How do you display your sets?
 

Hey Guys,

Like most, it seems I have piles of sets everywhere, especially since I've been away from the hobby for awhile (though that doesn't seem to slow the number that follow me home :scratch2:) For the last year or so I've been building a combo workshop/display room with plans on getting out all the old equipment and having some fun. But here's where I'm stumped.... How best to display table model sets? Consoles, sure, put 'em back to back and load the tops up with display items and UHF converters. But portables and table models end up looking like a giant stack of TV sets, especially if you don't have a dedicated wall. :thumbsdn:

So has anyone built shelves for display or come up with a novel approach? I have columns down the center of the building and thought about building "partitions" with shelves between/around them. Would love to hear your thoughts and see some pics. Thanks! -Cory

I just stack the table sets ontop of the consoles.

Impressive collection there Adam! :yes:

I stack 'em up like cord wood! :) .....
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0538.jpg
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0429.jpg

The stacks would be taller (probably to the celing) if my folks were not on me about not having any aditional sets in my room cause they are afraid that the floor will collapse from the weight.

I have held myself to a 3-high stack limit. Once had a weak swivel base on a Motorola console give way due to overstacking! I really wish I had a better way-it takes space. Really small sets (the early Japanese portables, etc) are easy to shelve and sets like Adam's avatar fit great on a 12" shelf. Other than that, it can be tough.

Since you have a "blank slate" space to work with, I'd think about how museums display their treasures.

Museums avoid the wall-o'-crap effect, with things piled helter-skelter or crammed too closely. Important items have enough visual "elbow room" that you can appreciate them. This photo from a recent estate sale illustrates the wall-o'-crap method of displaying things (no, I don't know that guy):

http://antiqueradio.org/art/ClaviolineSale.jpg

Every museum owns more things than they can display at one time. Objects are rotated in and out between storage and display. Different groups may be brought out for a special exhibit, and so on.

In my workshop, things are piled up in crazy-man style, where nobody can see the mess. In our house, we try to keep the living quarters reasonably normal. I rotate things from time to time, between crazy world and less-crazy world. That way, every nice item gets a turn sooner or later, and I don't get tired of staring at the same stuff forever.

If your space will combine workshop and display, perhaps you can make some visual separation between them. "And now, if we turn the corner, we enter the TV room."

If you have a lot of display-worthy tabletops, perhaps a wall with deep built-in shelves is as good a solution as any. The $64K question is, how much do you display in that space?

Just a thought . . . .

Phil Nelson

This is one of my shelves-o'-crap. Well at least there's kinda a theme going on up there. I’m blessed with around 10,000 square feet of display area. The public seems to really enjoy looking at the old stuff, but it’s a challenge to keep things out of small arms reach. Yep, I also collect beds. :D

And no the radio’s have never been for sale. I'm still trying to figure out how to display largish TV's while keeping them out of harms way.

I'm so confused.

That was a little bad humor, I don't really collect the beds. Not much room in our little house, so I have my radio's on display at my place of business.

That's a pretty nice display. Looks like some choice items up there, too.

Phil Nelson

Until recently I didn't have a decent space to display anything, enter my Aunt and her Daughter (my Cousin).

We spent three days cleaning and organizing my house, threw away my old comfy chair that was thrashed, tossed out the Couch, took about 3-4000 VHS tapes to the Thrift Store, threw out old shelves, put up new shelves for the DVD's.

Now my living room is actually a place where I can relax and enjoy myself.
I can also display a couple dozen sets in there including most of my consoles.

First picture is a "Before" the rest are after.

I hate this "Lumix Digital Camera, there must be a way to get a decent picture out of it but it's beyond me.
My old Olympus was great but not supported in Win 7.

Hey, in that first picture you had your place looking like a real man-cave. :D

Funny how a couple women can turn a guys life around. Very nice looking collection. :yes:

When we decided to enlarge our kitchen and bedroom a few years ago I managed to also work a first floor TV/Radio room into the plans. There are shelves at one end for the table sets. It holds just part of the collection but allows good display and viewing for myself and visitors.

I like all these displays so far. I used to have my sets on display but now they're in storage 'cause....well... I'm kinda homeless:) But, it's all good!

Piled up in the shed! We have our house up for sale, so we had to "de-clutter" it!

Our goal is to get a house with a basement for mine and the wifes hobbies.

I have most of mine stored (safe/dry/neatly), and a few on display in the house. The only mass display I have, is my Sony collection, which takes up 1 room. Several dozen small-screen color Sonys plus a complete set of LCD Sony color and some small-screen CRT & Lollipop tube Sonys. Those, plus the 510-lb 30" console, and Sony's first plasma sets, and all 4 sizes of Profeel, and the first XBR with the foot pedal remote pedestal, etc. No current pics... Need to take some.

Charles

Wow, a lot of great collections guys! And I'd certainly like to avoid the 'wall-o-crap' if at all possible. Well this certainly gives me some ideas-

Tom, your display looks just like my room as a kid. Add in an 8' Sylvania color combo and it'd be complete : )

BTW, I just noticed my join date shows 2010, but I recognize a few names from the old site back when I had a lot more free time. Cool to see new faces, too!

I do the wall of stuff (amended). My main display is my CTC-9, round Zenith, two rectangular Admirals, tabletop post porthole Zenith, Predicta, RCA 8TS30, and 12" Philco. I have a secondary display, but I need to add wiring to accomodate them. Pics coming in the next day or so.

You might give a second thought to the basement idea, if at ll:30PM one night, you had gone down into your basement and seen your Bendix Aviation radio with its phantom dial, that had been in your family since new in 1947, along with with a Pilot 3 inch TV sitting on the floor underneath it and looking up at you with its one sad and very, very wet eye because it was drowning in a pool of water!

Most of the extra stuff was in our basement for short term storage as we had moved everything out of the family room to replace the crappy carpeting that the builder had installed in 2006.

We live on a hill and thought that our basement was flood proof.

The Pilot was underneath on the floor simply because it would fit between the Bendix's legs. These along with most of the original negatives of both my family and my wife's family pictures and all our prints that were never put in albums were in the basement.

I have rewashed hundreds of original photo negatives and a huge pile of photographs. The only photographic loss was a few prints where my wife got a bit impatient while we were soaking them prior to separating them and the emulsion pulled off.

The photos took priority, even while we were getting the water out of the basement. In fact, three months later, I still have about a hundred 1940s negatives sealed in water in a zip-lock baggie and frozen, to prevent mold, while waiting to be rewashed.

The Pilot had previously been repaired (but not restored) by the original owner, and I repaired it again in 1976, but it still had never been restored. Before the flood, it still worked but the CRT was getting a a little dim.

I moved the Pilot to the garage, popped open its case and hosed it off, and left it there to dry, and the cabinet does not seem to be hurt. Of course, this will mean that this set gets its long overdue electrical restoration.

The Bendix was left in place and moved to blocks and I wiped off the legs with alcohol to prevent mold. It has dried without any visible damage.

All of my remaining test equipment was in the basement, and while it did not get wet, it lived in very high humidity for over a week.

The actual biggest flood loss was from the wall of books that were moved from the family room to replace the flooring. We were able to dry the older books with almost no damage, but some of the newer ones were a total loss.

We never were able to determine the exact cause of the flood, but a freak localized storm with over 6 inches of rain in three hours helped. (A farmer's rain gauge about a mile from me overflowed at 6 inches. A rough estimate gave about the same amount in an empty solvent container that I had left in the back yard to air out before storing it. The official rain gauge at the airport about 10 miles north, was 3.5 inches. The other nearest official gauge 20 miles south of me was knocked out by the storm and did not register. In the subdivision where I live, only three houses in a row were flooded, and mine was the center one.)

James

Sorry to go a bit off topic here, but you don't need to load your computer with very bloated camera software.

I assume that your Olympus has a plug that fits the USB slot.

On Win 7, right click [Start] and select "Open Windows Explorer"

Plug your camera's USB cord into the camera and then into any USB port on your computer.

When your Olympus powers up, it probably will ask you a question and at that point you select the [PC] option on the Olympus screen, at which point the camera screen will turn off.

(If your very old camera fails to power up, turn it on manually.)

You can then use Windows Explorer to probe your camera to find your pictures. Once located go back one folder and select that folder and then copy that folder to any place you want it on your Win 7 computer.

Always select, copy then paste, but never delete anything on your camera using your computer as this sometimes can mess up your camera's logic.

Note: It helps if you have "Display file extensions" turned on in your folder options, to quickly idenfify the jpg files, but it is not necessary.

Every picture that I've posted on this forum was shot with a circa 2002 Olympus using only native Win 7 functions!

As a matter of fact, Windows Explorer will work for almost all digital cameras with a USB connector on all versions of Windows computers back to Win ME and possibly even to Win 98.

James (Still stuck with an analog mind in a digital world)

I have never used any proprietary software with a digital camera. We have a relatively old Olympus camera at our repair shop which predates 2004 and we would always just take the memory card out and put in in a card reader and download the files. I do the same thing with my new digital camera.

As far as displaying equipment I try to create areas which may include TV's, phonographs, table radios, etc. plus lamps and chairs to sit down and watch/listen. I need to take some photos of my current setup but here is one from 1994.

i spy a vintage sherwood receiver. whats that gold face one? it looks like a bogen, is it? looks tubular..

Thanks for the suggestions guys but this camera (Olympus 3000 Zoom) has never been accessible through windows explorer, even on XP. Win 7 won't even acknowledge it's been plugged in.

I can install Camedia Master and the USB driver for XP on windows 7, it shows up in Device Manager but it just sits there and won't communicate with the camera.

A card reader is a possible option, I also have a spare XP machine but it's a tedious process using another machine and transferring pics with Flash Drive.

Yes that is a Sherwood receiver. I don't have it any more, I took it to a radio station I worked for and left it in use there when I left. The gold face receiver is a Channel Master solid state.

I picked up this Edsal shelving system for some of my tabletop sets. They're plenty deep and the whole unit can handle 4,000 lbs

It's not exactly ideal for actually using them, but it keeps them out of harm's way.

The rest of my sets are scattered around every room.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4134/4...2f63027c_z.jpg http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4101/4...028869a6_z.jpg

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4144/4...8b440d9b_z.jpg

Banderson- In the last picture above, the porthole on the second shelf up from the bottom on the right side- what is that set? I love the look of that one.

That's a Stromberg Carlson TC-10. Here's the back story on it: http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=248005

This is our temporary holiday time display of the Mighty Majestic. It is outside of the door to our apartment in the hall for all to appreciate.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7015/6...4181aacf_z.jpg

Here is my primary and secondary areas.

Sorry to resurrect an ancient thread but I recently moved into a new home and I am struggling with how I am going to set up a display space. When I first moved in I placed sets in different rooms to spread things out, but then I thought a TV in the dining room looked completely silly. My collection is minuscule at the moment and I am going to keep the number low so the collection doesn't take over the house. I've heard that many people have a "radio room" where they display their collections. I've kicked around the idea of having a guest bedroom/radio room since my home isn't big enough for a room all on it's own. I don't like the idea of table top sets sitting on top of console sets but I think a two level shelf for table top sets might look alright and help to save some space. Does any one else want to share or show pictures of how they set up their display space?

I keep 90% in storage (carefully and correctly stored), and I have one TV at a time in the living room (as if it were "the" TV of the household). To me, that feels more real, than when I had 250 sets all visible when entering the house. I do have a wall unit with all of my Sony mini-Trinitrons on it, with a clear plastic panel over the front of the shelves to dust-proof (and earthquake-resistant-ize) the collection. I have started a collection of very primitive plasma sets from the 90s, an when I get a chance, I'll line those all up mounted on the wall of the hallway.

Charles

I currently have 7" sets scattered all around my place and decided I needed to do something more practical. Specifically, I want to take advantage of my over 9' ceilings. No standard shelving system is going to do exactly what I want so I'm going to roll my own from scratch.

First, I came up with a balsa wood prototype. Imagine the wood blocks are TVs :)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8549/1...27b76189_z.jpg http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2868/1...0905f6b5_z.jpg

Now for the full sized thing. I'm going to use off the shelf dimensioned lumber from a local hardware store. All 1"x2" mahogany and maple.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7293/9...f4e86fb4_z.jpg

I picked up this refurbished Ryobi miter saw cheap and it works great.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7305/1...f00fdffc_z.jpg

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...0&d=1356051609
Here's the Admiral TV I restored, that I got off the bay. It's similar if not the same model I had as a kid (this one in this picture sitting in the same corner of the same room I grew up in where the old one sat), that one was my father's mom's, who bought it new around 1950.

I don't see your photo...

I ran out of space with vintage radios long ago, so don't have room for many TVs. We have a Predicta Holiday I'm just finishing up (fired it up last night, and getting a great pic!). We also have a 1954 Raytheon 17" that I'm going to restore pretty soon. The Predicta will be in the living room, not sure where the Raytheon will go.

Wherever I can put them right now where they won't be in the way. For the future, in a bigger place, I would prefer to keep most of them out of sight most of the time and rotate them in a 70s/80s crossover decor scheme so things don't look too weird. My most recent non-electronic addition: a low-profile captain's bed. It gives me more storage space and eliminates the need for a box spring, my current one being completely shot. The mattress needs replacing too, but I should be able to write off that purchase no problem.

^ GEEZ, that was a long time ago! That was long before I got my 1976 Electrohome console whose space I couldn't even think of sharing with other sets. Actually it was before I got any of my current sets. For the time being most of them will be in my storage room except for when I want to work on them. In the future, in a much better part of the country, different sets in different rooms I guess.

I used to have a twin captain's bed I had to climb up into. It had a storage unit underneath with two stacked drawers and a cubby-hole on each side with a shelf. I'd like to have another one, the one mentioned above is crap in comparison. The drawers were falling apart and are gone now and the empty spaces turned against the wall.

Displaying my sets is very important to me. If it's not done correctly it can look just like a stock-pile and, individually, loose their appeal. I try to make symmetry by say a vintage TV center flanked by two tombstone radios on tables, flanked by two consoles on either side. I also like to display period items on them which further enhances their appeal. I put period small deco lamps, clocks, lighters, ashtrays, pictures, etc. on them. It's fun to search these items out too. I usually use cheap Target furniture as tables or an antique small table/night-stand occasionally.
Joe

Hello it is hard to lift those heavy sets over your head to display them I have ten and a half foot high ceilings most of my sets are on the floor stacked 3 high or on consoles I have 1 display unit with 10 sets stuffed on it...Timothy

I've just completed my TV display space. I finished half of my basement by myself from the ground up with the intention of having a theater/TV display space. I keep very few sets and I want each set to have the space that it deserves. I try to have one original advertisement or other piece of ephemera framed and hanging above each set. The room is my main entertaining area thanks to a wetbar and flat panel theater. It's really great to be able to show the collection to family and friends who come over to visit. It always sparks a conversation about TV history. One of my personal favorites is when I have older folks over and they talk about their first TV experience. There's a bit of room for expansion for one tabletop and one console, but that will take time.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7400/1...1a912251_b.jpg

That is awesome!