Show us your vintage B&W sets!

[Tony V]

Try Murphy's oil soap as it has worked for me in cases like this. Just make sure the cloth isnt too wet and follow up quickly with a dry cloth behind it.
-Tony

[Ronce67]

This set is in daily use while my main set is being restored. I didn't get this as one unit, I had to piece it together from visits to different thrift stores. All told, the whole outfit cost about $30.oo---- The set was priced at $15.00---but--- it was half-off day! The stand was 5.oo and the Atari 2600 with case was 15.oo

[jshorva65]

Jamie bought this Stromberg-Carlson TV-12 combo set at the first ETF Convention (2007) we attended together. This was her first Vintage TV score, but she didn't officially become a Collector until she bought her SECOND set. Two or more sets qualifies as a Collection, doesn't it? Now, her collection consists of this Stromberg-Carlson, a late-fifties Zenith "bug eyes" portable (eBay score), a Crosley wooden tabletop (2009 ETF Convention score), and a set that's going to be a birthday gift from me next week (she hasn't joined AK yet that I'm aware of, but not revealing what set I got her until after her birthday just in case). Anyway, here's the Stromberg-Carlson on display as an attention-magnet to lure shoppers into a booth she ran earlier this year selling baking supplies and cooking-related art (mainly small ceramic sculptures and jewelry) at a local farmers' market as a side project for her catering business.

The first photo is of the TV chassis undergoing bench-testing at one of the "progress check" points during Restoration.

Next is a screenshot at another "progress check" point. That one was taken while I was setting up test gear for the RF/IF alignment that it needed due to a dial-tracking issue with the Inductuner. Those Mallory Inductuners are great when they work, but can take a while to get working just right when something goes wrong. Anyway, it took a while, but I got it repaired, aligned, and back to proper tracking all across the dial. Incidentally, part of the tracking issue was that the end-stop inside the Inductuner had gotten bent out of place due to someone having tried to "force" the knob past the stop at some point long ago. I would imagine it was an attempt to use brute mechanical force to get the dial to track correctly without opening up the tuner assembly to look for leaky capacitors and/or off-spec resistors. Basically, I ended up replacing almost every resistor inside the tuner and most of the ceramic and mica capacitors.

Next up, here's another shot featuring the AM/SW radio dial and the record changer. The changer was tricky at times due to the first cartridge we ordered for it being a dud right out of the box and the fact that some previous "repair" person had assembled some of the linkages backwards (namely, the Off/On/Rej switch linkage, which was obviously mis-aligned since it was colliding with the Speed linkage). Once I got the control linkages to work and a working cartridge installed, there was another challenge because of a missing setscrew in one of the changer linkages, this one affecting the setdown point of the stylus. Since it was an odd "pointed" screw, it took a while to track the proper replacement part down.

The final picture of the series is of the set on display at Jamie's former baking supplies booth, next to the "ultra comfortable" wingback chair she scored at an antique mall. There's actually a funny story behind that. Before she took an interest in Vintage TV, she sat in that chair to take a break at the antiques place while I searched for more Radio and TV stuff. Not sure if she was bored or tired. Anyway, she liked the chair so much that she ended up buying that chair by the end of the day.

About a year after I initially restored the TV, it developed a vertical sync problem. At first, I suspected that one of the original electrolytics that had re-formed nicely during the initial Restoration work had finally given up (would have been the second such failure in something like 8 years since I started keeping track). Instead, my 99% (probably closer to 99.5% by now) success rate at achieving long-term reliability on electrolytics where ESR and leakage check out OK after re-forming remains intact. It turned out that the electrolytics were OK and that the primary (the sync winding) of the vertical oscillator transformer had gone open. Sams doesn't list any substitutes for it and the same transformer is also used in most Dumont sets from the RA-103 "doghouse" model up to the RA-108 (Dumont p/n 20D490-1, 20004142, and 20003931 are listed in Sams, a different one of these three in each Dumont model's folder). Although each Dumont model lists a different p/n in Sams (with no crosses listed in Sams) they all cross to the same three subs (Merit A-3001, Stancor A-8124, and Thordarson 26A01) per parts catalog listings. Another tip is that ONLY if the transformer fails with the primary (red/blue lead pair) as the open winding, a temporary fix while waiting for the replacement part to arrive is to tack a 22K/2W resistor across the open winding and couple the sync pulses from the junction of the blue lead (output of the integrating network) to the oscillator grid with a 0.0015uF capacitor. That will stop the "rollin', rollin', rollin'" symptom on your Dumont set until the new transformer arrives.

[jeyurkon]

Originally Posted by jshorva65

...About a year after I initially restored the TV, it developed a vertical sync problem. At first, I suspected that one of the original electrolytics that had re-formed nicely during the initial Restoration work had finally given up (would have been the second such failure in something like 8 years since I started keeping track). Instead, my 99% (probably closer to 99.5% by now) success rate at achieving long-term reliability on electrolytics where ESR and leakage check out OK after re-forming remains intact...

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks it's possible to trust vintage electrolytics if the ESR and leakage test ok.

John

[jshorva65]

Here are the latest additions to the Restored B/W categories of my collection and of Jamie's. The Philco 50T1403 on the left was the one I scored from the contractor I mentioned before who noticed my collection and workstations while compiling an Estimate for some work to be done on the house. The Hotpoint 14S202 on the right was the Birthday gift for Jamie that I had mentioned before. She had seen an overpriced and non-working "hot pink" Hotpoint on eBay and mentioned that she liked the look of the set. With that in mind, I located a working example at a more reasonable price and completed a "preventive maintenance" recap on it.

Since the DTV Conversion has reached my area, there were no off-air signals to tune in. The nearest signal distribution jack from the DTV Converter and DVD player hookup is on the other side of the room. I've got the signal routing set up to facilitate multi-set displays in only one room so far, with just a single connection in other rooms. Expansion for multi-set displays in multiple rooms will be completed later this year.

As of today, Jamie's collection consists of three Restored B/W, one Unrestored B/W. My collection consists of ten Restored B/W sets, eleven Unrestored B/W, three In-Progress B/W Restorations, three Restored Color sets, three Unrestored Color sets, and one In-Progress Color Restoration.

[jshorva65]

Just scored a Silvertone 110.700 on eBay last week and awaiting its arrival. That model was the first 50s B/W set I had ever restored, about 25 years ago. I've been looking for another example of that model ever since the original one's 12LP4 was destroyed by my younger brother (either accidentally or deliberately, never could tell with him, but the cracked neck was nowhere near as obvious as the BB holes in the screen of a '65 Zenith B/W portable years earlier or the smashed dial glass on a '37 Delco R-1116 table radio before that). I guess it was "bad for his image" as a wannabe high-school football star to have a brother who collected "antique" anything? Who knows? That set is nearly identical to the Pathe 12-2, and a relatively easy chassis to recap due to the 'lytics being tubular axial units mounted under the chassis.

[jshorva65]

The Silvertone 110.700 arrived today, but with a severe case of "Brown Rot" as "OOPS" yet again earned its nicknames by de-necking the 12LP4 in transit. Note how ALL of the phosphor was blown off the face of the tube in this case. They'll be sending an agent to do an on-site inspection tomorrow. Due to the broken glass inside the set whenever they've broken a CRT, I always insist that the set cannot be moved and must be inspected on-site, and they've typically complied. Besides, I don't trust them to return the remains of a damaged set without creating a far worse situation than the original claim. I also typically have several of my restored sets operating whenever the agent is due to arrive, demonstrating that it is not unusually difficult to bring an undamaged set back to working order.