service info and was wondering who the heck would have 120 VDC to plug it into. Was that a legacy of the Edison DC power system ?

[Electronic M]

someone with a bunch of car batteries laying arround would definitly be able to run it at 120VDC and have one of the first portable TVs in the process.

[David Roper]

New York City had pockets of DC service until the decade just passed. The last fragment of the DC grid was shut off on November 14, 2007.