Beautiful inlaid design on the doors. I'm gonna try to get to test the tube before I make an offer.Got a call from a local classified I placed.

That's in very nice shape. Just tell them you'll waive the disposal fee and haul it away for free. You can always up your offer.

Kevin

That mask doesn't look like a regular RCA issue. It looks to me to be a conversion to a larger screen. It should interesting to find out. Keep us posted!

There is one very similar to that at an antique store near here for $39. Great shape.

There is one very similar to that at an antique store near here for $39.

Only $39 at an antique shop? That's actually not unreasonable.

Is that a "photofinish" on the doors? Fancy woodwork printed on paper that is then glued onto the wood of the door?

Is that a "photofinish" on the doors? Fancy woodwork printed on paper that is then glued onto the wood of the door?[/QUOTE]

Yes.

$50 or less would be a fair offer. Nothing wrong with mid-to-late 1950s B/W consoles, but around here they show up on craigslist at giveaway prices pretty regularly. So don't pay too much.

Photofinish is a paper decal that can't be refinished like real wood. Again, not a horrible thing, especially in an inexpensive set. Just be aware that if it's damaged, you'll need to use faux trickery rather than everyday refinishing techhniques.

Phil Nelson

That's what I was figuring on. Maybe try to get it for $25.He says there's slight micro cracking to the finish when looked up close.Maybe the laquer has gotten weathered a bit from being in his garage? He says it came out of his granparents estate from the room the kids weren't allowed in.Has been in his garage a few years.

$50 or less would be a fair offer. Nothing wrong with mid-to-late 1950s B/W consoles, but around here they show up on craigslist at giveaway prices pretty regularly. So don't pay too much.

Photofinish is a paper decal that can't be refinished like real wood. Again, not a horrible thing, especially in an inexpensive set. Just be aware that if it's damaged, you'll need to use faux trickery rather than everyday refinishing techhniques.

Phil Nelson

Slight cracking or alligatoring on the surface is not a major problem. It could happen to any finish and it can be fixed whether or not the cabinet has photofinish. What's not so easy to fix is a spot where the decal was scraped off and now you see the white paper (or bare wood) underneath. I don't see any big gashes on your panels, so it should not take much skill to touch up little boo-boos.

I'm not a big fan of photofinish, but if the decal's intact, it can easily pass the six-foot walk-by test and impress your guests as real veneer.

Phil Nelson

Only $39 at an antique shop? That's actually not unreasonable.

I'm just glad to hear that "antique" shops are starting to even acknowledge television! For years, and most of the time these days antique shops either have nothing or will tell me some sad story about having tossed one that they had in order to make space for freaking oil and gas and ELVIS products! TVs sure get a hard way to go; the dumpster! If I go to a shop that is being ran by a woman, they often act as if they have never seen or heard of such things; as if everything else existed BUT television. They usually take my name and # as a contact in case they find anything, but I have never heard from a single one. Then one day roll up into one of the shops that wealthier folks go and there is a freaking mid 50s Muntz tagged as RARE at $150! :scratch2:

A couple of years ago, I noticed a mid 50s console sitting under what was once a gas pump island awning in front of an "antique" store. I stopped and looked; the set was a complete console in decent condition; no knobs missing, complete. This business was hardly ever opened, but was still in business at the time. A number of things crossed my mind that could get me in trouble and make me look REAL stupid in front of a judge, so I did the right (?) thing and walked away. I stopped again several weeks later with a plastic bag to try to cover the finish until an owner could be located. TOO LATE! The moisture had already warped the cabinet. Next time I came by the place was opened and the set was gone. I asked the old man about it and he told me that he finally had found help to lift the set into the dumpster across the road which had long been emptied. Even worse, he told me that I should have taken the set when I first found it. I remember thinking earlier that nobody could possibly care about the set or see it as merchandise, but in this wacky world I might end up with my name in the paper or some weird frivolous lawsuit over having traumatized some person by taking their only family heirloom.

I've had good and bad luck with antique shops. I paid $85 for my DuMont RA-109 and the cabinet is practically MINT and a little over a hundred for my Predicta. The $39 RCA is a good deal. It's in nice shape too. But I've also seen ridiculous pricing too, just as much if not more than reasonable pricing.

Gosh, I keep hearing about Dumont RA-109s lately! I sure wish that I didn't give mine away now! Just too big! Does yours have a good 19AP4? If so, you really did good on that purchase! Great set! I don't care much for Predicta's really, but even though problematic from the get go, they remain high demand for whatever reason. I guess the oddball design makes them popular.

It works but is quite weak. I have a tester/rejuvenator on the way. We will see if it's past the point of no return or not. The Predicta has a bright CRT and a good fly so I bought it for that. But eventually I will have to get into the board. Not really looking forward to it after all I've heard, but I always wanted one and now I do.

I hope that the rejuvenator is what a tech in the Early Color forum mentions to me is newer and will not harm the CRT. He said that the older rejuvenators do great harm to the electron gun and only give an improved picture for an ultimately shorter lifetime from the way it sounds. You might want to check out my thread over there called "Color CRT Testing." Have you tried a brightener yet?

yep.

It works but is quite weak. I have a tester/rejuvenator on the way. We will see if it's past the point of no return or not. The Predicta has a bright CRT and a good fly so I bought it for that. But eventually I will have to get into the board. Not really looking forward to it after all I've heard, but I always wanted one and now I do.

What kind of Rejuvenator did you get? Most models from the mid '70's on were decent at rejuvenating a CRT. The older rejuvenators did a good job of cleaning the crud, as well as any emitting material, from the cathode.

Before you rejuvenate the CRT, you might try letting it sit for a few hours with around 8 volts on the filament. Old tubes will often become weak from sitting unused for decades and the elevated filament voltage will often bring them back up.

B&K CRT model 400. I didn't research it or anything so I don't know if it's any good or not. Just bid the opening bid on a whim and got it for about $15.00 including shipping. It has shipped so we will see what I have when it gets here.

That's a very old one from the '50's. It will check your tube OK; but, I wouldn't use the rejuvenate function. And, it's likely that this tester will need an overhaul before it will give accurate results. B&K didn't make a good rejuvenator until the model 467 and continuing through the model 490.

I have a B&K 466 that seems to work ok, I've rejuvenated a couple tubes succesfully with it. Now I'm curious what shops used back in the 50's to get the job done, or did they only sell new or rebuilt tubes when they got weak?

Kevin

I have a B&K 466 that seems to work ok, I've rejuvenated a couple tubes succesfully with it. Now I'm curious what shops used back in the 50's to get the job done, or did they only sell new or rebuilt tubes when they got weak?

Kevin

I knew a guy who ran a TV/radio service shop from the late '40's until 1973. He once told me that he used various B&K models, including the popular blue cased 465. He said that when he ran into a weak tube, he would try to talk the customer into buying a new tube (assuming the TV was worth a new tube). He would also add that there was a chance that he could rejuvenate the old tube; but, chances were good that it wouldn't last long and there was a chance that rejuvenation might make the tube look worse than before. If the customer didn't want to spring for a new CRT and if they were willing to take a chance, he'd rejuvenate the tube. He said that the results varied from making the tube brighter for a few hours up to a few months. And, there were those tubes that rejuvenation either didn't help at all or made them worse. If the customer later wanted a new CRT, he would apply the rejuvenation cost towards a new tube.

My first CRT tester was a B&K 465 that had three levels of cathode stripping (oops, I meant rejuvenation). On the lowest setting, I had some luck at bringing back weak B&W tubes. Usually, if the lowest setting didn't do it, you could forget it. And, I never had much luck with rejuvenating color tubes with this tester.

I think where a lot of shops made their mistake was thinking "more is better". Instead of starting out with the lowest form of rejuvenation possible, they'd flip the rejuvenator to "high" and end up burning up a tube that could have probably been saved had they used caution. Once, I loaned my 465 to a TV repairman friend, who didn't have a CRT tester at the time. He wanted to rejuvenate a '70's delta gun color tube. Despite my words of warning, he flipped the tester on the highest level of rejuvenation and pressed the rejuvenate button about 6 times. Needless to say, he ended up putting another tube in that set. When I rejuvenated a tube with this tester, I set it on the lowest form of rejuvenation and hit the button once, for a fraction of a second. Then, I'd recheck the emission level.

I'n the mid '90's, I bought a newer B&K 470 and I have rejuvenated all sorts of tubes with it. I'd say that it's helped 95% of the CRT's that needed rejuvenation and I don't think I've ever had a CRT that was worse after rejuvenation. The other 5% of the CRT's that it didn't help were usually either worn out or poor quality ('90's era Zenith tubes) to begin with.

Even on the B&K 470, I start out using the "clean and balance" function. Usually, this will do the trick. If it does not, I move to the rejuvenate function. And, I can usually tell if the CRT will hold up or not by how long the meter pointer stays up. When I press the rejuvenate button, if the meter rises a small amount and immediately falls back down, the CRT probably won't hold up. If the pointer rises towards the middle or top of the scale and stays there for several seconds before slowly dropping back down, the tube will probably hold up.

Very good information. Thanks.

Thanks for those details, very interesting.

Kevin

I got it.almost didn't though. When I offered $25 he started bringing up ebay prices.I was going to leave but I tried $50.He finally came up with $75.no way I was paying $75 but I said I might entertain more if you let me test a few things.Since he had plugged it in I decided to give it a whirl.It came up with a raster.So the flyback was proven good and the crt had life.But I wanted to see how much so I brought in my B&K 465.It was a little slow getting there(around a couple of minutes) but the emission came up well into the good range at near 700 without boosting the fliament or anything.So my final offer was $60 and if he didn't say yes I was ready to walk away even though I had just drove over 50 miles to Trappe MD. He said yes so it's mine.

Btw it is a RCA model 17T172 chassis I believe is a KCs 66.It's double stamped and hard to read. It has been converted to a larger tube a 20" but the replacement bezel doesn't look bad at all. you can just put your finger under the middle of it on the 4 sides. I told him that but he probably wouldn't have heard or paid attention to this being a reason it was worth less. Oh well.Probably paid too much but it will get saved now instead of wasting away in that garage,going to the dump or being turned into a fish tank or bar.

IMHO I don't think you paid too much. When you look at what you'd pay for a good CRT if you needed one.

A lot of TVs and radios are being parted out because it's a lot more profitable to sell them in pieces than as a working unit.
John

Glad you got it and I hope you get it working! The CRT being good is a big plus! I can't say what I would have done had I been in your shoes when he brought ebay prices into the mix. Had it been local to me, I would have told him to go ahead and sell it on ebay. The fact is, had he listed that set on ebay, he probably would not have gotten anything for it unless someone was close enough to pick it up in person. I just get so darn sick and tired of everyone bringing up what they sell for, or what someone is asking, on ebay.

$60 isn't bad at all if you like the set.
I paid exactly the same for my 1953 Philco ten years ago and I knew it had a weak CRT, I bought it because it was really clean and I knew it would wind up a Fish Tank if I didn't.
I got it all working though and don't regret buying it one bit!

The CRT size upgrade is kind of interesting actually, is it a Factory kit or home brewed?

Nice set. Good for you. HV and a good CRT are huge pluses.

$60 isn't bad at all if you like the set.
I paid exactly the same for my 1953 Philco ten years ago and I knew it had a weak CRT, I bought it because it was really clean and I knew it would wind up a Fish Tank if I didn't.
I got it all working though and don't regret buying it one bit!

The CRT size upgrade is kind of interesting actually, is it a Factory kit or home brewed?

I dunno about the upgrade. If it is homebrew they did a pretty neat job of it. The main giveaway is that the crt comes out the front enough that there's a gap in the middle of the mask on all 4 sides you can stick your finger under. It is flush at the corners and is screwed to the cabinet with a screw at each corner.Doesn't look bad at all.

I dunno about the upgrade. If it is homebrew they did a pretty neat job of it. The main giveaway is that the crt comes out the front enough that there's a gap in the middle of the mask on all 4 sides you can stick your finger under. It is flush at the corners and is screwed to the cabinet with a screw at each corner.Doesn't look bad at all.

According to the picture, the set's in very good condition. It's a pretty large cabinet for a 17" set. There was a firm that made conversion kits for installing larger CRT's in smaller screen sets. It probably had a 17CP4 that went bad early in the set's life.

The original tube was a 17GP4 It has been replaced with a 20CP4 along with the required focus magnet.Kinda looks homebrew from the rear. It is a RCA 20CP4. The hole was cut wider for the crt on the sides and there is a single piece of 1" thick board supporting it at the front. Anyhow it works.

I made the mistake of firing it up again to see if I could get a signal through it with a digital converter box.One of the filters started to let go:yikes: and I quickly pulled the plug.It won't get turned on again until it gets the recap treatment.

The use of a CRT restorer should be a last resort. Sometimes, the filament and cathode just cant take the stress of a HV spark.