Polaraman, here's your CM's B&W cousin!

[Chad Hauris]

No I haven't gotten around to doing any more with it yet! I think I probably have a lifetime's worth of TV repair projects but I will get to it eventually.

[sealforvr]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

No I haven't gotten around to doing any more with it yet! I think I probably have a lifetime's worth of TV repair projects but I will get to it eventually.

Reason I ask is I have a handle on m CM b&w console in Lancaster TX. Seller says everything works, just needs a new needle for the changer, and would like to know what to look out for.

Thanks

Brock

[Jeffhs]

The eBay listing for the Curtis-Mathes TV being discussed in this thread has been removed. I tried clicking on its link just now and got back an "invalid item" response. Those of you who have already seen the listing must have gotten to it long before it was canceled.

BTW, the pic of Chad's B&W CM console could be close to the one we're talking about here. The only differences: one, the cabinet is finished differently, and two, Chad's set works.

BTW (2): What actually happened to that CM console with the "well-ventilated" CRT? Did someone knock the neck off? If there is a large black or clear spot at the center of the screen, and it is possible to see through the front of the tube to the back of the set, these are dead giveaways that the neck has been hacked or knocked off the tube. Whomever did that is darn lucky the tube didn't implode and send glass flying everywhere. The "clear" spot I mentioned would be created when the sudden inrush of air following the breakage of the neck would literally blow the phosphors off the screen at the center.

Finally, I wonder what the opening bid was for that set. I'm guessing it was fairly low, considering the broken CRT and whatever other problems, if any, the TV may have had. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than perhaps $50 at most for a television set with a broken CRT. Depending on how rare the tube is, it could cost at least that much for a replacement.

Oh well. Someone probably won that set by now and could be using the TV chassis for parts, retaining the stereo/phono/radio components and rewiring them to operate without the television, or they could have taken out the old TV chassis and put in a modern color set. I had relatives who owned a very large RCA console b&w TV and did just that when the television quit--they simply pulled out the defective b&w chassis and replaced it with a new Zenith table model that would fit the opening vacated by the old set, using a wood frame to take up any unused space around the set as the new one was somewhat smaller than the original chassis. I also had a great-uncle who, after his 1962 RCA three-way console TV/radio/phono gave up in the '70s, did the same thing, only he used an Emerson table TV to replace the old worn-out RCA. I'm sure many other people have done this in the past with console sets which had very finely crafted cabinets; I'll say this much--that sort of conversion beats heck out of gutting the cabinet, putting the chassis unceremoniously on the tree lawn to die a certain death in a landfill (! ! !) and using the cabinet as--heaven forbid--a fish tank.