Trying to find someone to do an electronic restoration my my Philco color roundie. It has a CTC-11A chassis I live in Joplin Missouri and willing to take it several hours to someone who would be willing to do the work and agree on a price. I'd appreciate any info to help point me somewhere to have this done! Thanks guys!

If you can't find a closer tech I'd consider doing it for $100 labor + the cost of parts.

I could possibly do it here in St.Louis. PM me if that works for you.

Well, I might be able to do it, if your willing to drive it to Omaha, NE. But first off, I ask if you know if the picture tube and flyback are good. Do you get any light on the screen? If so that means that at least your getting high voltage which probably indicates that the flyback is good. (Preferably you should bring it up on a variac, but you could plug it in and turn it on for an instant just to see if you get any light on the screen). I can check the picture tube if you bring it up here and give you an idea of what might need to be done. Good roundie CRTs are expensive if you can find a good one, and shipping a large CRT is risky. It probably used a 21CYP22 picture tube, but maybe it has been replaced at some point with a newer version like a 21FJP22. If you have or know someone who has a CRT tester it would be wise to check the tube first before starting a restoration of the set. Unfortunately there is nobody that rebuilds picture tubes anymore. The set appears to be in good condition cosmetically which give me hope that it's a good candidate to restore. I doubt if you can do anything with the small dent in the speaker grill. As far as price, there are so many variables. It all depends on what parts I would have to buy and order plus a lot of time spent on it. (my 1954 21CT55 RCA CTC2B chassis I work on for over 6 months. Of course like any older electronic's like this may or may not last and need further service in the future. Also just for safety it's always best to leave any older electronics unplugged unless your near or using the set. Of course you will need a converter box, or hook it to a VCR, or DVD player with a modulator since everything today has gone digital. I have noticed some DVDs play with bad retrace lines at the top of the picture on these older round screen TVs, as there is so much digital encoding on the DVD discs. Get in touch with me about price, etc. and to discuss more about the set. Send me an E-mail with you phone number or e-mail where I can get a hold of you to wjb122750@hotmail.com
Here is a link to my work on my 1954 color RCA if you would like to read about some of the things, hassles, parts, etc, that I needed to do to get it operational.
http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=264373

Here is a link to the Sams for the RCA CTC11, which apparently is the same chassis that is used in your Philco.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/pdf/rca_ctc11_sams_550_2.pdf

If you can't find a closer tech I'd consider doing it for $100 labor + the cost of parts.

Man, you work cheap! :eek:

I have tested the tube with my sencore cr70 and all guns tested fine it has a replacement tube. I believe it's a 21fbp22 picture tube. The television would start to show color on the screen and almost like it clicked off and did the same after waiting a few minutes. Checked and replaced a few bad tubes. As for testing the rest I'm not sure. I do have an identical cabinet with the grille not dented but not sure how I would swap them.

Man, you work cheap! :eek:

I was thinking the same thing, our local repair shops are $90 an hour. I charge less but would still be at the $100 mark after blowing out the dust, testing all the tubes, and having look see.

Gregb

Yeah, I know Tom figures in some "fun" and "educational" discounts because he enjoys the challenge of working on these, but $100 is way too low. His time and skills are worth far more than that.

I myself wouldn't even look at it for less than $50/hour, with a 10-hour minimum, cash in advance. I only work for cheap when I'm working on my own stuff, and stopped servicing for others about 10 years ago when hard to find parts were much more readily available.

.

i can remember freelancing for 10.00 per set in the 60s.25.00 in the 70s and finally 40.00 in the 80s.we work at our shop rate of 75.00 per hour on vehicles.the mechanic makes 25.00 and shop makes the rest for overhead and some profit.wouldnt say 50.00 per hour is out of line but thats 102,000.00 per year based on 40 hours per week.nice salary!and damn well worth it

Well the good news is that if the CRT is good, and you get some color or brightness on the screen at least we know that you have some high voltage, meaning that the flyback is at least working, producing some high voltage. (RCA type flybacks are known to go out, short, arc, and smoke). Finding a replacement flyback is almost impossible, and you could get everything working, then some time later the flyback goes up in smoke. Unfortunately that's always a possibility. Did you get a picture at all, with the color going out, or did you mean that there was some color light on the screen and then it clicks off. Could be so many different things. Some possibilities are that the HV disappears, or a problem in the video circuit, focus circuit, high voltage circuits, bad solder joints and connections, loose tube sockets, and of course don't forget the power supply. Usually they need to be re-capped, especially the filter electrolytic's. There might be a tube in which the filament lights up for a moment then due to a bad solder joint that heats up, the filament of the tube goes out. I'm sure the speaker grill comes off somehow, but it does take some time to figure out how to get it off. It might just be glued on the front panel or maybe you would have to change out the entire panel top to bottom. If it's glued on, prying it off will just bend it up more. Then also, I'm sure the convergence, purity, and grey scale will have to be set. Transporting the set can knock the convergence and purity off again, as ideally it should be set up where the TV is to be used and run. If one makes sure the yoke, convergence yoke are screwed down tight, and everything is plugged in tight, including the tubes, it should stand the trip ok, but things do happen. I won't even get into the price it would cost, as to me it would be a project that would take me possibly several months. All I can say that to restore it right it will probably be several hundred dollars total. Call or e-mail me is you want to chat about it or have any more questions. It's quite rewarding when one gets a color set going again thats over 55 years old. (But the set is younger the me, I'm 65, born in 1950). I sent you a PM on this site with my phone number, address and e-mail.

The gentleman from St. Louis and I are ironing out some details but hopefully I'll have a working roundie in the future! Thanks everyone for all your help!

$50/hr charge out rate doesn't mean making $50 an hour - even if you have all your furniture and test equipment and space paid off (say, a basement shop), you still will go through consumables, still have to pay for power, etc. Plus nobody is billable 40 hours a week, if you work 40 hours maybe 30 At best would be chargeable directly to a customer. I think one would be lucky to get a $50k annual income out of a $50/h charge out rate, and that assumes business is consistently good all year long. To be honest if I could make $50k a year doing nothing but fixing tube electronics I would do it in a heart beat, but I think gregb has the market locked up around here :)

I think a $100 flat rate for that TV is more or less pure charity, spreading enthusiasm for the hobby , etc. Nothing wrong with that but like others said, a good tech is worth way more.

Apparently as far as repair goes I'm a cheap date! :D

To me it is always been a hobby rather than a business. I do enjoy working on stuff like this, and that always factors in. I've not been inside any RCA's between CTC-4 and CTC-15 so I'd learn from it. Part of it is I charge what I would want to pay someone else to do the kinda job I do. I also figure if I do a decent job for a good price and next week some random unobtainium part bites it from old age I won't have as pissed of a customer as I would if I charged 5X as much.

Perhaps I am too cheap...

Apparently as far as repair goes I'm a cheap date! :D

To me it is always been a hobby rather than a business. I do enjoy working on stuff like this, and that always factors in. I've not been inside any RCA's between CTC-4 and CTC-15 so I'd learn from it. Part of it is I charge what I would want to pay someone else to do the kinda job I do. I also figure if I do a decent job for a good price and next week some random unobtainium part bites it from old age I won't have as pissed of a customer as I would if I charged 5X as much.

Perhaps I am too cheap...

What Tom said!:thmbsp:

Apparently as far as repair goes I'm a cheap date! :D

To me it is always been a hobby rather than a business. I do enjoy working on stuff like this, and that always factors in. I've not been inside any RCA's between CTC-4 and CTC-15 so I'd learn from it. Part of it is I charge what I would want to pay someone else to do the kinda job I do. I also figure if I do a decent job for a good price and next week some random unobtainium part bites it from old age I won't have as pissed of a customer as I would if I charged 5X as much.

Perhaps I am too cheap...

Heck, I'd flip you $40 just to fix the stupid signal issue with my Motorola 7VT2 if you feel like busting out the iron at ETF ;)

It was and still is somewhat a hobby for me as well but when you get as many repairs a year as I do you have to make SOME money to cover over head. Have you bought a roll of solder lately? I go through 5-6 rolls a year and I have enough parts in stock at any given time to rebuild and retube just about anything that comes through the door. I could not even begin to guess an inventory value but it would be a big number.
It started out as just a hobby and before I knew what happened it became this huge thing so much so that at one point I did consider quitting my day job. I have started to scale back a little as I would like it to be more hobby than anything else.

Gregb

Heck, I'd flip you $40 just to fix the stupid signal issue with my Motorola 7VT2 if you feel like busting out the iron at ETF ;)

I could try. You still looking for a B&K 1076? I was able to scare up the coax lead for mine (it is just a direct lead, though I don't think there were any special probes for these), and one of the front panel jumpers. It is pretty easy to make more leads for the front jumpers by selecting nails of the correct diameter and soldering clip leads on.

If you want the B&K I could bring it (and some other stuff) and try to troubleshoot your set with it. I like using B&K units for these types of issues.

Sounds like fun :) . And yes, I definitely need one. Maybe I'll bring the chassis for my replica pre-war set too, just for grins.

the 1076 is a very useful. enjoy!