I found a Sylvania round color set!

Originally Posted by vintagecollect

That's an awesome score, two seperate ctc-4s found in one week!! Awesome, I always thought these numbers were somewhat low, I recognized chassis once saw convergence sub chassis attached to main. Check my avatar, will be a good watcher. That removable top cover they did for the ctc-4s they should of carried over into other models, the ctc5 I used to have, you had to take bas ck cover off and reach into cabinet. I never understood why RCA didn't keep top for later models??

I suspect it was simply cheaper to glue the top on.


WOW! What a find! I never even thought of Sylvania having such a model.

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by RetroHacker

I'm definitely excited about this project... I can't wait to get started. Tonight or tomorrow I'm going to clean up the cabinet, and hopefully I'll be able to stop by the library to get the PhotoFact. I'm going to need to order more caps! I'll post progress and more pictures as I get to it.

I wonder how many of these Sylvania CTC4's are out there?

-Ian

Ian,

As I ponted out in my CTC-4 clone post. There is at least one other example of your 21" Sylvania at the ETF Museum in Hilliard, Ohio. That makes a total of two known. Very rare indeed.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/image...ania_21C609-hd.

-Steve D.

[bgadow]

That sure isn't what I expected! Wow-what a find!

[freakaftr8]

Hey great find!!! And that cabinet should clean up nicely!!

[RetroHacker]

Originally Posted by freakaftr8

And that cabinet should clean up nicely!!

I hope so. It does look a bit better in the pictures than it does in real life. The finish is real bad toward the bottom, there are lots of dings and scrapes all over, and the top has some rings and burn marks on it. But, it's pretty solid, not falling apart. The legs need some repair, it's been slid around on a concrete floor a lot I suspect, because the metal "feet" on the bottom of the legs are worn almost all the way through. It's starting to delaminate a little on the legs too. But some replacement metal "feet" (they're just those round, push-in type), and some gluing and clamping should fix them.

I'm not very experienced in finish repair, so I'm just going to clean it and scrub it with some Murphey's oil soap, and fix the delamination of the layers at the bottom, and not mess with the finish until I get better at it. My area of expertise is really the electronics.

The cabinet is made of this odd material. I forget what it's called... they used to make trees out of it... ummm, let me think..... wood! That's what it's called, wood. I know basic woodworking, but very little about finish or laquer - so I'm just hoping that it'll clean up so that it doesn't look quite as sad as it does now.

You can see the mildew that's growing on the safety glass. The sides of the set have a lot more of that. Fortunately, this set's original picture tube was replaced with at 21FBP22 - no bonded safety glass, so no cataracts. The guy that gave it to me said that when he replaced it, he chose between the FBP and the FJP. Since the set already had a built-in safety glass, and because the FBP was $5 cheaper, this set got the FBP.

I'm going to go to the library when I get a chance and get the Sam's. I found the schematic online at the ETF site, but it doesn't have the nice parts list that the Sam's has, which makes ordering capacitors easier. I'm going to need a bucket of them. This set also uses some rather unusual tubes. I hope that they're good...

This set also has some really big selenium rectifiers. These are definitely getting replaced with diodes. 1N4007's are rated at 1000v, 1 amp. I wonder what the ratings on the original seleniums are. Also, I suppose that here, a dropping resistor would be needed. Normally, on cheap radios where I replace seleniums, I don't bother, since it only changes the B+ a small amount, and the tubes aren't being run near their limits anyway. But here, I'm not so sure.

-Ian

[Steve D.]

Ian,

Thought I'd pipe in again and suggest this site when you get ready to refinish your Sylvania. Lots of experienced folks here to help.

Antique Radio Forums :: View Forum - Cabinet Restoration
Address:http://antiqueradios.com/forums/view...ae1ab04d2bac77

-Steve D.

If you start to clean that cabinet with anything other than what the experts here recommend you will likely cause the whole project to take much more time and likely cause the outcome to be much less than the perfect "mint-condition" level of reconditioning the gentlemen here will help you obtain.

[Chad Hauris]

Usually the sams will give the specifications for the rectifiers as far as current ratings...a set like this would usually use 2 5U4's if it used tubes so that's about 400-500 ma of current draw...1N4007's would probably work but I might use something with higher ratings in a high-current draw device like this just for an extra margin of safety.

[RetroHacker]

I did some cleaning tonight. Murphy oil soap did a great job of cleaning up the cabinet. It's still not great, but at least it doesn't have mildew and nasty dirt all over it anymore. The finish is pretty bad in spots, it's a lot worse than the pictures show. But it's still much, much better than it was when I first got it. Attached are some before and after pictures of the side of the cabinet. It was amazing to see just how much grime came off that set, and just how filthy the bucket of soapy water was afterwards.

The mildew on the safety glass was on the outside, and cleaned off with Windex. I attempted to remove the safety glass - it's held on by a gold colored frame, and the frame is held in from inside with some little metal clips. Simple - remove the clips, pop out the frame and glass, clean, reinsert. Not so. The glass is very much glued into the frame with some sort of black gunk. Potentially a rubber gasket that deteriorated, possibly even black RTV added to stop the glass from rattleing. It's hard to say. But I was not able to get the glass out. I didn't try using too much force, because I didn't want to break it. I'll have to figure out some way to get it out, but for now, it stays, I just put the trim back in. Behind the glass, the bezel has a lot of brown spots on it. It kinda looks like rust, but I don't believe that the bezel is metal - it looks more like plastic. Could be mold. But I can't get the glass out. Any ideas? I've attached a picture of the problem.

This set has a lot more wear and damage than is easily seen in the pictures. Lots of scuffs, can rings on the top, dings and missing finish. But at least now it's cleaner.

I took a closer look at the chassis, and flipped open the HV cage. The flyback doesn't look too good. The wax has cracked and started to droop down off the coil. The coil itself looks fine, and there are no signs of arcing or burning. And since the previous owner said that it was working until AGC started acting up, I'm hoping that it still works. I know people have done a lot of different things to help re-insulate dripping flybacks. Any suggestions on what I should do with this one? Also, is there a sub for a CTC4 flyback? I wonder what the chances are that Moyer's might have one.

-Ian

[Eric H]

That fly looks like it's missing a piece?
I reinsulated the one in my 7 with some low acid silicone rubber, it had a rubber coating though that i was able to completely remove first.

Something is causing it to melt though, either arcing or too much current being run through it.

Maybe a heat gun gently applied to the glass might loosen the bond to the rubber? If the mask is plastic you'll have to be extremely careful not to damage it.

[andy]

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[RetroHacker]

Originally Posted by Eric H

That fly looks like it's missing a piece?

Yeah, that's what I thought at first, but it appears that the coating is all still there. The coating has developed a crack, then sagged downward on one side. With a little heat, I should be able to push the wax back over, and seal over it with something else. It may have been a fault, it may have simply been due to age and the heat from use. This flyback box is pretty sealed up - no airflow. Once this gets going, I'm going to probably install a fan like another AK'er did.

Originally Posted by andy

If you take the CRT out you can push on the glass from the inside.

I thought of this also, but I would like to avoid taking the picture tube out of the cabinet unless I have to. Also, I was worried about the potential damage to the front bezel if the glass is glued in too well. Another thing I thought of would be to borrow the floor tile puller from work. It's a device with two great big suction cups on it, and a release for them. You plunk it down on a computer room floor tile, and lift the tile up. The tiles weigh a good 20 pounds, and this thing has no problems. Once again, I'd be worried about damaging the bezel.

-Ian

[vintagecollect]

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[compucat]

Originally Posted by vintagecollect

just thought of something put metal sliders on bottom of legs for easy moving, better yet find some gliders shaped as actual metal spheres if made. There's something great about moving around a big set and not asking for help. Those legs look better than ctc4s screwed on short legs. Made as part of cabinet.

I have my Zenith roundie sitting on clear plastic gliders, the kind you put under furniture legs for moving. They are relatively invisible but when you need to pull the set away from the wall for service, you can do it almost one-handed.

[vintagecollect]

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