First TV in a while- Small Maggie Console

[Charlie]

I haven't really brought home or played with any sets in the past year or so. I've had other home-projects going on, and the extent of my vintage electronics work has been vintage radios and stereo amps.

Last weekend, I stumbled across this Magnavox entertainment center at the Kountze Trade Days that takes place every weekend. Got it for 50 bucks. I didn't expect much to work in it. I kinda figured the CRT would be dead or weak. My plan was to pull the stereo amp out of it (it has an 8600-series single-ended amp) and rebuild it with the typical mods to improve the performance. Since the cabinet has quite a few nicks in it, I was going to scrap the rest.

Well, dammit, it turns out that the CRT tests like brand-new! I wasn't expecting that! I haven't done much with it yet, but, I did get the TV to come on, but no light on the screen yet. The stereo plays, but needs work. FM stations are out of whack. AM stations seem to be right. The record player runs surprisingly well, but I haven't put a record on it yet. I'm not even sure if there's a needle on it or not. Will check on that next time I go out there.

There's lots of dirt... inside and out. I guess I will spend some time this evening cleaning it out and seeing if I can get the screen to light up.... then go from there. I'm hoping for a quick fix on the CRT... bad connection in a tube socket or just needing one replaced.

I have a larger Maggie with a very similar TV chassis that came out great after I worked it over... so hopefully this one will turn out just as nice once I go through it all.

The cabinet can be fixed up... sand down the nicks and put some fresh finish on it.

This set really is rather small for a 23" TV with a stereo. Look at the Zenith color set in the background.... you could fit this Maggie inside that Zenith!

[wa2ise]

I see a stereo audio amp in there, an 8600 series as you mentioned. People over in the tube forum of AudioKarma love them. I have one, it is good.

[Charlie]

Yeah, I have another 8602 on the bench right now that I'm about to tear into. Got it several months ago.

Since this console looks like it has hope, I will rebuild the 8600 that's in there and re-install it in the console. I might also change the output transformers with some 8 ohm units and install new, more efficient speakers... but we'll see how that all pans out when the time comes.

[Charlie]

Didn't take much to get it going! The HV rectifier was burned out. I checked the rest of the HV section... all was fine... but the horz osc tube was just a little weak so I slipped a new one of those in there as well.

This pic was with very little adjustment. Hell I don't even think I had to touch the fine tuner!

There's a little bit of funky folder-over on the left side... or at lease some kind of smearing. I'm sure once all the filters and other capacitors are changed, this baby will make a really nice picture!

Not bad for now at least!