CTC-16 combo

[DaveWM]

more photos.

there is still a slight misconvergence, I just ran out fo time, did not hookup the cross hatch gen.

[DaveWM]

Originally Posted by miniman82

If that doesn't work, maybe you can flip it around? I used to charge $10 for that service back when I was still repairing VCR's on a daily basis, it was pure profit.

I dont follow the flip it around?

Oh and I forgot to mention, the stereo FM separation sounds like its working fine. I will normally would use my small stereo transmitter to test, but again ran out of time, the OTA stuff seemed to be working. I will have to go play the rock station and wait for some led zep, or maybe queen bohemian rhapsody to come on, those are good test for separaion.

[VintagePC]

You should be able to get glycerin at just about any drug store. It's often sold as a moisturizing agent for dry skin or numerous other skin conditions.

It's a fatty acid, and quite friendly to rubber since it is not highly polar like an alcohol. (also non toxic!). It soaks in quickly and basically restores the flexibility of the wheel.

Originally Posted by DaveWM

I dont follow the flip it around?

I think he meant take it off and turn it upside down. In a lot of my tape drives, the top half of the rubber capstan/idler are pressed agressively against the plastic roller in the cartridge, while the other half is not... if you flip it upside down, you can use this "unworn" half without issue. It may not apply to turntables though, since the whole wheel is usually in contact.

If you do have to re-tire, sometimes a single layer of heat-shrink can work really well, if the rubber you're covering is still a smooth surface - it will provide a new gripping surface without costing too much.

[DaveWM]

I will check out the drug store.

I have some square oring material that I have used in the past. I freeze the idler, chuck in a small lathe, turn down about 1/8, but the square o ring on, hit the inside joint with some CA glue, freeze it again, back in the lathe, the final sand it with an emory board. works pretty well.

[bgk283]

Looks beautiful Dave, that CRT looks pretty good, did you say it was weak? Looks like it has some life left in it. Let us know what youre going to do with the cataract problem, ive got an FJP sitting in a tub of water for over a month now and so far, nothing...

[DaveWM]

I will wait for a warm day, take it outside, see how things go, maybe try the hot wire trick. Not going to do the heat lamps thats forsure.

I am in the middle postion on the bias. it takes about 2 min to come up to full brightness from stone cold.

and yes it tested very weak, but comes up to just in the green if you leave it be for a couple minutes.


was just playing around with it some, I think the RCA roundies make some of the best yellows even by todays standards (forget you quattro).

UHF checks out, was alble to pick up the LP local station with just a small loop antenna.

One of these days I would like to try DXing for OTA broadcasting in Analog.

cool link
http://books.google.com/books?id=NVM...epage&q&f=true

[DaveWM]

I had some tong oil that was in my resto box, decided to try some of that, wow what a nice way to make old wood cabinetry pop

I really like the tong oil, its very controlable (you pretty much cant go wrong). I never have had any luck with ureathanes, varnish or shellacs. I aways end up with some defect in the finsh, with the oil, you just wipe it off and let it dry.

going to put a few more coats on (have to wait at least a day or two between IIRC). I am hoping I can mask off and paint match the one area of the mask. Its an edge and should present no problems as far as matching (the hard edge should make that easy)

[sampson159]

tung oil is great!i use it exclusively on my restorations.i dont care for poly at all.i use lacquer sometimes but tung oil is my favorite.if you cut it with some mineral spirits it make a spit coat and really shines.your crt looks decent enough to keep.the roundies produce some fine yellows as well as reds.nice piece and i am happy it was saved

[DaveWM]

yea this one turned out really nice. I just out sitting in the garage and I got some whole lotta love come on to test the stereo MPX, and Later Queen Bohe Rhapsody just like I wanted, very good separation, I dont even mind that the power amp is SS, I can at least say its Germanium vs Silicon

I tried the glceryin on a old idler I had lying around, the rubber was more like hard plasic, after letting is set in the lotion all day with no noticable effect I decided to try brake fluid, heard of that before but did not want to try it on a ilder I needed so this one is the test case.

I know I can do the lathe trick (heck I was even thinking of just turning one out of some alum and putting a V groove in it for an o-ring) add a ball bearing and it would be about as good as it gets, but that is a bit of over kill.

Not a big fan of these older TTs from zenith or RCA, I like the imperials MUCH better on my maggies.

[ctc17]

THE HOT WIRE DOES NOT WORK ON THE RCA STYLE!!! only the green zenith soft rubbery type.
Let it bake in the hot sun face up for a few hours and then rock it while lifting. If it doesnt come off I would put it back in. You know how easily these old crts crack and go to air. They are very fragile.

Simpsons look real good. I dont see much color bleed or anything.

[DaveWM]

I tweeked the focus, looks even better now.

[DaveWM]

I have put about 4 coats of tung oil on it, 0000 steel wool between coats, looks great. I also used the 0000 on the metal pull knobs and tuner handles, cleand up the gunk that was left, very nice and shiney. The TT seems to be working better the more I use it, for a while there it was having a tough time on the cycling but lately it works fine. I stole a needle from another RCA that I had a new diamond needle. Sounds excellant. Every now and then there is a miss fire and the record drops the arm lifts and just settles down and then turns off. I can see the little sizing lever is not working right when that happens. My guess is it just needs more use to continue to loosen up.

I tried the brake fluid on the spare idler several days, no change. going to just retread it.

[DaveWM]

touched up the purity, had a tough spot to work out, did another degauss, think I got it. used a dot/bar/crosshatch gen to touch up the convergence, just a tiny bit on the dynamic was needed. Roundies seem so much easier to get it right for me anyway. The CRT seems to be getting better if that is possible, I reset the bias to the top spot on the switch, still have plenty of brightness, tracks well etc....

I will get some more pics in a bit. the only thing I have to becareful of is the purity rings are very loose. I may try some toothpics to hold them in position.

I just know its going to look great when I get the cat off.

[DaveWM]

here are some after convergence. there is still a slight purity issue along the top.

I am going to give it a rest and try again later. I could not get the red cloud very small in the center, maybe just could not move the yoke back far enough.

since it was so large it made it difficult to see how well I was centering it.

[DaveWM]

Nailed the purity, re did it, this time I was able to center the red cloud and get the normal sets of 3 around it. Slid forward, lookin good now. I will check it again when some B&W programing comes on, that seems to show it the best.