Hi fellow VK'ers;
Some of you may remember me from my giant radio restoration thread last summer... (
http://vintagepc.co.nr/site/index.php/stuff/radio/) That was the first tube gear I've worked on, and it left me with a taste for more...
I don't have space for a huge collection (too many vintage computers... none that use tubes though
)
but I would like to do a tube TV for kicks just to have one and say I've restored it.
I've worked in computer monitors/TVs before, so I'm aware of the HV risks involved, but I'm curious as to a few things:
1. How to find one? I occasionally check sites like CL and Kijiji as well as the odd WANTED post on the local Freecycle group, but there's either nothing or it's horribly overpriced. It's not something I want to put a lot of cash into to get the set since I'd do it for the fun/challenge of the restoration, not for collecting rare/valuable sets. (and of course, anything outside of my local area would cost an arm and a leg for shipping, and risk getting broken).
2. What's required for equipment? I've got a DMM, a variac on loan, a good soldering iron, a head on my shoulders, and a good electronics skill set (heck, I manually re-wound an oscillator coil in my radio and it worked. I'd probably try to re-build a fried flyback just for kicks
) . I see people discuss CRT testers, tube testers, HOT cathode current meters, etc. but are they _required_? Again, as a one-off thing, I wouldn't want a large up-front cost for gear I'd only use once.
3. Any other advice you'd like to share?