Westinghouse H886K21

[Electronic M]

Generally speaking the only tubes you ought to be concerned with are power rectifier, H/V/Audio outputs and maybe a stray 6CG7/6FQ7 or 12AU7/12AX7....The rest are usually $1.50 bottles that only TV folks want (and unlike audiophiles/radio collectors) we're cheapskates.
I've got ~8 caddies full of mostly TV tubes in my work shop (a good portion used pulls in unknown condition), and I've been known to grab a used one smash it open and dissect it on the spot to explain how a tube works to an interested guest..."Hey Tom, might that have been a good tube worth keeping intact?"
ME:"who cares? It's a $1.50 6xx#....The visual aid/savings in explanation time we got out of it is worth it."

[FrankieKat]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Generally speaking the only tubes you ought to be concerned with are power rectifier, H/V/Audio outputs and maybe a stray 6CG7/6FQ7 or 12AU7/12AX7....The rest are usually $1.50 bottles that only TV folks want (and unlike audiophiles/radio collectors) we're cheapskates.
I've got ~8 caddies full of mostly TV tubes in my work shop (a good portion used pulls in unknown condition), and I've been known to grab a used one smash it open and dissect it on the spot to explain how a tube works to an interested guest..."Hey Tom, might that have been a good tube worth keeping intact?"
ME:"who cares? It's a $1.50 6xx#....The visual aid/savings in explanation time we got out of it is worth it."

Ha ha, yeah! Well, I've bought so many tubes for troubleshooting that I've easily got enough for two more sets just like this, so I should be in good shape just in case. This whole voltage issue seems like a rookie misunderstanding on my part, so really a non-issue. The data sheets on the tubes in question (6CB6 and 6AN8) have a max plate voltage of 330V so running them at 160V instead of 125V doesn't sound like it would be any problem either way.

Otherwise my last issue here is that pesky picture glitching (and this), possible HV arcing noise that was bothering me a while ago went away, and now has come back which seems to happen after the set has warmed up about 5 mins or so. I did have to repair the grid cap wire on the horiz output tube because it had frayed at the point where it exited the cap and eventually broke off. Perhaps my solder job wasn't quite perfect enough. If not, will go back to dag. Will keep pluggin' away.

Also... let me just say huge thanks to everyone who helped out on this. I feel like this project a little bit of all kinds of things that could go wrong with an old, unrestored set and there's probably enough useful information in here to help many more restorers in the future.

Thanks everyone!

FK