Beautiful - RCA Victor 621TS
 

This just in...

A 621TS in Walnut. Serial Number C 003539. Complete, except for the brass channel dial.

With an NOS GL-4592 aluminized crt. Sealed in the box.:smoke:

Found the brass dial.:smoke:

Nice - thought you had one already.

Appears unrestored. All RCA tubes. Haven't tested the CRT yet.

I did. Couldn't pass this one up.:smoke:

Very nice cabinet condition! Can't say much good about your camera, however! :)

I know. It's my cellphone.

The pictures don't do it justice.

Took a peek inside. The RCA tubes have codes on them like: 6-30, 6-24, 6-29, etc.

Are they original 1946 tubes?:smoke:

Yes, mid 1946 date codes.

Looks like you died and went to heaven.....

I might just get into a set like that more than a CT-100......

I will do my very best restoration on this chassis. Restuff all caps so it appears "ex-factory."

I'm tempted to pull all the factory tubes and record their original locations. Perhaps put them aside and swap in new tubes.

So, based on the tube's date codes, we can assume a third quarter 1946 assembly date?:smoke:

So you think that is a low hour set, or NOS never really used....?

The chassis is covered in dust. No rodent activity.

I'm going to pull the chassis and document it thoroughly. :smoke:

It appears completely original.

The Tuner tubes are dated 3-43. The earliest 1946 tubes are dated 6-17. The 5U4 is missing.

The cad plated chassis is well preserved under all that dust.

All caps and resistors appear ex-factory. :smoke:

Using a soft brush, I swept aside a small section of dust from the top of the chassis. You can see thr cad plating is very nice.:smoke:

The 7DP4 appears origional to the set.

The black socket is marked MADE IN USA 043.

This is fun...

:smoke:

Looks low hour. And the latest tube date code is 6-30

Where is the date code on the CRT?

Should be on the base somewhere. I'd have to look at mine. This is a nice one. Bet you paid 4 figures. If not - what a deal.

Not.:smoke:

Ever give a second thought about keeping it in its completely original condition? Relatively speaking "restored" "working" 621ts' are a dime a dozen, but examples as original as the one you currently have are probably quite rare, and getting rarer every day.

RCA changed to a year-week code in 1946 so 6-17 is 17th week of 1946, if there is a dash it's an OEM tube, no dash it's a replacement tube.

Before that the code was a letter (Year) number (Month pair) combination, U=1937, F=1946; 1=Jan/Feb, 6=Nov/Dec, so 3-43 isn't an RCA date code.

In 1956 they changed again to the RMA-EIA code format YY-WW.

Chuck

The latest tubes are 6SN7s, all dated 6-30, with a dash. All the tubes have dashes.

I haven't ventured inside the HV cage yet.

Soooo...6-30 is Mid-August. The sound discriminator is a 6AT6. An early production 621TS. Say, September 1946?:smoke:

Taking inventory and testing components. Cleaning and checking as I go.

All the ww resistors in the HV Cage and the bleeder resistors are fine. I checked the flyback for resistance and it is fine.

All the tubes test very good to excellent. Since all but four tubes are as the tv left the factory, I find that remarkable.

The only tubes, in fact, the only components that are not ex-factory are the 6BG6-G, 5V4-G, 5U4-G, and one of the 6SN7s.:smoke:

Checked all the transformers for resistance, and they're all fine.

Did a partial recap. Restuffed and replaced 17 out of 27 tubulars. They are the new looking caps at the right of the picture. I replaced them exactly as before, duplicating the factory positions.

On a lark, I plugged it into the variac and brought the a.c. up slowly. At 100 volts I tested the second anode and it read 7kV.

That's good enough for tonight. :smoke:

You're doing the Right Thing... A set THAT good deserves a chance to "Live" again.... It will likely "Wow !" as many, if not MORE people now & in the future as it did in 1946...

Looks good as usual! What do you use to seal the ends of the capacitors after you "stuff" them. I have not been happy with what I have found so far. A good sealing wax may be the ticket but I have only found a kinda hot glue and I am not satisfied with the color.

Thanks for sharing and good luck today!

So far, this is boiling down to a glorified recap. Strip away all the fancy re stuffing of cardboard capacitors, quick resistance checks, and this is a pretty simple restoration.

I'm using clear hot glue and dark amber colored beeswax on the caps.

Only a few more tubulars to go, under the video IF sections.

It appears the ion trap magnet assembly was replaced, with a stock RCA unit. Lead number 2 was disconnected. I don't know why it was left hanging...

I briefly power up the unit every three or four cabs replaced. Last test at 110 volts yielded a full 8 kilovolts at the second anode connection. Looks pretty healthy.

The original electrolytics are still on the chassis. I'm saving them for last. I'm only powering up the chassis briefly, so as to not endanger anything.:smoke:

Very nice acquisition, Lee. Since this is a walnut version, are the center trim pieces and left and right stripes lighter in color than the knobs? That seems to be the one way I can tell a walnut set from a mahogany one.

Great find. Even 70 year old dust!

Can't wait to see photos of it up and running.

They are about the same tone.:smoke:

Oops. My error. The sound discriminator is a 6AT6. Original tube.:smoke:

She's up and running. Has audio has a raster but looks like the horizontal frequency is off. I can't find the hor.frequency control like in my 630TS.

Anybody know...?:smoke:

Here's a pic of it running. :smoke:

Not positive but I think this is the Horiz Osc coil.

That's L113, the horizontal linearity control. I saw that.:smoke:

I think the problem is not horizontal synch or oscillation. It might be in the tuner.

I don't get a blank white raster on the screen. There's lots of dark in it, with or without a signal going through it.:smoke:

OK, so I cannot use that as a way to tell either. Well, maybe mine IS walnut, then. Every time I try to compare it to other sets I have or look at it in different light or a different angle, I see something that makes me not sure one way or the other. Thanks.

The picture you posted looks like the Horiz Oscillator is running way off frequency but maybe it's just lines of interference?

Does the Horiz Hold control on the front have any affect?

It's been so long since I worked on a 621/721 I can't remember if they have an adjustable frequency coil or not, I would think they would have to.
Looking at the Riders on the ETF I can see a Horiz Osc Transformer but it doesn't appear to be adjustable.

Yup. I see the same thing. No adjustment.

I checked the 470 pf mica under the 6SN7-GT V-108, and it measures fine. Don't have a leak tester though. A 470k resistor measured 617k so I replaced it - nothing.

It may not be a horizontal oscillator or discharge issue.

Perhaps it's in the tuner. But I get real clear audio via the test DVD.

I'll keep at it.:smoke:

Your 621TS is one of the nicest I've seen. Still the best vintage TV in my opinion. My only complaint with it, as well as my 630TS, is the annoying audio buzz they all seem to have. The audio also requires a very specific "sweet-spot" of the controls or it goes out completely.

Yup. A fine television.

I'm still making my way thru it. Just replaced all the 2W resistors in the HV section. They were all toast.

The Focus control is dirty, or catching on something, as it reads too high. Before I started cleaning it, it was reading only 1.87 Meg's. Now, it reads over 7 Meg's. Strange. I have it soaking in a cleaning solution, with the cover removed, at present. I may have to replace it.

Many thanks to kbmuri, who is, as usual, invaluable in endevours like these.:smoke: