It's time for the annual posting from Texas Recycles Day 2005, This is the 3rd year I've been doing it now. It was a real bonanza of old equipment, filled up 2 pickup truck loads and a full 1 ton van load.

I got a 46" Magnavox projection set (works but is a little dim), Catalina tube type 25V" color, 23" GE Black and White solid state console, Zenith Chromacolor II, RCA Mural TV, National SW tube receiver, HAmmarlund ham transmitter, Zenith 25v" chromacolor picture tube in shipping carton, Sega Dreamcast, oil rig music box, Heathkit tube type tuner, and much more! See pictures.

More pictures from TRD.

Wow, that's quite a haul!!!
I'm a bit surprised the there aren't any speakers in the load? Weren't there any, or did you choose not to take them?

Hey Chad.That was quite a haul.On that 46" Magnavox in addition to cleaning the mirror and lens you may have contaminated fluid in the green and blue coolant fluid.It's a common problem with Magnavox projection tvs.Look into the lenses while it's on.You'll probably see stuff floating around in there.A lot of times there is a thick yellow crust on the fisheye lens and you can't even see the picture on the tube you're looking at.What it is is some type of mold that supposedly got in the fluid at the factory.It takes a while to show up.It doesn't respond to red light so the red is not a problem.It's not really a problem to change.You can get new fluid from MCM.You remove 1 tube at a time and take the overflow chamber or diaghram off and drain it out.Then mark the tubes' position on the chamber with an awl so you get it exactly where it was.Take the chamber off and clean everythng with denatured alcohol.You can rinse most of it away with water but the denatured alcohol is needed to kill the mold.Put everything back together and refill.Don't fill the overflow chamber all the way to the top.It will cause it to leak when it gets hot.Just try to get all the air bubbles out of the chamber itself.I take the tube,yoke and all out when I do this procedure.Reinstall the tube and recenter it with the centering magnet if needed and converge that gun to the red.Best to only work on one tube at a time and get it converged before starting the other.Most look fantastic after this unless the tubes have a lot of hours on them.We get a lot of work doing this procedure.It's still happening on newer ones too.Always the blue though.Those big projectors are one used tv I can always sell unlike regular tvs.Walmart is trying to ruin that too.New HDTV RCA projection sets for $899.Right now I can still get around $400 for one though and I don't have to resort to the flea market.Just make a few phone calls telling people on my list I have one.

I never had much luck with those Magnavox projections sets. They always seemed to lose the flyback within weeks of selling. I think they sat around for a long time unused and the flyback absorbed water through cracks in the case.

Be sure to check for bad soldering on the two vertically mounted power supply and deflection boards. If any of the boards are double sided you need to resolder all the front to back feed throughs on both sides.

Chad,

Looks like this year it was not raining and cold. I remember you wearing your rain gear last year. A good day would bring out the folks. Those big projection sets bring about $400 to $500 here also.

Post some pics of the two tube sets!


polaraman

Wow; I wish we still had the monthly "bulky item trash day" in Los Angeles... All through the 70s, they would have a scheduled day where each neighborhood could put out large items for the trash. I was too young to drive, but would ride my bike around our neighborhood and see what I could get. It was a middle class World War II retired middle income neighborhood, so most had nice TVs from the beginning and would upgrade and discard the old. I found plenty of 60s color sets, B&W 50s consoles, all types. I even found a few small B&W round tube sets. But with the left-wing environmentalist lawsuit-happy feel-good California government (Post-Gov. Reagan), it is now an arrestable crime to leave a TV in the trash (or car tires, paint, or most anything). So the way they do it now is that they hold recycle drives at designated locations a few times a year, and highly-paid men in white plastic suits come out to your car and "safely" remove the TV and send it to a very costly hazardous waste dump out someplace in the Mojave. It is also a crime to pick anything out of the dump, or trash cans/bins on public property if a "civil criminal" has put one there. :no: I'd go further but this isn't the politics forum...

But if I see a TRK-12 in the trash, I will still pick it up. But I'll have to put it on eBay right away to pay the bail and criminal defense. Then the rest of the profit can go to pay the fines for possession of and movement of a hazardous material in the State of California.

I am always envious of Texans... They all are polite to eachother, and now to find out that you can still rescue TVs from the recycler! Wow! Next time I move, it's Texas or Bust!

Charles

I have always been a part of Texas Recycles Day in Midland as the designated official recycler of TV's and other electronics, I'm really glad they give me a chance to do it as I don't have to try to outrun the trash trucks or pick out of dumpsters as I did when I was a kid.
All of the TV's/equipment either are used in our historical preservation collections, or parts salvaged for other repair jobs, or some of the modern working sets we don't need we donate to charity.

Was really excited to find the projection set...have never worked on one before. Thanks for the tips, I'll have to start working on it. It has a picture but is kind of dim and it does look like there is junk floating in the image.

I did get some speakers! They are in the van towards the front so they really didn't appear in the photos. I'll try and get some more photos here shortly.

There is another company that is the official recycler of computers and they filled an entire semitrailer with computers till it could hold no more. I got some of the extra ones since they had no room. Got an HP 550 mhz with 384 Meg of ram. I think it was junked cause it wouldn't boot up Windoze 98...installed Slackware Linux and it works great.

Great load, Chad. Reminds me of the good ole' days when Harper Woods, Mi., where I lived as a lad, had every May 1-5, "Harper Woods clean up, fix up, throw out week". Boy! Was that ever fun! All the old tv's, cabinets, etc.... I miss those days......... My mother wasn't very happy about it, though. Man! It was fun...... :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :yes: :thmbsp:

i agree on the maggie projection set. get the gel out of those tubes and then you can watch it. also resolder the deflection and power boards. i get $250.oo for replacing the fluid in those tubes. the rca fluid is best. i dont like mcm,s fluid in a can. i buy mine from electronic parts unlimited in florida. they have great prices on everything. get almost all my rca parts from them. did everyone know mcm is actually a retailer you cant get much wholesale from them. and we even have an open account there. steve

What's a Catalina? :headscrat

veg

Those are some good finds. I don't think I have ever seen a soild state b/w console set before. Seen both in a color console, seen both in black and white portable, but only seen tube b/w consoles. Never seen a Catalina television either. The only Catalina I know is the Pontiac, it was a full size model from the 60's, not as classy as a Bonneville, but a step above the Ventura.
Berkeley, CA still has a day when they will pick up any trash you put out. I think it is in early June. I found a lot when I lived there. I still have the 50's/60's recliner chair I found (the upholstry is white with puke-green colored flowers on it).

The Catalina was the store brand of White's, which was an appliance and auto parts store.

I have been debating with myself. Next Saturday is "Hazardous Materials Recycle Day", a once a year thing. I mentioned a couple years ago to the program director about my interest but he never gave me an answer. That year I went, to dispose of some stuff, but there wasn't anything exciting in the dumpster. My only fear is that someone will bring in a roundie & nobody will be there to rescue it.

Where I am, they do a yearly electronics "E-cycle" day. I got rid of some junk at it this year. It was a very efficient operation. You stopped the car and were surrounded by men who emptied it in about 30 seconds. Everything was dumped in boxes based on what type of electronics it was. Even if I had been hanging out there all day I doubt I could have rescued anything because it was all happening too quickly. I passed a semi trailer full of TVs. All I could see was 80's and newer sets though.

Fortunately, my area still has the fall and spring bulk trash weeks. I usually find a lot of good stuff, including a lot of electronics. There was a time that I picked up every decent TV I saw. I mostly just look for old stuff and speakers now.

We still have a bulk pickup week in several areas of the county, sometimes I find some goodies such as newer big screen sets and appliances. Last year I even found two newer model riding lawnmowers! Also, to be sure nothing falls through the cracks, I am the designated electronics recycler for Macomb county here in Michigan. When the county gets a call by a company, school or individual that has computers, televisions or video equipment that they no longer need, they send them to me. I repair and donate almost all the items through churches and schools.
Almost everyone still throws out those items here anyway as they don't care about recycling. Basically, all I get is about 5-6 calls a year and it is usually from a big company or school with a truckload of computers or a/v equipment.

But with the left-wing environmentalist lawsuit-happy feel-good California government (Post-Gov. Reagan), it is now an arrestable crime to leave a TV in the trash (or car tires, paint, or most anything). So the way they do it now is that they hold recycle drives at designated locations a few times a year, and highly-paid men in white plastic suits come out to your car and "safely" remove the TV and send it to a very costly hazardous waste dump out someplace in the Mojave. It is also a crime to pick anything out of the dump, or trash cans/bins on public property if a "civil criminal" has put one there. :no: I'd go further but this isn't the politics forum...



Charles[/QUOTE]

Isn't it great, that crime is so LOW in Cali, that the pigs have so much time on their hands, that they have time to go after someone for taking an old tv/stereo/computer, out of the garbage? That, and rousting people for:: Smoking too close to a building, Smoking on their porch, having a barbecue, parking on the street, working on their cars in the driveway, pre-heating/cooling their cars in the driveway, watering their lawns,and using fuel oil, instead of diesel in their vehicles.. THOSE seem to be the focus of LEO's in this country, nowdays.... Guess REAL crime is non-existent nowdays... (SARCASM)

Sigh... Been there, done that. It seems that so many people today, just CANNOT keep out of other people's affairs. If somethig is in the garbage, why should ANYONE care, if someone gets it, and "turns it around", or puts it in their collection? Or, any of the other thnigs that I mentioned?

Jack,

Well, it isn't that we have low (real) crime... Wish that were the case. It's just that the police will be sued and charged with unlawful use of force if they arrest a rapist, an armed robber or a molestor. At least if they prosecute a regular citizen who threw a paint can or a CRT in the trash, they can fine him and steal his hard-earned assets. Then by means of criminalizing him, the state can gain control of his life & future.

Maybe a little exaggerated, but this is the way it is heading.

Earlier this year, a collector of vintage aircraft instruments was offered a below-market sum for his piece of property and his building in Burbank. He declined the offer, because he was retired and wanted to keep his warehouse to continue his hobby. Guess what happened next... A hazmat inspector said that his collection of aircraft instruments had radium dials and were dangerous. So they cited him, seized his warehouse and all the instruments. They sealed off the whole block for months while they had to "analyze and evaluate". After all that, they decided to steal his building and hire a special team to smash and bury every single instrument from his collection in the desert at a cost of (I recall) about $2,000,000. This story was in the LA Daily News for quite awhile. It was probably published so that any opportunistic neighbor could fake up a claim for damages to extort more money from the instrument collector. Now for the punchline: It seems that the developer who originally wanted that property (whose offer was declined by the owner) JUST HAPPENED to be the winning bidder at the state auction of the land after the $2,000,000 cleanup. Ofcourse the cleanup took every penny the old man had and title to his building, plus plenty from the taxpayers. Nice, isn't it?

I'll say it again: Next move, it's Texas or Bust!

But in keeping with this thread, I forgot to mention that I did once find a '54 CBS-Columbia 360 19" color set in a flood control catch basin in northern Los Angeles... It was clean! That was worth getting busted for, but I got away with it :banana:

Charles

O.k. lets not let this turn into a political rant session please.

Good job, Chad! You saved a lot of beauties (I wonder how can people throu beautifoul sets like those?)
What brand manufactured small set, with 2 chanel selectors, with a V.C.R. near it?

That small color set is a Panasonic Quintrix...I got two silver ones and one woodgrain, all work great, just need the controls cleaned. I would say 80% of the TV's and radios I got power on and have some functionality and 50% or so will work with just minor repairs such as cleaning the controls. There are a few TV's with a "no power" symptom including the RCA Mural TV.

I really want to investigate the DVD players. I probably got about 8-10 DVD players and I want to find out what the failure mode on these are, if it's bad caps or what, as these can't be more than 2 or 3 years old. The first year I did the recycle days there was only one DVD player and now more are starting to be junked.

Many times, dvd AND cd players are NOT worth your time. True, sometimes they only need a belt, or gear, or have a motor driver chip bad, or power supply problem, etc. (case in point: I recently brought back to life a 1984 vintage Hitachi Cd player, with a load belt. It now works VERY well, and "finds" the cd faster than nearly ANY player I have seen. A yamaha, 1985 model, needed belts for the loading and sled motors. it too, works pretty well. The hitachi, in particular, has a LOT of "stuff" inside, like many vintage cd players, including, double-stacked boards, and another board, under the transport. The oldest player I have, is a Magnavox 1983 model, with top-loading, and a rotating arm pickup. it Worked "a little", the last time I tried it. )

HOWEVER.........

A LOT of Cd and DVD players seem to lose the laser, rather early. DVD palyers, in particular, seem to be doing this a lot. They will not read the disc, or will not read right, ans skip a lot. Cleaning does NOT seem to help. ALso, to me at least, DVD players were NEVER as "sexy" on the inside,as vintage CD players, that have heavy-built mechs, and a lot of parts. Most DVD players have cheaply-built mechs and not much ckty, aside from several SMD's.

SO, if you get one, that will not read the disc, CD or DVD, ESPECIALLY a newer one, and cleraning don't do it, it is most likely a WOT!!

When a DVD, or CD won't read discs, or skips it seems to be a bad pickup about 80% of the time. If a new pickup doesn't fix it, you're left trying to fix a complicated board full of SMD devices. Typically it's not worth the time to even attempt to fix this type of problem.

A lot of DVD players do have simple problems like bad caps in the power supply and mechanical problems. I also see a lot of bad spindle motors. The brushes wear out quickly because DVDs spin at a much higher speed than a CD. Only a few DVD players use brushless spindle motors.

Well I don't "do" surface mount repairs...if an esr check doesn't reveal bad caps on those DVD's then I guess it will be a no go. We usually don't tackle these kind of devices in our business as it's just not economical and there is not a great success rate except for cases of bad caps but I'll just try these for fun and see what I can find.
I did get a really old Sony CD player, appears to be early 80's, and plays the disc fine, just has mechanical trouble loading the tray.

You are throing DVD players?!!

I have a Digitrex GK-2700 (Same as Apex AD-2700) & it was showing all the signs of a bad laser & a few other stupid problems like the disc was still spinning when it was ejected & the unit somtimes not powering up from cold.

I did a check on the rails on the power supply & I found the 3.3V rail was down to 2.4V (All other rails were within spec) So I replaced all the electros in the power supply & a startup resistor as well & now all the problems it had are now gone.

The funny thing was the unit was just over a year old when the caps started to fail & all the probs started.

Nothing is made to last beyond the warranty duration these days & parts are designed to last a year if not 3 years as in the case of computer motherboards when all the caps start to fail.

I have an Zenith T/O 3000-1 & it still has all of it's original electros & the radio is 41 years old...

Chad: do you ever found an VCD or LaserDisc player dumped (that was still working?)? :headscrat

I have an RCA laserdisc player that the local tv shop owner sold me cheap when he retired. It never sold. But I don't have a disc to try in it.

Are you sure that RCA isn't a CED player? I've never seen an RCA branded Laserdisk player.

I do have a Pioneer laser disc player but there is a mechanical problem as you can hear the disc hitting something when it tries to turn. Only have regular CD's though, though I think we might have a laserdisc at the shop somewhere come to think of it.. We have a new in box never used RCA CED player but I think its loading belt is bad as it won't load the disc out of the jacket.

I've got quite a large laserdisk collection now. I started buying them fram garage sales and for about $50 I've got several hundred disks. I hate to think what they cost new. The picture quality varies a LOT from disk to disk. The early ones really look bad, but many of the more recent ones are as good as a DVD (better in some ways).

I also have a number of CEDs. They don't look as good as a laserdisk, but they aren't that much worse than the laserdisks of the time. The main problem is skipping. Every disk seems to skip at some point in the movie. Even my friends who aren't into this stuff find the idea of a video record amazing.

Does anyone here happen to have a stylus for a Hitachi, or Sears CED player? I have one that's missing the stylus. I'd like it as a backup to my RCA.

i have some what stylus do you need. i sold a ton of those ced players. the first ones were $400.00 . sold tons of them at $159.00 we rented the movies. you should have seen my store on friday evenings people renting the movies for the weekend. back then $3.00 each. they cost me i think about $15.00 each. that was the good ole times. steve

The stylus I need looks like this:

http://www.cedmagic.com/tech-info/stylus-cart-guide/hitachi-stylus-cart.html

I bought the player off ebay last year, but unfortunately, it's missing the stylus. I'd like to see how a non-RCA player performs. I like this one because it's one of the only non-RCA direct drive stereo models.