I took a break from the color sets to work on this one. It is a '61 not a '63, oops! I originally said it was a '63. I picked this up from Doug a while back and it has been siting in the garage until the other day. He had repaired the sweep circuits and got HV back. Then he found out that the vert. hold and brightness pots were open, upon closer inspection the carbon could be seen falling out of them. He had way too many projects going at the time and did not have the parts. He also has this set in Space Command version. I replaced the Vert. hold with the correct 750K half watt but the only difference is that it is held in with a nut rather than the tangs. It had the snap in universal shaft that I cut down to size and put a flat spot on for the knob. I did not have to drill the hole or modify the set in any way so it will be fine. The replacement brightness is a 250K half watt that fit in the original way but had a plastic shaft. I had to rework this one with a Dremel to make the original knob fit on it without changing the knob. I kinda cheated by putting an extension wire on it to make the original resistor that had been cut reach to it but it looks ok I guess. I also replaced a 1 Mfd @350 'lytic with a Sprague "Atom" cap (yellow one), and a .047 @400 that looked suspicious because it had a burned resistor hooked to it. The resistor is an 82 ohm half watt, it had gotten hot enough to bend in the middle and burn a black spot on the cap I took out. I also put in a .1 @ 400 because it was a "white time bomb". Doug had already replaced several caps in the vertical and horizontal sections, and did a wonderful job I might add. He put in a small 'lytic under the chassis because one section of a can is bad. I will leave it that way until I come back later and restuff the cans. It works fine for now. My new cap and resistor are installed behind the 'lytic Doug put in. The rest of what I did is over by the pots, I would circle the new parts in the pictures but have no photo editing software on the Macbook. So, you can just see what we both did, since we both install caps the same way it really don't matter anyways. I also cleaned the entire cabinet which turned out really nice, I thought it was all scuffed but it came off like shoe marks on a floor! It turns out there are no scratches at all. I also have the original cart but it's not so nice, I'll try to fix it up later. Thanks for all the work you did to the set before I got it Doug! It made it so I could finish it up in one day rather than tracking down all the problems it had before. And also thanks for the great set! Blue is my favorite color!
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That's a good way to get '90 (oops, I meant '09, I'd like to go back to '90, though) started off right! That one should be good for at least 50 years after BOTH geniuses have been it, LOL! Those sets are probably some of the best B&W's ever built.

Hello, those are some pretty cool pictures of the chassis of that Zenith TV, especially with the orange glow of the vacuum tubes-cool:thmbsp:
I got a circa 1961 Zenith TV like this that's a 23-inch console I got 2 years ago with a channel selector knob just like on this Zenith here-it's also a VHF-only model. It's in a sort of a pecan-dark maple-like cabinet. It worked the last time I plugged it in. I got it at an old radio shop right here in Ontario.

PUrty!

Nice set, those 60s Zenith b/w sets are among my favorites. I have a 1960 17" SC300, a 1961 23" console, and that same exact set above in a light brown. The crt on mine began to get weak, so I stopped watching it so much, when I saw this thread, I decided to turn it on, only to find I could no longer sync the horizontal, but at least I recapped this set last year, so there can't be too many things left to cause this.

Man! That is one fine looking B&W TV!

I gotta agree, very nice set!

Very nice, and unusual to find a 60's set in any colors that aren't ugly it seems.

Mark -

Wow - nice set! I like the nice clean styling. Looks like it cleaned up well. Both you and Doug do good work. The chassis looks great; what do you use to clean things up without it looking too artificial?

-Jim

Love the set. Excellent design.

My great-grandparents had a set like that at their farm in northern WI. I remember seeing it on the floor, tucked between the couch and wall. Then one day it disappeared (this was over 20 years ago). I'm going to ask my great-aunt about it.

My great-grandparents had a set like that at their farm in northern WI. I remember seeing it on the floor, tucked between the couch and wall. Then one day it disappeared (this was over 20 years ago). I'm going to ask my great-aunt about it.

I hope you don't hear the "standard answer". "Oh, we threw that old junky TV away ages ago."

Mark -

Wow - nice set! I like the nice clean styling. Looks like it cleaned up well. Both you and Doug do good work. The chassis looks great; what do you use to clean things up without it looking too artificial?

-Jim

Thanks for all the compliments everyone!
Jim, what I use to clean are usually compressed air first but not this time. the set wasn't real bad inside and it's cold outside, this time I used my micro tools for the shop vac first. Then I get a quarter of a microfiber cloth wet with some dawn dish soap. That way I can get roughly 5"x5" sections clean and dry with the same cloth. I clean tubes carefully and go around the writing. The cabinet was cleaned with another cloth and some CRT cleaner that I have, It brought the paint back to like new. The next thing on the list is after the digital switch, I am going to restuff the cans. There is a slow crawl in the picture and that 47uF cap was never meant to be a permanent fix. He told me it was in there when I got it. Doug don't like to tack wires on to a cap like that:no: We had discussion of our dislike for that kind of repair that day. A lot of my sets are getting cans restuffed after the switch. For one, a lot of them need it and two, I've got a system going and its kinda fun. But for now, I want as many sets "working" as possible before the digital switch.

What a nice set! Great job.

My wife would love the cabinet color...but she can't understand how anyone can watch a black & white set!

What a nice set! Great job.

My wife would love the cabinet color...but she can't understand how anyone can watch a black & white set!

When I attempted to sneak my '69 Zenith B&W console into MY bedroom (I almost made it) past my Mother; she told me that she couldn't see how I could watch a B&W TV! I reminded her that I had good money ($50) in that set and I was going to get my money's worth. Really, about all I watch on it is the news and re-runs of "Sanford & Son" and "Good times" which the local NBC affiliate carries in the afternoon. Might watch more on it when/if RTN gets going in my area. I think it's sort of cool to watch TV the way they did back in the '60's.

I fixed the horiz problem in my set, a few resistors had drifted too high in value. I do like the blue better than the brown, and the paint on mine isn't in that good of condition, maybe if I ever find another crt for it, I'll repaint it the blue. I also like the looks of those "three pointed" tuning knobs.

I think it's sort of cool to watch TV the way they did back in the '60's.[/QUOTE]

I fixed the horiz problem in my set, a few resistors had drifted too high in value. I do like the blue better than the brown, and the paint on mine isn't in that good of condition, maybe if I ever find another crt for it, I'll repaint it the blue. I also like the looks of those "three pointed" tuning knobs.

I like those knobs too, I'm glad you got yours working. Can I see a pic? Go ahead and post it here if you want. Brown isn't bad but I like the blue better too, I've been watching this blue one everyday since I fixed it. I have a '58 metal cabinet Zenith set in a two tone brown and tan that looks really cool. It is too bad that one day some laundry detergent got on the side somehow and faded a small spot at the bottom, I'm thinking of airbrushing some matching paint on that spot. It is the only flaw on it.