Videokarma.org

Go Back   Videokarma.org TV - Video - Vintage Television & Radio Forums > Early B&W and Projection TV

We appreciate your help

in keeping this site going.
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #16  
Old 01-07-2012, 06:34 PM
vts1134's Avatar
vts1134 vts1134 is offline
Looking For Time
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,532
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric H View Post
I think it should be ]somewhat glossy, not mirror finish but a slightly reflective surface.

I think this picture of the unfaded area is about right.



I think the whole top cover, grille and the edges are supposed to be dark like this area.
Semi gloss then?
It's definitely a two tone color scheme with the top "hood," speaker grill, and side trim darker than the rest. I'm going to tell Lou to model the colors after the set in this picture.
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 01-07-2012, 06:36 PM
Eric H's Avatar
Eric H Eric H is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: So. Calif
Posts: 11,565
I went through the pictures sent to me by 621 owners participating in my 621 database, this is the only one that looked to be Walnut to me with an original finish.
The color scheme seems to be pretty similar to my Mahogany version, maybe a little lighter.

There seems to be a lot of variation among sets, some Mahogany ones are much darker than mine, there seems to be at least two different blond versions, and Walnut seems to be pretty rare.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg walnut621.jpg (23.2 KB, 22 views)
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 01-07-2012, 06:38 PM
Eric H's Avatar
Eric H Eric H is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: So. Calif
Posts: 11,565
Quote:
Originally Posted by vts1134 View Post
Semi gloss then?
It's definitely a two tone color scheme with the top "hood," speaker grill, and side trim darker than the rest. I'm going to tell Lou to model the colors after the set in this picture.
I think that would be about perfect, though that one looks to be refinished it's very nice.
I'm not sure if the top is supposed to be translucent like that one though, most seem to be pretty dark and opaque. Perhaps it's because it was outside in the sun?

I would aim for a darker finish on the top and trim, something similar to the knob color.
It probably has to be Toner, Paint won't look right.

Last edited by Eric H; 01-07-2012 at 06:41 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 01-09-2012, 07:27 PM
vts1134's Avatar
vts1134 vts1134 is offline
Looking For Time
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,532
Making progress with the electronic restoration now. I've got the first capacitor rebuilt. I used the tutorial posted in the tv and radio tech forum. I bent the bottom crimp up with a small flat blade screwdriver and popped the mounting ring out.

Then I pulled the disk holding the terminals off of the rest of the can. In the process of pulling it off the paper cover on the can also came off, leaving me with four pieces.

I then aranged the new electrolytic capacitors in a way that would fit inside the old can. I soldered the leads to the old terminals paying attention to make sure the values went to the corresponding terminals as they did originally.

The whole process was definitely time consuming and at times frustrating, but well worth the effort.
Before:

After:
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 01-09-2012, 07:34 PM
vts1134's Avatar
vts1134 vts1134 is offline
Looking For Time
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,532
Rebuilding the second capacitor was a bit more of a challenge than the first. Something was coating the underside of this cap, and the disk holding the terminals had become extremely brittle.

I was not able to remove the disk without destroying it. I am now in need of a new terminal disk with three terminals to move on with rebuilding my next capacitor. If any one is able to sell me this odd small part please send me a message.
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma
  #21  
Old 01-09-2012, 08:12 PM
miniman82's Avatar
miniman82 miniman82 is offline
First Light: 1952-2011
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Great Mills, MD
Posts: 4,159
You can buy them from AES: http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/...02=01_MOUNTING
__________________
Evolution...
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 01-09-2012, 08:16 PM
vts1134's Avatar
vts1134 vts1134 is offline
Looking For Time
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,532
Thanks for the link but that's not the piece that's broken. This part is.
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 01-09-2012, 08:20 PM
miniman82's Avatar
miniman82 miniman82 is offline
First Light: 1952-2011
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Great Mills, MD
Posts: 4,159
Ah, scavenge one from another cap then.
__________________
Evolution...
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 01-10-2012, 02:10 AM
Tom Albrecht's Avatar
Tom Albrecht Tom Albrecht is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 659
Semi gloss is a good choice for refinishing old sets. Modern full gloss looks too gaudy to me, and not at all representative of the original finish.
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 01-10-2012, 06:57 AM
vts1134's Avatar
vts1134 vts1134 is offline
Looking For Time
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,532
Quote:
Originally Posted by miniman82 View Post
Ah, scavenge one from another cap then.
I'm not stocked up much on surplus parts. I'll try my local vintage electronic shop in the area, but if he doesn't have any then I may still need the help of a member here.
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma
  #26  
Old 01-10-2012, 06:59 AM
vts1134's Avatar
vts1134 vts1134 is offline
Looking For Time
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,532
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Albrecht View Post
Semi gloss is a good choice for refinishing old sets. Modern full gloss looks too gaudy to me, and not at all representative of the original finish.
Semi it is. I have to see him soon as I need to drop off the pictures of the other sets that show the color scheme.
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 01-10-2012, 08:04 AM
tubesrule's Avatar
tubesrule tubesrule is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Michigan
Posts: 321
Quote:
Originally Posted by vts1134 View Post
Semi it is. I have to see him soon as I need to drop off the pictures of the other sets that show the color scheme.
John,
You should only need to tell your refinisher what gloss level you want. There is no need to use flat or semi-gloss finishes.

Nitrocellulose lacquer finishes need to be sanded and rubbed out when done, so you can get any gloss level you want during the polishing stage. This is how it was originally done. Semi-gloss finishes use flatteners to obscure the gloss resulting in a weaker and somewhat cloudy finish. A gloss finish can be polished to any level while a semi-gloss can never be polished to a full gloss level. Also if you don't polish a gloss lacquer finish it will look "plasticy" and terrible.

Some refinishers today will use modern CAB or catalyzed lacquers which if sprayed in a dust free environment don't really require polishing, so a semi-gloss might look better, but it will still look cloudy.

Attached is a picture of my 621 that I refinished with gloss nitrocellulose lacquer and rubbed out with 0000 steel wool.

Darryl
Attached Images
File Type: jpg 621.jpg (82.2 KB, 53 views)
__________________
Converters for obsolete standards:
www.tech-retro.com

Last edited by tubesrule; 01-10-2012 at 08:09 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 01-11-2012, 03:17 PM
vts1134's Avatar
vts1134 vts1134 is offline
Looking For Time
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,532
Quote:
Originally Posted by tubesrule View Post
John,
You should only need to tell your refinisher what gloss level you want. There is no need to use flat or semi-gloss finishes.

Nitrocellulose lacquer finishes need to be sanded and rubbed out when done, so you can get any gloss level you want during the polishing stage. This is how it was originally done. Semi-gloss finishes use flatteners to obscure the gloss resulting in a weaker and somewhat cloudy finish. A gloss finish can be polished to any level while a semi-gloss can never be polished to a full gloss level. Also if you don't polish a gloss lacquer finish it will look "plasticy" and terrible.

Some refinishers today will use modern CAB or catalyzed lacquers which if sprayed in a dust free environment don't really require polishing, so a semi-gloss might look better, but it will still look cloudy.

Attached is a picture of my 621 that I refinished with gloss nitrocellulose lacquer and rubbed out with 0000 steel wool.

Darryl
I wasn't even aware that there was different gloss levels to the actual lacquer. That wasn't even talked about when we discussed the refinishing. He simply wanted to know how I wanted it finished, not what kind of finish to use. He told me that he uses period correct lacquer on projects like this. I'm assuming he meant nitrocellulose but maybe I'll ask him now. I had originally told him to buff it to gloss, but I think I agree with those here who suggested semi so I'm going to tell him to go that way.
Lou was very backed up at the moment so I think that I'll have the chassis restored before I get the cabinet back from him. I did offer a little extra money to get the set done faster, if he takes me up on that offer then they might both be finished in a similar time.
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 01-11-2012, 05:54 PM
Sandy G's Avatar
Sandy G Sandy G is offline
Spiteful Old Cuss
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Rogersville, Tennessee
Posts: 9,571
Aww, man-All deze purdy Tellabishuns is makin' me GREEN w/envy...621s really WERE works of art, weren't they ?
__________________
Benevolent Despot
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 01-12-2012, 07:52 PM
vts1134's Avatar
vts1134 vts1134 is offline
Looking For Time
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,532
Works of art indeed Sandy. I still like my GE 801 a bit more as far as aesthetics but the 621 is an amazing design.
I still haven't been able to find a replacement for the bottom of the electrolytic cap I broke, and not wanting to remove another multi-stage can until I finished that one, I decided to start on the paper caps. I was surprised at how much easier it was to restuff the paper caps than it was to rebuild the electolytics.
My wife got me a new soldering iron for Christmas so I used my old soldering gun to melt the old wax and cap out of the cardboard tube. Then I melted and cleaned the wax off of the outside of the tube. After I had a clean empty tube it was ready for the new cap.

Perfect fit!
After putting the new cap inside the old housing I filled the ends with hot glue and shot a coat of lacquer on the cardboard to shine it up a bit and repel dust (the idea came from Hugo Holden's amazing 621ts restoration http://www.earlytelevision.org/holden_621.html, although he used varnish).
There was one cap in the horizontal output section that had been previously replaced with a modern cap. You can see my restuffed cap just to the right of it.

Luckily I had saved all of the caps that I removed from the last set I recapped for just such an occasion and had a replacement value for it.

I restuffed a total of six caps tonight and honed my skill of filling the ends smoothly with glue towards the end. The rest of the paper caps should be no problem. You can see the six caps all towards the top of the picture below. I'm really happy with the look of restuffing versus just cutting the old caps out and replacing them with something that just doesn't look original. Well worth the effort!
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:36 AM.



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
©Copyright 2012 VideoKarma.org, All rights reserved.