I went out this morning to an estate sale that said to have some antiques. Since it was only sunday from 9 till noon, I figured I had a fighting chance to get something, as most sales on saturday get huge crowds.

I arrived to meet the gentleman who owned the estate. His father had passed and left all of his belongings to him. Stepping into this house was like steping back into the 50s. THere was lots of very nice furniture from the late 40s and alot of 50s appliances. However the only TV I saw was from the 80s. I asked the fellow if his father might have kept any old televisions or radios. He told me there was lots of junk in the basement, and led me down to take a look.

In this basement was lots of heath stuff, most of which was sold already, and a few other tube amps and pre-amps. I saw one tv in the back burried under some boxes. It turned out to be a GE tabletop with an early 15" rectangular tube. The cabinet had been destroyed by moistore, and most of the trim and knobs were missing. I then spotted a late 50s whurlitzer jukebox! This was in a well preserved state, and even still had some vinyl inside lined up to play!

I was on my way out thinking I had struck out. I already had plenty of audio gear at home, and I was mainly looking for early color sets. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the edge of a dark mahogany cabinet behind some shower doors that were laying up against it. It was a fairly small cabinet, so I though, ok maybe I'll go home with a neat old radio or something...

I opened the doors expecting to see a tuning dial and a few knobs. What I found was a nice capehart 14" set with a rectangular tube. it was covered in layers upon layers of dust, termite droppings and mold. It had the knobs and a back and the CRT wasn't busted, so I asked the gentlemen what he would want for it. "what's it worth to you?" he asked me. I didn't want to look like a stingy asshat, but I remembered him selling a mint heathkit shortwave transceiver for only 50 bucks!!! I asked him if he would take 20 dollars, and he happily agreed. THe only tough part was the two of us carrying it up a flight of narrow stairs and getting it into my trunk. I don't have alot of room for it, but I hated to leave it behind at that price!

After a few hours of cleaning and repetitive orange oil coatings, it looks pretty good. Its complete at least, and should fix well if the ps or CRT isn't dead.

I wish more people would save their stuff like this guy did.

Nice! :yes:

Model 3012.
Sams 112-3.
Chassis CX-33, 16RP4 CRT. Sold as the "Blackstone" model.
Identical chassis as my http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=29757&d=1162846325
and http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=15451&d=1147265853
and Ralph's (rp2813's) 325. And Retrohacker's 333 and donald_randall's 332. You've seen the story, I'm sure.

except this one is earlier in the production run (and probably has a different tuner).

Oh, and it's the TV in my avatar icon (above) too.

I had my face buried in my 325 for a long time, and am toying with the idea of getting the 2nd one out and working on it.

I have documents galore and can offer advice. PM me anytime.

Can you show me and Ralph a closeup of the channel-selector knob?

Thanks,

- Kirk

Shading and Balance = Contrast and Brightness?

Sweet find! but don't forget to save room for a Packard Bell roundie. :)

So what did they want for the Jukebox??

Shading and Balance = Contrast and Brightness?

Shading = Brightness, Balance = Fine Tuning.

No explicit contrast control, AGC control effectively adjusts contrast.

Eric: Not sure what he wanted for the jukebox, but considering what he was letting stuff go for, it couldn't have been that much.

kbmuri: The channel selector knob is plastic with a brass coating and numbers stamped into it. I've attached a pic if that is helpful. Any kind of service info, sams, etc. would be great and I'll be happy to pay for a copy. I would like to know of a source where i can get the capehart panel that covers the service adjustments on the front. cool that my set is the one in your avatar. does the chassis and tube slide out as one, or are they separate?

jp,

Well you surprised me, your TV has the late tuner like the other CX-33's I mentioned (mine and the other AK'ers). I would have guessed the 3012's were all early. The early tuner has a knob, identical except the numbers are more compactly spaced and only go half-way around the circumference of the knob (see photo). So your entire chassis is just like ours. There doesn't seem to be any hard-fast rules on what TV got what tuner I guess. Maybe just whatever was available that day at the factory. The photo of the halfway-round tuner was from a local-pickup-only eBay TV out of my driving range, so I didn't get it. I'd like to find one someday.

You'll have lots of trouble finding the brass badge. As the sets aged, a person had to adjust the vertical hold a lot, and it got too tiresome to unscrew the badge-mount screws every time, so people left the badge off and eventually lost it. Quite a few of the eBay TVs have had it missing. I don't know if it's worth the trip for you to go back where you bought it and ask the guy if you can look around for it, but I think I'd at least try that. Barring that, ask around the forum. Or hamfests in the junk bins. Same photo (attached) has a good shot of the badge, print it off and take it with you.

Polaraman also has a CX-33 in his model 324. I forgot to mention that one. So I guess we're up to around seven of them in AK hands. Should be a good reservior of experience between us all.

The Picture tube is mounted to the chassis, not the cabinet. As retrohacker showed us here: http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14507&d=1146310262
It's pretty heavy so be careful carrying it from the cabinet to the workbench.

I can't sell you a copy of a photofact without being a criminal. I have an ethics base that won't allow it. The whole Napster thing made it clear what's "sharing" and what's not, so I'm sure I'm in the clear if I share one electronic copy, not very often, free of charge, not anonymously, to a friend or acquaintance, and with no premeditated intent of putting Sams out of business. Pretty strict world. I've given a CD to 3 AKers who specifically asked, with hi-res scans of the necessary documents (a couple sams, some Capehart service documents, a few pages from a most-often-needed manual, and some other odds-and-ends). The complete package will cover every question you might have. If you want one, PM me with your mailing address.

Enjoy this TV. It's a keeper.

- Kirk

another question I have is related to the safty glass. Its rather dirty and I was thinking of cleaning it. however, I see that part of the CRT mask is a painted design on the back side of the glass. I'm worried about rubbing the paint off while trying to clean the glass. is there any way to safely clean the safty glass without wiping out that painted design?

This guy wants $250 for the empty cabinet from one of these!

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-CAPEHART-FARNSWORTH-1950s-TV-CABINET-NR_W0QQitemZ150059240221QQihZ005QQcategoryZ3638QQr dZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Kirk,

I think you and I both were expecting to see the earlier tuning knob on this set. Seems like they developed the later tuner during this production run and started throwing it into these models once they had run out of the earlier style tuner.

This is a very nice set and a great find, JP. Re: the plate that covers the adjusting controls, I seem to have lost the screws that hold mine on. Kirk, any idea of what size screws these are? I will keep looking, but may need to find some special brass ones that will work. As I recall they had a rather fine thread and a more decorative type of flattened head on them as opposed to your average round head machine screw.

Kirk, I hope you have received the early style knob that I sent you earlier this week.

Ralph

My 325's eBay ad from last year (http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17876&d=1149990565) shows it with the badge missing. Fortunately the owner had saved it, but he didn't save the original screws. His story: too hard to adjust the vertical hold all the time with the badge in the way. I just have the badge leaning up in place in my final photo. Yesterday I removed one of the screws from the badge on my 333. It does look "custom". A decorative flattened head, just as you describe. My local hardware store didn't have any machine screws that size (very small-diameter threads). I went to Lowe's, they have it, but not in brass. Here's nearly the correct screw (thread coarseness, diameter, length, and metallic composition):

http://www.amazon.com/4-40-BRASS-ROUND-S-SL-Qty/dp/B0006482M8/sr=1-13/qid=1164048212/ref=sr_1_13/102-1393825-1590557?ie=UTF8&s=industrial

The only flaw is the head is way too round. Not sure I want to buy 100 of them, an additional $6.50 S/H too, but if I do, there's plenty of spares to try bludgeoning a few of then flat and trying to replicate the correct screw head. Might be worth a shot. For now I bought a 12-count bag of the zinc version with philips-head styling from Lowe's for 79 cents. Dipping them in brown paint will probably be adequate for anything but a museum piece. I'll try it out and if I'm not happy, will try smashing the brass ones.

Ralph, thanks for the early-style knob. An equitable trade for your (new) late-style knob, and it's nice to know your Capehart 325 is nearly whole again.

I contacted the seller of the empty 326 cabinet currently on eBay, and asked about the front safety glass, screen mask, knobs, and brass badge. It didn't sound promising. It's priced ok at the opening bid of $125, if those items were still with the set. Probably find a CX-33 chassis for it someday later. As-is, missing everything, maybe 25 bucks, tops.

Pictures don't really do the craftsmanship of the cabinet work on these sets justice. I understand why the guy thinks it's worth $250, but it isn't.

On cleaning the safety glass, there shouldn't be any "dirt" between the paint and the glass, so just don't rub there. Windex the front side and carefully windex only the transparent part of the back side. No reason to clean the paint surface, even if it's a little dirty. Too big a risk of scratching off any paint, which would probably be irreparable.

My thoughts only. I'm sure there are other solutions.

Thanks for the cleaning advice Kirk, and thanks again for the capehart literature.

I bet that was a pleasant surprise... to find a TV in there instead of a radio! Nice find!

I see some brown-base 6SN7's in there. It's amazing what they sell those for!

Don't windex the glass!!!!!!!!!! Instead, windex a soft cloth wipe the glass in a circular mothion and follow quickly with a dry soft cloth, staying away from any paint. This is how us picture framers get our glass so clean.

Yes. If the brown-base 6sn7's test strong, you just paid for half of your restoration work. Black-base 6sn7's work exactly as well in your TV, the brown-base ones belong in the Audio threads...

Yes. Windex the rag, not the glass.

And have fun!

great; i was just about to go clean the 639T's glass with windex. thanks

Its slowly coming along. I finished re-capping the chassis tonight. Brought it up slow with the HO and damper out. If i turn up the volume I can hear hum, but nothing more.

The Bad:
The HO tube (6BG6) is dead, and I don't have a sub or replacement. So no raster yet.
The CRT is very week. It responded to rejuvenation, but is still only putting out 200ma emission.

The good:
The chassis didn't catch on fire

It was interesting replacing the main filter caps. I got terminal strips, surface mounted them to the chassis in an open area, then wired all the caps in. I swear there are some places in this set they just don't want you to get to.