It took a Pandemic to get me back into this.

[Eric H]

Maybe not just a Pandemic, I also retired in October of 19, but the last couple of months I've done more than in the last two years.

I completed the restoring of two Seeburg B Jukeboxes, one was just finishing touches while the other was a complete reassembly.

Finished repairs and re veneered the cabinet on a Rock-Ola Juke, and finally got the Amp working on a Seeburg Q.

Recapped two Motorola 8" sets and a Pilot TV-37 (except for the 6k and electros that are on order).

Also got my Predicta Debutante chassis mostly done and painted the cabinet (Powder Coated it first but didn't care for the flat finish so I painted it bright Red).

Recapped and finished a plain Jane emerson 17" from 1955.

Recapped the Amp and Radio chassis on a 55 Magnavox Radio/Phono.

Repaired a 59 RCA portable (bad cap caused by me shorting the B+ to ground when reinstalling the chassis in the cabinet)

Recapped a 1970 RCA B&W that I'm now using to watch old TV shows on.

I've also been powering up random sets to see what my next project might be, but I need to finish the three I have apart now.

I still need to change an axle seal on my Car, but I kind of loathe doing that greasy stuff since I retired.


Oh yeah, have also watched about a million hours of Netflix, Amazon and DVD's.

I seem to actually be saving money on Gas, Dining out, Coffee, etc. I think I've used about ten gallons of Gas in 60 days.

[Electronic M]

Good your back in the hobby.

I never really dropped out of the hobby, but with work, and the drop in anime on TV leading me to the internet where I found more than I used to watch I have had much less time for the hobby.
With this working from home business I have a lot more bench time ( seeing as my big old repair bench is the only good desk in my domain) so during meetings where I just need to listen and glance at slides which take up a screen I need to get work done (we have plenty of those meetings) and times where my brain gets locked up on what I'm doing, or times where I've done all I can today without someone else completing something for me but I still need to appear present for ~an hour I just repair my vintage TVs....
I've made some great progress on some of my rarer ones.

[AlanInSitges]

That is seriously amazing output! Congratulations on your retirement and your ton of TVs to watch.

I was in a funk for the first 4-5 weeks and didn't do anything. Since then I've repaired a Marantz amp, finished up my Spanish-made GE 12" portable, and finally worked up the nerve to start on my Predicta that looks brand new inside and out. Crist put together an "all in one" Predicta parts kit which should arrive here on Monday. Then the real fun begins...I am SO scared of screwing it up.

[Yamamaya42]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Good your back in the hobby.

I never really dropped out of the hobby, but with work, and the drop in anime on TV leading me to the internet where I found more than I used to watch I have had much less time for the hobby.
With this working from home business I have a lot more bench time ( seeing as my big old repair bench is the only good desk in my domain) so during meetings where I just need to listen and glance at slides which take up a screen I need to get work done (we have plenty of those meetings) and times where my brain gets locked up on what I'm doing, or times where I've done all I can today without someone else completing something for me but I still need to appear present for ~an hour I just repair my vintage TVs....
I've made some great progress on some of my rarer ones.

must be nice to work from home

I can't

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Yamamaya42

must be nice to work from home

I can't

Given this covid thing has delayed things and taken projects that were regularly on fire and slowed them to a comfortable place and taken me away from some of people in the office I didn't like dealing with it has made life nicer.... though on the other hand I'm chewing on work stuff at night sometimes.

[Yamamaya42]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Given this covid thing has delayed things and taken projects that were regularly on fire and slowed them to a comfortable place and taken me away from some of people in the office I didn't like dealing with it has made life nicer.... though on the other hand I'm chewing on work stuff at night sometimes.

when you work at a place like this, work at home is not an option.
http://www.leemah.com/images/printed...mbly-thumb.jpg

and I don't mean THIS dingbat!
https://tinyurl.com/y9lrbup5

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Yamamaya42

when you work at a place like this, work at home is not an option.
http://www.leemah.com/images/printed...mbly-thumb.jpg

and I don't mean THIS dingbat!
https://tinyurl.com/y9lrbup5

So you are building or doing solder rework on PCBs....Some lab techs under me do that to build prototypes etc...They got shifted to computer work from home. The only ones in that role still working are essential manufacturing staff. Some of my friends wish they were essential enough to go into work being at home alone is driving them crazy...the grass is always greener somewhere.

[Yamamaya42]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

So you are building or doing solder rework on PCBs....Some lab techs under me do that to build prototypes etc...They got shifted to computer work from home. The only ones in that role still working are essential manufacturing staff. Some of my friends wish they were essential enough to go into work being at home alone is driving them crazy...the grass is always greener somewhere.

I get the boards that have failed, and they come to me to hunt out what went wrong on them, I flag the fault and send it to the rework people to fix it! :p

I'm always buried in schematics, DVMs and o-scopes.

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Good your back in the hobby.

I never completely got out either, I just got involved in restoring Jukeboxes and TV's just fell by the wayside.

I was getting tired of TV's and their weird problems so a change to the mostly mechanical issues of a Jukebox was a welcome change, i've also gotten pretty good at Veneer.

I'm an introvert anyhow so this isn't all that hard for me, other than the lack of certain supplies, and I do miss eating out and getting store made Coffee, also Thrift Stores, even tho they mostly suck now.

[Tim Tress]

I also do surface mount PC board repairs, on the job. Unfortunately, it is with lead free solder. In the evening, and on weekends, I work on the old stuff.

Later this summer, I hope to get started on the Crosley 307TA; it's an RCA 630TS in disguise.

[Yamamaya42]

Originally Posted by Tim Tress

I also do surface mount PC board repairs, on the job. Unfortunately, it is with lead free solder. In the evening, and on weekends, I work on the old stuff.

Later this summer, I hope to get started on the Crosley 307TA; it's an RCA 630TS in disguise.

that have been lead free solder in my field for years now, gotten used to it, what i really HATE is the "no clean" flux, because it's not, as in NOT CLEAN! and it does a crappy job, and the " water soluble " stuff, if you don't clean it all off correctly the PCB will dissolve into mush in 1/2 year.
But the biggest problem I have seen is cratering, I get a item back RMA that has been in the field working 3-4 years and fails, remove a BGA and half the pads come off stuck to the IC...

[John Marinello]

Hey Eric, how did that blond Zenith 10-incher turn out??

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by John Marinello

Hey Eric, how did that blond Zenith 10-incher turn out??

It came out great, with a hitch.

I had the chassis working great, then I accidentally left the Zoom switch laying cross the chassis and shorted it to something, had some smoke and the picture was too short. Let it sit for a couple years while I worked on the cabinet, got that done, quite happy with the results, not OEM, but nice.

Back to the chassis, I couldn't find anything burned or out of whack, then I managed to get too close to the Flyback while I was turning the yoke, my hand got zapped a little from the top of the 1B3, when that happened the picture suddenly went trapezoidal, not really sure why that should happen but it's a sure indication of a shorted yoke.

I have a bunch of used yokes, none labelled, it should be the same as an early RCA DY1. I tried a random yoke from my collection and got a full height picture, but far too narrow, possibly because the capacitors and resistor in it are wrong. I stopped at that point, I know it needs a yoke so I will get back to it as soon as I can find a DY1, or RCA equivalent.