A "replica" pre-war TV project

[Kamakiri]

I had this thought probably two years ago, just never came across the parts to do it. But now, I've got a great beginning.

First, was deciding what cabinet to use. I wanted something that would be relatively simple to fit a TV chassis into, and would have the correct pre-war look. Decided that I needed to find a Zenith round dial console cabinet from the late 30s. Just got one in that will be PERFECT for the job (thanks to DavGoodlin ).

It's got what I think is one extra hole cut in the front, but that doesn't matter much as the center hole will have to be filled anyway, and the front panel will need to be re-veneered after I get the new holes drilled for the controls.

For the chassis, I didn't want to ruin anything potentially restorable, so I came across this Tele-Tone on ebay a couple months back. The picture tube, unfortunately, has no horizontal deflection, so I assume that it took a hard hit at some point and the deflection plates inside either broke or got bent, something.

The cabinet on this Tele-Tone was heavily moisture damaged. All of the plywood is separating, and the whole thing is falling apart. However, the chassis is spotless.....oddly enough. Perfect!

Now, I'm not sure what to do about the former switch areas on the radio outside of the picture tube....I may just carefully trim the bezel and fill the cabinet holes. Ideas appreciated there.

Also, might as well do up an outboard 6V6 amp and a large speaker while I'm at it. After all, I have a lot of real estate to fill here......

[vts1134]

If you're re-veneering the front panel I would suggest moving the television controls down on the front panel away from the picture tube. It would look funny to have them as close to the picture tube as they are in the small table top cabinet. Also you could reuse the Tele-Tone's inner gold screen mask on the new cabinet and make it look like the RCA 5" sets. Just paint the mask brown and back paint a piece of glass to put in front of the mask.

Make this...



From this...

[John Marinello]

Will this be a porthole screen? I don't know the diameter of the radio dial.
Cool project, Eric, good luck with it!

[Kamakiri]

Originally Posted by John Marinello

Will this be a porthole screen? I don't know the diameter of the radio dial.
Cool project, Eric, good luck with it!

The glass potion of the dial measures 5 3/4". Should be about perfect for what I'm doing

[Eric H]

Isn't the CRT considerably deeper than the Radio cabinet?
If that's the case you could install one of those cheap 5" Jellybean sets inside masked off to resemble a Pre War 5".

[Kamakiri]

No, actually, just sitting the chassis inside, and testing with a picture tube, it comes out about even. The cabinet is a lot deeper than it looks in the pic.

[wa2ise]

In theory, the old push buttons could be used to select the desired TV channel. Though you'd need to modify or build a special tuner to do this, especially as the buttons are in clusters of 6 widely separated.

[Kamakiri]

Nah, I'm not going that far into it.

This is a hacked up pic of what it would look like if I just filled in the pushbutton areas and mounted the chassis.

Hm. Needs something.....other than different color knobs

[vts1134]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

Hm. Needs something.....

Custom decals with your own brand name?

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

Hm. Needs something.....other than different color knobs

If only you could find an old Midwest radio escutcheon and cut out the center portion. I think the "wings" would look cool on it.

.

[decojoe67]

Very cool idea! I've often thought of this myself. I can picture it as a porthole set and just masking the CRT if need be. When it's working it'll be very impressive.
I often thought of this with a 3" Pilot chassis, being they're so many existing. Cleverly incorporating the CRT at the top of a console radio above the radio dial.
Good luck!

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

Hm. Needs something.....other than different color knobs

I had thought about making a pre-war set myself, but feel that I should better spend my time restoring the sets that I presently own.

On your knobs and screen shape:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/rca_trk-5.html

As for the knobs, I think the Tele-Tone knobs are a close match* for the knobs on the 1939 TT-5 and TRK-5 , on all but the channel selector dial plate.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/rca_tt-5.html

My suggestion is to drill all 4 holes in the radio cabinet the correct size to fit the shafts and the fine tuning knob will cover the hole. For channel numbers, I's suggest that you take some period number decals and label the top positions on the cabinet wood, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or better still assume the set had been upgraded pre-1946 to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 as that would make centering better. I'd recommend the later and stick the numbers above actual channels 2-7 so they will center correctly. The below manual shows how RCA did the channel numbers. See manual page 6 which is PDF page 4.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/pdf/r...ers_manual.pdf

Since most pre-war factory built sets had rectangular masks and most home made sets (or kit sets) showed the round tube, I think this set was built by one of your ancestors and it should carry the family name!

James

* In my humble opinion, Tele-Tone intentionally made their cabinets look like the RCA sets to confuse mail order buyers.

[John Marinello]

Don't lower the knobs, raise the CRT! Weren't the prewar CRTs mounted with wood? I could also send you a support bracket from a porthole Zenith, if you want a metal one.

[dtvmcdonald]

That's an interesting project.

For another take on this, go to http://www.forum.radios-tv.co.uk/
and the TV forum. The second from top topic is "Recreating ..."
he really did ... from scratch, as near identical as possible. Its not finished.

[Electronic M]

I have the same Zenith console, with correct restored (by me) 25HZ chassis....I don't know why I restored it, the darn thing still worked GREAT on the original caps! That is one of Zenith's bulkier pre-war radio consoles....I could see a 7JP4 fitting it.

This may sound nutty, but I'd keep the button panels.....And I'd fit a VCR in with the loading mech pointed out the back. I'd route all the VCR's buttons to the Zenith bezel, leave the set on Ch3, and look for a PS line that is only on when the VCR is and hook a relay to that to turn the TV set on.....If done right you'd have remote tuning (if using cable or multiple agile modulators to feed it) and power control, not to mention a built in signal source....