1950 Mercury TV Console Model 0800 106 Restoration

[DeLorean00]

I have never shared my builds, but I decided to make a post about this
TV as I have a fair bit of pictures on it and figured I would share if
others were interested. First off, I am just a hobbyist and am
learning as I go. I have restored a bunch of tube radios and a handful
of tube TVs so I still have a lot of learning and mistakes left to do.

To start off I found this TV on my local Craiglist for $50 about 5
miles from my house so I picked it up. It has the original back which
is nice, and after a warmup, the picture tube checked out so I decided
to go forward with the restoration.











The cabinet is in nice shape with interesting original handles. No
veneer damage other than a couple of scratches. The worst part is the
top has some alligatoring to the varnish.

[DeLorean00]

I pulled the turntable out and the interesting part is this TV even though being a 1950 the record player has 33, 45, and 78.

The power cord was rotten, two of the belts were shot, the motor was frozen, and the crystal cartridge was dead.



I replaced the power cord. I took the motor apart and lubed it up and got it working nice and smooth. Cleaned and lubed all the gears and changer parts. Cleaned off all the old goo left from the old belts and got everything spinning freely again. Idler wheel so far seems really good. As for the crystal cartridge, I put in a Pfanstiehl P-51-2 for the time being. Finally, I cleaned the wood and polished the bakelite.

The belts, on the other hand, have turned into a real hassle as they are a very odd size. I hopefully have some on the way right now.



I then started on the radio chassis. This TV console has been really difficult to get any service information on it. So far I have only found one page in Riders volume 5 with a schematic for the TV chassis, nothing for anything else.

The radios dial cord was broken. Luckily the cord routing was pretty simple and the broke cord was still hanging in the original location so I took notes and lots of pictures and restrung it. There were only a few caps on this chassis that I changed along with a couple of resistors that had gone up in value slightly. I finished with a new lightbulb.

[DeLorean00]

Next, I started on the TV chassis. This TV has seen a lot of service work over the years. The CRT is a rebuild, the flyback is a replacement, and there are a few capacitors and electrolytics that were changed. Also, all the tubes were of different brands. So this TV saw a fair amount of use, but no one has been in here to work on it for around 50 years.



I replaced all the capacitors, electrolytics, power resistors, few resistors, and power cord.

I know some people like to restuff the old paper caps, so I did save all the stuff I took off the chassis in case I decide to go back and do that. Right now I am just trying to get it up and running.



The first power-up was a bit confusing. I did not get any high voltage and when I was checking my voltages on the board they were coming and going. It was happening so much I started to doubt my meter or probes. I ended up finding a broken wire coming right off the power transformer for the main B+. It was making contact but it was broken so it was just laying on top of the terminal. I fixed that and all my voltages went right to where they were supposed to be and I got a raster.



I cleaned the tuner and I hooked up a DTV box to it and was able to get a good picture. However in the high voltage cage I am getting some corona around the socket of the 1x2 if I blow on it. I have ordered some corona dope and am cleaning the connections and reflowing the solder.



So this brings me up to current progress as of today 12/13/19. I have been working on this for around a week and a half. I would have got more done but I keep having to wait on parts to arrive.

I am not sure if people are interested, but I can try and start uploading my restoration projects as this time of year I tend to do lots of them.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Chris.

[Eric H]

Marlon Brando playing records on the same model Mercury TV.

Did you buy this set near Los Angeles by chance?

[MadMan]

Very interesting cabinet configuration for a combo set. Like, the tv is on the left 2/3 but so is the turn table. Nice looking thing though.

[DeLorean00]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Marlon Brando playing records on the same model Mercury TV.

Did you buy this set near Los Angeles by chance?

WOW!! That is cool!! So I bought the TV in Sacramento and the guy I bought it from it was his Grandfathers TV and he was a stuntman in Hollywood Westerns.

Originally Posted by MadMan

Very interesting cabinet configuration for a combo set. Like, the tv is on the left 2/3 but so is the turn table. Nice looking thing though.

Thanks! I had never seen one before, it is an all-around odd TV but its really grown on me. The doors have kept the original safety glass and grill cloth nice.

[DeLorean00]

Also here is a picture of what is on the CRT.

[decojoe67]

I like that "Mercury" name on the set. It makes it unique. It's a good looking console too and great with the pic of Brando watching one.

[DeLorean00]

Originally Posted by decojoe67

I like that "Mercury" name on the set. It makes it unique. It's a good looking console too and great with the pic of Brando watching one.

Thank you! If I understand it correctly that Mercury is the record company, and for a brief time in 1949-1950 they tried to get into making TVs. They made only a couple of models and this one seems to be one rarer models as I have only been able to find one more example of it online. Now someone might correct me on that.

Also, I really love that Marlon Brando that Eric H showed me. I think I am going to print that, frame it and set it on top of the TV.