GE 810 restoration
 

I took a break from antique radios for a while and popped open my GE 810. It's the set I picked up recently in Cincinnati, OH.

The cabinet is in decent shape. Just a few worn spot and a couple chips. Otherwise just needs some stripping and refinishing.
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As usual, a couple knobs are missing too :grumpy:
Interesting channel lineup 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13.
I suppose you can tune in either station using the fine-tune at those higher frequencies.
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So nice to have the original back with all the labels.
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I popped the back off and tested the 10FP4 CRT - it's good!
I then cleaned up the chassis, popped out the 6BG6, and set the channel selector to 6. We have a low power analog station on channel 6 that plays light jazz and shows still images of the city.

I slowly powered it up with a variac.

All the tubes lit except for the 5U4. I replaced that and tried again and was treated to some nice smooth jazz :music:

Finally, I popped the 6BG6 back in and got a picture of sorts :banana: The hor sync, vert sync, and vert height are all off. Not bad at all considering I haven't replaced a single component yet!

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I record a 3 part youtube series on this set.
Skip to part 3 if you'd like to hear and see it play.

GE810 Vintage TV (Part 1 - First look inside)
GE810 Vintage TV (Part 2 - CRT testing)
GE810 Vintage TV (Part 3 - Does it work ?)

That is a sweet little set. With all that brass trim, it could look like a million bucks if you were to restore it to "like new" condition. If it was mine, I would take all the brass trim off and restore it bright and shiny like new, and do color fill in the embossed letters. Then refinsh the cabinet to "better than showroom" and that set would be just beautiful.

That's a nice looking set. I'll be anxious to see how the cabinet turns out. I'm amazed that it works without re-capping.

John

Man, I wish you fellers lived closer ! I have a guy & his wife who restore furniture for a living, they could make that cabinet look like a million bux, guaranteed. And they DON'T charge the moon, either, nor do they take 3 months from next St. Swithin's day to get stuff done...They LOVE re-doing simple boxes like TVs & radios...

Hey sandy - they any good at Jukebox cabinets? My dad's got a Wurlitzer 61 that's in need of serious help :(

Complication: We're in NY

Good ideas. The brass seems to be two-tone with some areas brown. Like the inner side of the screen bezel and the top portion of the control area. Probably paint.

I think I'll strip all the metal down, polish it up, mask off and paint those areas. Then color fill as suggested.

So am I! This set is really well made with some interesting twists. Like supplying one leg of a 12AT7 filament with DC from a little selenium rectifier. Maybe for better oscillator stability :scratch2:

I wish I had a dozen 10FP4s for all my other 10" sets :D

Nice project. It's good that it's "working" and a recap should be 95% of the resto, as far as the chassis is concerned.

I saw, and liked, your Video Series on powering up the Set. Looking forward to more...

GE knobs
 

I may have those two knobs, I will look saturday for you. If I have them there yours.

I picked up one of these but in much worse condition than this one. Very ratty, but could be brought back. I can tell that it would look great restored. My crt is pretty weak, too. So, I may just part it out...not sure yet. Now, this one, it looks to be an easy restoration!

That is a nice set. I have one, but it developed a problem with the early sychroguide oscillator, and I put it on a shelf, and there it sits awaiting my attention. The 10FP4 has a nice black and white color, not as blueish as 10BP4.
I restored it in the early 70's, and the chassis and cabinet need work. Just don't have time right now....
Good luck with your 810! They do perform well when they are working properly.
Kevin

Hey Bryan
I've got one that is in good shape but is missing the round GE logo. If you part your set out I'd like to get that part.
Tnx
Terry

Thanks! I think I'm slowly getting better at recording videos. I'm going to pickup a tripod so I can record more easily while working on sets.
It's tough to do it one handed :yes:

Lucky dog! You've got most of the knobs and the back panel as well. I had to "fly blind" with mine, and make a guess as to what missing tubes to be replaced with what and where. I got my 810 working to an extent after subbing in electrolytics and R&R-ing obvious leaky bypass and blocking caps. But with no tube chart (musta been on the inside of the missing back panel), and no schematic, it made the work kinda interesting at best.

Good luck with your project.

Thanks. Luckily I have this model in both a 1949 Beitman TV Servicing guide and a GE 1947-1951 Wallace Telaide :)

I had after experimenting as I had posted before obtained the Sams folder for this model, but a page or two "grew legs" and walked off on me. If you have access to a scanning bed, and could send me the schematic that would be great.

Sure. Here are a few scans from Beitmans's. I'll scan the other pages when I get a chance.

http://www.bobandersen.com/images/schematics/ge/

While I wait for my Philco 49-1040 cabinet to cure, I'm diving into this one. I expect it to go a lot faster.

One side is fine, but the other needs a little help. I hope that blemish fades after stripping. I'll use scraps from the top as patches.
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Here's the nice new sheet of face cut Mahogany veneer. I'll be using Mohawk Brown Mahogany toner lacquer.
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The old veneer is peeling off very easily :)
I only needed to use the heat gun in a few stubborn spots. I hope the new stuff stays on a lot better!
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Weird how the front few inches of the substrate are different. Seems to be slightly lower than the rest with a filler making up the difference.
I'll need to use some new filler and sand it smooth.
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I'm curious-are you still using shellac for grain filler? The reason I ask is that I have been as well, although I switched from using many sprayings from a can to using the brush-on kind. It is much cheaper and far faster using that to fill in the grain, and you can be pretty messy at it as you'll just be sanding it all back anyway.

I'm in the rush to do a few cabinets this weekend as well-I have a Philco 60, filled the grain today and will begin lacquering tomorrow. After that, I have a teeny Emerson mantle radio that needs done. We've been getting lots of rain on the East Coast, so that has slowed me down considerably! Hopefully you won't get frozen out of finishing these cabinets. Keep up the good work!

I have use brush-on shellac for the last couple projects. Definitely better (and cheaper) than spray for grain filling. I do have some Behlen water based grain filler and I plan on using it this time on the top. Messy, but faster on really open grain like this new veneer. I'll still use shellac on the sides I think.

I suppose to go down into the 40s this weekend but back up to the 70s later next week. Good luck!

The inside of the cabinet is in good shape.
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I was pleasantly surprised that it comes apart quite easily. Just a bunch of phillips wood screws and 1/4" nuts.
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The grille cloth peeled right off too. The old adhesive had really dried up.
Does anyone know if there's an good cloth match available ? If not, I'll just clean this old cloth up and glue it back on.
I'll try to find a good match for the light green paint around the screen.
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The only problem I've found so far is bubbles in the safety glass :tears: Perhaps I can get a new piece cut somewhere - or maybe use lexan or plexiglass :scratch2:
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I've got one of these sitting out in the garage, it's in so-so shape and the CRT is weak though I should have something to replace it with.

I dread working on GE sets for some reason, they just seem weird and hard to get working right, my 803 has been sitting half finished because the tuner and i.f. section was so weird I didn't want to deal with it. :scratch2:

I've wondered about that strange hole where the CRT socket is, they all seem to have it and I've never seen one with a cover, did they originally have something to plug the hole?

Won't the bubbles in the safety glass be hidden when it's installed?

John

That is a nice looking set. I only wish that the previous owners of sets had stored them in better conditions. Not having to do a cabinet is certainly a plus but it is all part of the equation. Since you have sound, and picture of sorts, you know the main components are good: Power Transformer, Yoke, Flyback and CRT. It is all good from here. Waiting to watch this restore...

Dunno. I have a few reference pictures of other 810s and they all have that hole too.

I think the 803 is pretty cool looking. I had a shot at one recently with a cracked dial face, but the bidding went over my limit. Something like $300 I believe.

Unfortunately no, the bezel only covers a thin edge of the glass. Not that big a deal I suppose.
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I stripped off a portion of the old finish and was surprised at the color difference. I wonder why they used Mahogany only to cover it with a heavy walnut finish ?

I coated a test strip with Brown Mahogany toner, Golden Mahogany stain and Medium Brown Walnut toner. None are close at all :(
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I reviewed the Mohawk color chart and I think Van Dyke Walnut or Universal Walnut is a good match.

Here's a Philco 37-630 radio which I think is van dyke walnut for comparison.
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I don't have any on hand, but luckily it's on sale at Pond Cove Paint. I hope it gets here soon.

The only other GEs I have worked on are Locomotives and similar models with the same chassis, and I do find those a bit strange -- especially the particular split power supply scheme they use.

The 810 is a much more conventional design. I have one here that is electrically restored, and performs very nicely. Can't think of anything off hand that I found strange in its circuitry.

The cabinet on mine is in a bit tougher shape than the one being discussed here. Sometime in the next month or two I will get into the cabinet restoration on that one.

Interesting you mentioned the strange hole in the back cover where the CRT socket is. For some reason, I had not really noticed it before! I imagine there must have been some kind of flimsy plastic cover made of something that completely disintegrates in less than 60 years!

Tom

I plan to start on the recapping while I wait for the lacquer to arrive. I think I have most of the parts on hand. The only odd thing I've seen so far is a giant domino mica cap.

If you want the job done right do it yourself.
 

I purchased a GE 810 restored and working, only to find the soldering and terminal work sloppy, messey and quite ugly.What caught my eye was the modifications, a whole mit full of extra parts around the horizontal output socket, the poor soul must have really fought with the bias circuit, albeit the set
worked but how?. My instinct was to check and verify that the tubes are the correct ones, well the horiz out is a spanking N.O.S. GE 6GB6, but wait a minuit
this tube has all the pins connected on the base, the schematic and my RCA receiving tube manual shows a 6GB6 with two pins not connected and on the tube base. When you have a manufacture that saves money and space by using unused terminals on a tube socket for a convenient hookup post and a revised tube is installed you can see where this can go. So i reduced the part count to what the diagram called for and put in an earlier 6GB6, suprise suprise the average plate is current RCA tube manual text book perfect. a quote from Ronald Regan "Trust with verification"
my quote "Get your hands on a RCA receiving tube manual!".

Yeah, these early GE tubes sets seem to be troublesome- Eric, I don't blame you for not working on that 803's tuner. I believe it has the same as the 802 that I worked on. After going through so much grief to just get that set running, I wasn't too happy to power up the tv/fm audio section only to have it fizzle out less than a minute later. Then I found out that whole section of the tv is basically a sealed unit-yey!

I also recently recapped a GE locomotive, and while all the voltages are in line, it has terrible signal problems, and EVERYTHING about that chassis is HOT! Probably one of the most dangerous hot chassis sets I've worked on as it is all so crammed in.

I'll be curious to see how this 810 looks/performs. I already know how the cabinet will turn out, though......

Here's the one capacitor that has me a little puzzled. It's shaped like a big mica cap, but I think it's molded paper.

I downloaded the Rider's from the ETF and there's no capacitor listed as 0.05 @ 400v.

However, under the "specialized replacement parts", there is a 0.047 @ 600v molded paper cap listed. I need to trace out the wiring to confirm if this is the cap I'm looking at.
I wish Riders's had the handy component location pictures like Sams does.
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Yeah, that's a molded paper cap. Typically, if I see one of those with a value of say, .001 mfd, I go ahead and replace it during recapping. I never understood that-why they made paper caps in the shape of micas-then you see things like molded paper .001 and a tubular .001 in the same set, same voltage rating. Wouldn't it have been easier to go with a single vendor for that one cap value?

Upon closer inspection that appears to be a replacement so maybe it was a tubular to begin with.

It's C37 - part of the vertical integrator along with C38 just above and to the left. Both are 0.01 on the schematic. Unfortunately, C37 is missing from the Riders parts list. I suppose 600v is a good guess for the voltage.

I bet 0.05 instead of 0.01 wasn't doing the vertical any good!

It turns out that what they call 'molded paper' caps in the parts list, are the bumblebees.

I did more poking around and found a few more replaced caps. The soldering job was good, but most of the values are off. For example a 0.062 uF in the vertical sweep was replaced with a 0.05 and an associated resistor changed from 82K to 47K.

I plan to put everything back according to the schematic. Parts are on the way from Mouser...

Are the 810 and 814 "Hexagon" similar electrically? I have a beautiful 810 cabinet that came with nothing else, and a battered 814 whose front bezel is beyond redemption, but has a chassis, although it looks very battle-scarred as well. I was hoping to stuff my Philco 49-1040 chassis in it, but that looks unlikely to fit...

The 814 chassis is pretty similar. Tonight I'll take a look at my Sams for the 814 and see how similar it is. You may well be able to put the 814 into the 810 cabinet.

If for any reason that doesn't work, I've got a great 810 chassis that I have already fully restored and works perfectly, and a very crummy cabinet that I'm thinking of restoring. If for some reason your 814 won't go into your 810 cabinet, it would sure seem to make sense discussing whether my 810 chassis and your 810 cabinet shouldn't find their way to each other, either under your ownership (I'm perfectly happy to sell my working chassis) or mine (if you want to sell your cabinet). Interested?

Tom

Let's discuss it! Sending a PM in a few minutes...

Fedex managed to lose my package of parts from Mouser :dammit:
I order from them all the time and have never had a problem before.

The refinsihing supplies were also shipped using Fedex and are supposed to arrive Saturday. Hopefully, they'll make it here otherwise I'll move onto another project...

How bizarre. The guy who lives below me just rang my doorbell and handed me my package.

I had spoken to him a few minutes earlier and he didn't have it. He says he opened his door to let a friend in and it was sitting on our front steps.
Maybe it was delivered to the wrong address and someone just dropped it off without ringing either of our doorbells :dunno:

These UPZ series Nichicons will fit inside the old cans nicely :) Small size, high capacity, high voltage and rated for 105C.
One of them should be 10uF, but Mouser was out so I went with 18uF.
The two black ones are low voltage higher capacity so I used a different series of Nichicons still rated for 105C though.
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Hmmm. I wonder if I'm missing the HV cage ?
I can see tapped holes around the HV area that might secure one. No obvious discoloration or marks though.
Perhaps it was removed long, long ago ?