Show us your vintage rectangular CRT color sets!

[wvsaz]

How about it? Any Motorola TS-908's out there? General Electric KD's? RCA CTC-25's? Sylvanias? Zeniths?

[Eric H]

Back in the late 70's I fixed up a GE floor model for my Grandmother, it had the KD chassis and a 21" ? rectangular screen.

Man the performance on that set was horrible, dim crummy picture, poor Grandma, it must have been hard on her old eyes:p:

I found a much better Sears 25" for her later that she had till her death in 94.

Eric

[captainmoody]

Here's my '66 Zenith entertainment center Still works great, Even though it has seen a LOT of use. Lately though, it has been more of a printer and fax stand!

[drh4683]

Heres a cool ctc25. You guys probably have seen lots of my tvs, but this is the correct place for them now! I bought some very nice tvs from captianmoody just over a month ago. This is one of them, model gh684wk. like any rca that is working correctly, they have some of the best pictures! This is my everyday tv downstiars. Ive got a question here, the tube schematic inside the tv shows a ctc25 tube layout. The schematic does not show any tubes in the sound IF board! Its got two of them, two 6HZ6's (i think). How did this error occur?

[drh4683]

Another of the big rca's. 1969 ctc38. Like new, never used hardly at all! This is part of my too big of a collection. Serves as a nice portable tv table!

[drh4683]

This is a rare one! You dont ever find these old table models. They are almost completely gone! This tank is a ctc38, 1969 model year. This one weighs 75lb!! This one will not die! It was damaged in shipping, the crt broke off the front bezel mounts and was just sitting on the chassis! A bunch of tubes fell out and metal hardware all over the place. put the tubes back in and Just for fun, I went ahead and plugged it in....WOW! I was amazed, it worked great but no color! Too cool to junk, I had to save it! Epoxy fixed the crt mountings and a replacement of all the 6GH8's (big surprise) brought back to a nice color picture.

[drh4683]

a resale shop find 4 years ago. I was shocked to find this in a thrift shop. Tube type color sets seem to always need alot of work when I find them. this one however was ok. You can tell there is an rca crt that dull grey, rca colorama crt was put in back in 74. Still strong.

[drh4683]

Nice plain bottom of the line zenith. This one is that plastic type woodgrain board cabinet (what is that called anyway?) Has the common greenish tinting around the crt so common in the zeniths. Not as nice of a fit and finish as the 66 pictured above. It still works though!

[kc8adu]

can you guess?

[drh4683]

definitly a zenith hybrid. Something like 1972 or so? Looks clean inside. Lets take a look on the outside! Is that the convergence board way up front there? Do you have access to it from infront of the set?

[Steve K]

kc8adu:

Boy does that view of that set bring back memories! When I started working at the Zenith dealer in town those sets were quite common. I must of repaired a million of them. I never thought that I would forget the chassis number though, old age I guess. I think that the chassis that followed that on was the four tube hybrid that used a 6U10 and a 6LB6 in the horizontal and a trippler for the high voltage. DRH4683, I think you are right, it is about a "72 model. The speaker panel comes off in the front and convergence could be adjusted there without having to reach over the top of the set. I think that IF can module was something like a 90-150? I remember the 01 and 02 suffixes were not interchangable. Sorry for rambling on but that picture just takes me back!

Steve

[kc8adu]

not sure of the age but its a 12a12c52 chassis iirc
the reason it is so clean inside and out is it was given up for dead in the mid 70's by my grandparents with a bad yoke.
it sat in a basement in a plastic bag till last year .
it had been replaced by a 23ec45 that needed only a tripler and 4 lead safety cap in 25+ years of use.
i think my sister still has that one and it still looked better than some new sets.
btw it has the typical zenith green halo even though it spent most of its life in the dark turned off.
so we can rule out uv and light in general.

[Charlie]

DRH,

Was noticing the flooring in your TV storage room. Those classic floor tiles and colors accent your TV collection quite well!

I remember that CTC38. My little brother and I had one in our bedroom when we were growing up. It was a second-hand set that an uncle gave us when he bought his new set. Made a good color picture that compared nicely to a new set. We watched that CTC38 for years, and then one night it sounded like a pistol shooting off on the inside. It got thrown out, unfortunately. My mom wouldn't let me take the back off for fear of getting me getting a shock. Now, I wish we had never thrown it out. Probably would have been an easy fix! I always like the way the controls pulled out on top of the speaker case.

[drh4683]

thanks for the comps on the tv and floor:) Thats the original tile from 53 when the house was built. Yes, it adds a cool touch to the display, especially being orange! That ctc38 is a nice set after getting it all back together. Its got the usual "smoker" smell once it starts to warm up. Kind of a character of these old tvs. Luckily most were from a clean household.

[drh4683]

This was another tv I picked up at the estate sale. This one actually worked and was sitting in a basement with broken plaster all over it. Looked like it had not been touched in years. Fired right up with good color!

[drh4683]

I found three really nice tvs in the past 2 days. each spring, our town has "amnesty day" Basically you can through anything away for free of charge or special pick up. Everyone then cleans out their house, so this is where the big tv search begins! I found this nice ctc24 right on my own street! Its in great condition, but have not worked on it yet, blank raster with hv arcing! Its a matter of time before it get it going again. Looks like a replacement crt, its a bonded lens, but not tinted Ive been focusing on fixing up and finding parts for my portacolor recently (another amnesty day find!)

[captainmoody]

Here's a picture of my 1967 Zenith, It has been in my uncle's basement since 1987, Finally brought it home today. Found it in the trash the summer of the same year in excellent working condition. Sadly, The cabinet will need a lot of cleaning and touchup, As my nephew used it as a workbench!

[captainmoody]

here's a pic of the cabinet cleaned up.

[drh4683]

Dwight,

That tv looks lots nicer! What did you use on the finish? Ive used Old English on cabinets and it hides the imperfections pretty well. What chassis do you have in there?

[captainmoody]

20X1C36, I first cleaned the entire cabinet with degreaser, Then used Minwax walnut stain, sealer and finish. All I did was rub it on with a cloth and let dry, Much like old english but lasts longer.
I would rather do that then refinish a cabinet with scratches like those.

[drh4683]

Got this nice one from captianmoody which he has a photo of. Here is a pic of it working with proper color and converged! 23XC36. Of course, Green halo must ruin a nice picture on any zenith

Just got it converged! Followed zeniths guidelines as to proper converging. To my surprize, excellent results!

[drh4683]

How often to you find these? 25" zenith table, all steel cabinet. This one has a toasted crt. Has a million hours on it, but does not show it cosmetically. Looks like it has a lot of potential if I can find a good 25GP22. Anyone have a set of tuning knobs like the ones on this set? I stole the knobs off my console and am convicned they are the correct knob as this set has the back light tuning and same styling as my console.

[andy]

I found this Magnavox next to a dumpster today. It works, but has some vertival compression at the bottom and the picture is unstable (probably dirty controls and bad soldering). It uses a 22JP22 CRT which looks bright and sharp. It looks like it was made in the late 60's. It's model 1C6304 which isn't listed in the SAMS index and I don't see a chassis number anywhere. It's 100% tubes apart from the UHF tuner.

[captainmoody]

Nice Magnavox Andy! Looks like a 1967 or 1968 model to me.

I picked up another Zenith from my ad today, 25NC38, 1967 model. This one is real clean and has a replacement Zenith tube in it also, Oddly it has the beginnings of pva deterioration (not that bad yet) but like an RCA tube not the familiar halo that it seems all zenith tubes get.

The original owner repaired it himself and left notes inside it, Kinda creepy cause he died a few years ago, One of them said: Hope you get as many years use out of this as I did! The others were where to get parts, And what parts failed most often!
I have never in my 25 years as a tech seen anything like this! Looks like I will restore it this summer as it was a well cared for tv.
Also was given a B&K 415 Sweep marker generator in mint cond along with the tv, And the best part was they were free!
His wife was real nice and just wanted to find someone who would enjoy the stuff, Heck yes! I was going to bid on a 415 on ebay today to go with my 1077B, Now I won't have to....

[drh4683]

You guys are really tempting me to try the news ad! I am scared that I will get a truck load in my basement and I will not have a clue what to do!

[wiseguy]

here,this crt is supose to replace a lot.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3026634292&category=298

terry

[drh4683]

Thanks wiseguy! one finally showed up!

[Chad Hauris]

I have a 1968 Zenith at home that has a 23V" color CRT that was bad, and that had the mounting hardware permanently attatched to it. This created a problem for replacing it with a salvaged 25XP22 RCA tube (the RCA has detachable mounting hardware that attaches in slightly different places.) I had to drill holes in the CRT mask in the cabinet to attach the mounting bolts, and the new CRT sits slightly back in the cabinet--there is a gap between the faceplate and the mask.
This is something you will want to watch out for in the Zenith. Also, if you buy a brand new (NOS) RCA CRT and you have a Zenith with the permanently attached mounting bracket around the faceplate, you will have nothing to hook up the new CRT in the cabinet.

[captainmoody]

The set I gave Doug is a '67 and doesn't have the permanent hardware so he should be safe in bidding on that nos tube.
Sounds like a lot of work you did on that Zenith! I have a '68 and it uses the regular tube with no permanent mounting hardware.
Whenever I run into anything like that, I try not to drill holes or cobble parts from other sets and put them on it, or modify the tv in any way from the norm for safety and or historical purposes, I would wait for the right tube or if that is not possible use the brackets off the old one, some tubes had the mounting tabs welded to a collar that looked like it was cemented on the tube with frit or something similar, I would break or cut the tabs off then weld them to suitable mounts and attach them on the new tube with the rca huge hose clamp hardware!
My main goal when substitution is necessary is NOT to modify the tv so that it looks cobbled or is unsafe, And insure that it can be put back to factory specs when a tube becomes available.

[Chad Hauris]

Yes, the repair I did on that Zenith is not something I would recommend and it looks like a real "hillbilly" job with the bolts sticking out from the mask, I did that when I was younger and would not do today. I got the set for $5 and happened to have a 25XP22 from a junked set so I decided to experiment to see if this would work.

[drh4683]

I cant believe this sold for this much!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3026634292

If I never saw it, it would have sold for $20 to the first bidder! If a 25XP22 is worth this, I wonder what an nib 21FJ is worth!!!!!

[kc8adu]

talk about silly.
you can buy rebuilts all day for 89.00!
the 25bcp22 went for 32somthing.
it is a newer type just before the 23v numbering.
went in the ctc40.

[captainmoody]

I don't know what these people are on, But wish they would bid like that on my stuff!!

[wvsaz]

I purchased one of these new in 1970 for $125 WHOLESALE from an RCA distributor, for replacing a 23EGP22 in a Motorola set (the RCA tube provided a significantly improved picture). $125 in 1970 dollars translates to $581.40 in 2002 dollars, so perhaps the final bid wasn't so bad after all. :eek:

[kc8adu]

Originally posted by wvsaz
I purchased one of these new in 1970 for $125 WHOLESALE from an RCA distributor, for replacing a 23EGP22 in a Motorola set (the RCA tube provided a significantly improved picture). $125 in 1970 dollars translates to $581.40 in 2002 dollars, so perhaps the final bid wasn't so bad after all. :eek:
isnt a 23egp22 a smaller tube?was that a kit with a new bezel?

[captainmoody]

Yeah, Didn't Motorola Have that kit with the bezel, I barely remember something about that.

[wvsaz]

No bezel, it was listed as a direct replacement. The 25XP22 was slightly bigger, but not that much. It was a tight squeeze to get it inside the mounting brackets, though.

It was RCA who listed this tube as a replacement. Motorola still had plenty of 23EGP22s available. The reason for the imroved picture was that the RCA tube had a black matrix screen and rare-earth red phosphor, which the Motorola tube did not have.

The only replacement bezel I am aware of supplied by Motorola was part of a kit for converting their 1954 round tube color sets from a 19VP22 to a 21AXP22.

Btw, the 23EGP22 was the first rectangular color tube to be manufactured in quantity. It was introduced by Motorola in 1963, in the TS-908Y chassis. The 22" Westinghouse 22EP22 of 1956 was first, but was never built in quantity.

[drh4683]

Dwight gave me this set back in april in serious need of restortation. The knobs were gone, didnt work. Just yesterday I took the time to go after it. I found the correct knobs for it from a junk tv that was just given to me. Turned out to have sharp picture after a simple replacement of the video drive transistor. Anyone have a tv stand 29" or slightly bigger that fits the age of this set? Dont have anywhere to put it but ontop a console. btw, this is a 1967, chassis 20X1C38

[drh4683]

D

[joe_tbird]

My father bought this new in 1981 and it's still running. It's still my main TV set. The picture is gradually going dim, though I don't think it's the picture tube. If I wriggle the brightness & contrast controls I can persuade the picture to get brighter for a while, then it gradually gets dim again.

It's a Sears & Roebuck. I sometimes wonder who the company was who made the console sets for Sears back then. It's probably among the last sets made in the USA, though I think Zenith may have made TVs in America until the end of the 1980s.

[captainmoody]

Most likely a Sanyo, They made a lot of stuff for Sears back then.

[kc8adu]

definately sanyo.
although wells gardiner made a few that looked similar.
no touch tuning on the wg.
clean the pots and your brightness problem will be cured.
i still get the portables with the telecaption in for service and the pots are very stiff and intermittant till they get a shot of wd-40

[drh4683]

we forgot about this thread! Here is my 1970 zenith 12A10C15 15" portable color. Just got it through ebay friday. This is the one I was waiting for since september! The set worked, no vertical sweep. a 3.3meg in the vertical out was open. Replaced and now looks like new! Its kind of a beater tv. Will be a great garage set! yep, dont have one out there yet! go figure.
ADDED 12-2-3: Now the set quit working thanks to a defective IF sub chassis. I subbed the chassis with a known good and works now. I think a diode shorted on me.

[drh4683]

here is a shot of the inside + my cluttered workbench. Notice my cheapie heathkit capacitor analyzer! Works great!

[heathkit tv]

Originally posted by kc8adu
definately sanyo.
although wells gardiner made a few that looked similar.
no touch tuning on the wg.
clean the pots and your brightness problem will be cured.
i still get the portables with the telecaption in for service and the pots are very stiff and intermittant till they get a shot of wd-40

WD-40? I've found that because it's mostly comprised of solvents, that once they evaporate there's no anti-corrosion protection left behind. I used to use it on freshly machined engine blocks and paid the price when fuzzy rust formed VERY quickly. Since then I use only PB Blaster or KROIL. These are far superior in their penetrating AND protective abilities.

I know nothing about their electrical conductance or lack of same.

As for contact cleaner, it's my understanding that most cans of Brake Kleen are pretty much the same formula, perhaps less a lubricant.......but far cheaper than the contact cleaner. What say youse?

Anthony

[Chad Hauris]

I think that brake cleaner and Radio Shack tuner cleaner are similar...it is tetrachloroethylene?? or something like that. Brake cleaner smells about the same. Have not tried it, but would probably work OK. However I only use DEOXIT for contact cleaning. It is expensive, but it is the best! Have not had a recurrence of the trouble on any controls I used Deoxit on, after years of use.

I agree that WD 40 is not great, do not even own any of it. PB Blaster is good, it has loosened rusted parts on mowers, 30 year old rusted spark plugs, etc. Also used KROIL at work, loosed up a rusted old satellite dish mount.

[captainmoody]

WD-40 is the last thing I would use on pots, You need something with a cleaner and lasting lubricant.
When I used to repair copiers, One of the techs at where I worked would use that on the one way clutches. Yeah, They would work fine for a week or so then cause trouble again when the lube evaporated.
He started using the proper cleaning procedure and the right grease and all the return calls ended.

[Jeffhs]

When I was working on an old radio a couple years ago, I bought a can of Radio Shack tuner cleaner (had to get a new pilot light for the set anyhow, which is what I went there for in the first place). Their brand of tuner cleaner is expensive as all get-out ($7.99 or so, if memory serves), but it worked well. Don't know who makes RS branded tuner cleaner (perhaps they make their own), :dunno: but no matter. It works, which is all that matters to me.

[polaraman]

Got this set off the CURB in Atlanta this past Saturday. best kind of TV set - FREE! Tried it tonight and no vertical deflection. The rest of the set Seems to be fine. Does anybody have the knobs for this set?

polaraman

[captainmoody]

Wow! did you bring that home in your neon? My back hurts just looking at that!
The reason I say this is Doug and his friend Joe came up from Chicago and helped me move at least a dozen consoles to my new house, Carmine helped too the week before. Had to be about 30 consoles in all and I am not feeling well.
Oh well, At least it is done and nothing had to be left behind to an uncertain fate!
Is that an early seventies Hybrid? I have seen those before but can't remember.
If tube deflection, Check the vert out. If that is good make a few voltage checks in that circuit to make sure there no open power resistors that feed it. Lastly, Check caps.

[polaraman]

It is a hybrid set. Looks as it can be fixed easily. I had my truck this time. I will take a picture of the chassis tomorrow.

I went to Minnesota last year in my Neon and got my Stromburg- Carlson Classic 21. Took out the passenger seat and set it in there. The chassis rode in the back seat and the cabinet was beside me all the way. I had them measure the set three times so I was certain it would fit.

polaraman