Foundie a roundie!

[RetroHacker]

Well, I finally scored a standalone roundie, 'in the wild'. It was a random stroke of luck. I had picked up a friend and we were going to go hang out and watch a movie with some other guys and I rounded the corner near his house, and there it was - it had been tossed into a construction dumpster - one of those long, low ones, and was sitting, back to me, on the debris in the dumpster. I immediately recognised the picture tube as being a roundie. I stopped the car and looked - it was sitting on a bunch of broken boards, next to a dented filing cabinet with no drawers. So I sped home (it wasn't going to fit in my Camry nearly as well as the van.) and got my dad's minivan. I got back as quick as I could and we climbed into the dumpster, and lifted it out of the debris, and balanced it on the edge, and lifted it out and into the van. I was worried that the people (or worse, the police) might complain, but nobody did. While we were up in the dumpster, a police car passed without even slowing down, and as we were carting it over to the van, two different people mentioned something, one said "Wow, they don't make 'em like that anymore", and the other one wanted to know why I wanted it - he was suprised to know that I actually fixed old TV's.

So. That was last night - I had to wait until today after work to take pictures and post here. It's a General Electric roundie with VHF and UHF tuners. The picture tube looks like the vacuum might have been let out of it, the keyway on the connector is broken off, and you can see the bare glass, and the pins are badly mangled. The most unusual thing about this set is the knobs. The VHF knob and the volume knob are sticking out about an inch and a half, and it's been extended like this purposely. The tuner shaft is connected with a little aluminum coupler to a bit of metal that the knob is on. Same thing with the volume. And only those two knobs. It also appears that someone added trim around the whole tuner section, as you can see in the picture, there is a section of it missing. The bottom section pulls out too, and I think the left and right bits are held in with sunken in finishing nails. The wood has been stained to match the television, almost. Any idea what someone was up to here? A built-in set? A cover to keep people away from UHF and tint?

Other than that, and some overall cabinet damage, it's mostly intact. The flyback looks OK, but there is no horizonal output tube, no back/power cord, and a good chance of a dud picture tube. But, it _is_ a roundie.

-Ian

[Steve K]

Ian:

Nice find! The good news is that the CRT MIGHT be good yet or at least under vacuum. That metal thing sticking out of the base look intact. You can carefully plug the socket back on the tube. Just make sure that you get the pins lined up correctly.

Steve

[jstout66]

Dude!!!! NICE. It's a bit rough, but I've seen worse. GE's have to be somewhat rare. Here in Nebraska I've only seen RCA's, a few Zenith's and one Admiral. Looks like you'll have to get a picture tube, but the 21FJ's do come up on eBay once in awhile. GOOD for you for saving it!

[bgadow]

That looks like a close call on the crt but I think chances are VERY good that it is okay. My guess would be it was a built-in and that is why it was still there and being torn out, thrown in with construction debris-just my guess. A great save, anyway!

[blue_lateral]

Great find! Looks ctc-15 based

John

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by blue_lateral

Great find! Looks ctc-15 based

John

Agreed. That's basically a CTC-15, but RCA wouldn't let GE use the RCA tuner. So it's a GE tuner and cabinet.

Charles

[radio63]

Maybe it was located in a bar or other public place and they had the controls blocked off so patrons could not adjust the set, except for channel and volume. Just my guess.

Gilbert

[Tony V]

Looks like it wouldnt take too much to bring it back to original cosmetically. Cant wait to hear the details when your able to check it out further. Nice find and you cant beat the price!
-Tony

[frenchy]

wow for a set that was actually I N a dumpster that's a nice set, hope you get it up and running!

[Chad Hauris]

I would put the alligator clip leads to the crt filament pins and a 6.3 v supply and see if it lights up...if so, good...however one time I got a dumpster set that had a broken CRT base and worked when first tried but then the CRT was bad a year later...had a slow leak in the pin area. Hope yours fares better though...

[zenithfan1]

Please disregard, I was looking at the pics here. They are posted on the GE Roundie, Does anyone have one? thread.
I replied here on accident instead of the other thread. Sorry, I'm new here and am still learning.

[MRX37]

The bent CRT pins worry me a bit. Putting another CRT might be a good idea.

[stromberg6]

WOW! Even when I was a kid (I'm 56) I didn't see very many GE branded color sets for sale in stores. I guess production figures were low.
Ditto the advice on the CRT pins. Just be very gentle while straightening them. I hope you are able to use the tube. I have a 21AX with some loose pins, but haven't repaired them yet. The tube checks good, at least.
Kevin

[Jeffhs]

That cover below the VHF channel selector might be a UHF knockout plug. Many TVs in the early sixties (before April 30, 1964, the date all TVs sold in the US had to have all-channel tuning) had these so that an optional UHF tuner could be installed; the upgrade kit included the tuner, knobs and all hardware required to mount the component in the set. The plug covered a hole in the tuner cluster through which the UHF tuner shaft protruded. I've seen several sets like this in my 30-odd years of electronics experimenting. One such set that stands out in my memory, even after all these years, is a 23" Sylvania console of early-'60s vintage owned by my aunt and uncle; the set was VHF only, and had a knockout plug marked "UHF convertible" below the VHF tuner. The set went West some time in the seventies and was replaced by a 15" Admiral all-channel color portable.

[zenithfan1]

I really like the cabinet the GE is in, I wish I could find one like this. Never seen one in person.