ZackN920
01-04-2017, 03:29 PM
Hey guy’s. December was apparently my month… Picked up 2 great old Televison set’s. This Admiral is one of them. (The other’s a working original 57’ RCA 14” portable, with a PT!)
Well, I’ve been wanting a mini console like one of these for quite awhile, ever since I noticed them as a kid. I always thought these Bakelite sets were interesting, especially with them being the largest piece of bakelite made. That, and these things are small for a console, and can fit almost anywhere!:thmbsp:
Christmas day, I got a tip off from a family friend about a small Admiral bakelite console at an antique shop in Rockford. He was telling me about it, and it sounded great! He didn’t look close, but he told me there was no obvious damage, and that it looked complete to him. (All knobs, original metal back,yadayadayada) I knew I had to check this out, to find out more. I knew there were a few different models that used the bakelite cabinet’s, and a few different cabinet styles as well. We all went over there last Wednesday, so he could show me the set, and he wanted to check out some other stuff too.
I checked it over and bought it!:smoke: Had, what I thought, a good price compared to what I’ve seen around. Nice cabinet, and everything is complete, other than the mesh screen that covers the bottom of the chassis inside the cabinet. It even has the original antenna, with the 3 position set up!:thmbsp:
Got it home, and first thing I did was clean it up. Off came the back, I found that it’s full of tubes, and that it had been quite awhile since anyone had been in there. Really dusty, and of course, full of cob webs. Also cleaned the cabinet with some house hold stuff…and it really has no luster.:sigh: I’ve got to find out how to clean it properly and then maybe, polish it up. I saw something about using brown shoe polish….
Now, on the tag, it did say it didn’t work…So that told me, “it’s probably been plugged in”, so I went “what the hell, I’m gunna power it up and see what happens”. I checked it over, and made sure nothing looked off underneath, and up above. Looked all right, original except the filter’s(someone filled it with newer Mallory cans at one point) and a few plastic Sprague’s.
So, I hooked my multi meter up, got the dim bulb tester out, and the variac. Slowly powered it up, and found it had nothing but normal looking lit up tube’s. Sound had a little scratch, when the control was played with. No high voltage. That section sounded dead, as I can always hear that high pitch whine and this had none.
After some discussion, and figuring that it’s not going upstairs, I put it at the top of the resto list. Why? Because I won’t have a non-working tv set in one of the 2 living rooms. So, after I got the little Admiral all together, and declared it “finished”... I pulled the 20X1 chassis, and on the table it went.
I thought I had more pics of it, before I disassembled it, but all I had was this one.
Well, I’ve been wanting a mini console like one of these for quite awhile, ever since I noticed them as a kid. I always thought these Bakelite sets were interesting, especially with them being the largest piece of bakelite made. That, and these things are small for a console, and can fit almost anywhere!:thmbsp:
Christmas day, I got a tip off from a family friend about a small Admiral bakelite console at an antique shop in Rockford. He was telling me about it, and it sounded great! He didn’t look close, but he told me there was no obvious damage, and that it looked complete to him. (All knobs, original metal back,yadayadayada) I knew I had to check this out, to find out more. I knew there were a few different models that used the bakelite cabinet’s, and a few different cabinet styles as well. We all went over there last Wednesday, so he could show me the set, and he wanted to check out some other stuff too.
I checked it over and bought it!:smoke: Had, what I thought, a good price compared to what I’ve seen around. Nice cabinet, and everything is complete, other than the mesh screen that covers the bottom of the chassis inside the cabinet. It even has the original antenna, with the 3 position set up!:thmbsp:
Got it home, and first thing I did was clean it up. Off came the back, I found that it’s full of tubes, and that it had been quite awhile since anyone had been in there. Really dusty, and of course, full of cob webs. Also cleaned the cabinet with some house hold stuff…and it really has no luster.:sigh: I’ve got to find out how to clean it properly and then maybe, polish it up. I saw something about using brown shoe polish….
Now, on the tag, it did say it didn’t work…So that told me, “it’s probably been plugged in”, so I went “what the hell, I’m gunna power it up and see what happens”. I checked it over, and made sure nothing looked off underneath, and up above. Looked all right, original except the filter’s(someone filled it with newer Mallory cans at one point) and a few plastic Sprague’s.
So, I hooked my multi meter up, got the dim bulb tester out, and the variac. Slowly powered it up, and found it had nothing but normal looking lit up tube’s. Sound had a little scratch, when the control was played with. No high voltage. That section sounded dead, as I can always hear that high pitch whine and this had none.
After some discussion, and figuring that it’s not going upstairs, I put it at the top of the resto list. Why? Because I won’t have a non-working tv set in one of the 2 living rooms. So, after I got the little Admiral all together, and declared it “finished”... I pulled the 20X1 chassis, and on the table it went.
I thought I had more pics of it, before I disassembled it, but all I had was this one.