A "replica" pre-war TV project
 

I had this thought probably two years ago, just never came across the parts to do it. But now, I've got a great beginning.

First, was deciding what cabinet to use. I wanted something that would be relatively simple to fit a TV chassis into, and would have the correct pre-war look. Decided that I needed to find a Zenith round dial console cabinet from the late 30s. Just got one in that will be PERFECT for the job (thanks to DavGoodlin :) ).

It's got what I think is one extra hole cut in the front, but that doesn't matter much as the center hole will have to be filled anyway, and the front panel will need to be re-veneered after I get the new holes drilled for the controls.

For the chassis, I didn't want to ruin anything potentially restorable, so I came across this Tele-Tone on ebay a couple months back. The picture tube, unfortunately, has no horizontal deflection, so I assume that it took a hard hit at some point and the deflection plates inside either broke or got bent, something.

The cabinet on this Tele-Tone was heavily moisture damaged. All of the plywood is separating, and the whole thing is falling apart. However, the chassis is spotless.....oddly enough. Perfect!

Now, I'm not sure what to do about the former switch areas on the radio outside of the picture tube....I may just carefully trim the bezel and fill the cabinet holes. Ideas appreciated there.

Also, might as well do up an outboard 6V6 amp and a large speaker while I'm at it. After all, I have a lot of real estate to fill here......

If you're re-veneering the front panel I would suggest moving the television controls down on the front panel away from the picture tube. It would look funny to have them as close to the picture tube as they are in the small table top cabinet. Also you could reuse the Tele-Tone's inner gold screen mask on the new cabinet and make it look like the RCA 5" sets. Just paint the mask brown and back paint a piece of glass to put in front of the mask.

Make this...

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/...psvfjrdvny.png

From this...

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/...psqd7jqvzv.png

Will this be a porthole screen? I don't know the diameter of the radio dial.
Cool project, Eric, good luck with it!

Isn't the CRT considerably deeper than the Radio cabinet?
If that's the case you could install one of those cheap 5" Jellybean sets inside masked off to resemble a Pre War 5".

No, actually, just sitting the chassis inside, and testing with a picture tube, it comes out about even. The cabinet is a lot deeper than it looks in the pic.

The glass potion of the dial measures 5 3/4". Should be about perfect for what I'm doing :)

In theory, the old push buttons could be used to select the desired TV channel. Though you'd need to modify or build a special tuner to do this, especially as the buttons are in clusters of 6 widely separated. http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...1&d=1442232007

Nah, I'm not going that far into it.

This is a hacked up pic of what it would look like if I just filled in the pushbutton areas and mounted the chassis.

Hm. Needs something.....other than different color knobs :)

Custom decals with your own brand name?

That's an interesting project.

For another take on this, go to http://www.forum.radios-tv.co.uk/
and the TV forum. The second from top topic is "Recreating ..."
he really did ... from scratch, as near identical as possible. Its not finished.

If only you could find an old Midwest radio escutcheon and cut out the center portion. I think the "wings" would look cool on it.

.

Very cool idea! I've often thought of this myself. I can picture it as a porthole set and just masking the CRT if need be. When it's working it'll be very impressive.
I often thought of this with a 3" Pilot chassis, being they're so many existing. Cleverly incorporating the CRT at the top of a console radio above the radio dial.
Good luck!

I have the same Zenith console, with correct restored (by me) 25HZ chassis....I don't know why I restored it, the darn thing still worked GREAT on the original caps! That is one of Zenith's bulkier pre-war radio consoles....I could see a 7JP4 fitting it.

This may sound nutty, but I'd keep the button panels.....And I'd fit a VCR in with the loading mech pointed out the back. I'd route all the VCR's buttons to the Zenith bezel, leave the set on Ch3, and look for a PS line that is only on when the VCR is and hook a relay to that to turn the TV set on.....If done right you'd have remote tuning (if using cable or multiple agile modulators to feed it) and power control, not to mention a built in signal source....

I'd use a DVD player, and use the luma video output (either the green jack on the "component video" outputs (set it to 480i) or the luma line of an S video output jack. Then I'd feed this to the video amp of the TV set (skipping over the tuner and IF) and do likewise with the audio.

My 2Cents (or less) worth: I think that it would ruin the effect that (I think) you are after if you install a modern player of any sort *inside* the cabinet, even if it is hidden away in the back. I'm guessing that you would want to be able to look in from the back and see nothing but vintage parts and warm, glowing tubes.

jr

Could mount the player below the chassis deck and print a Zenith Wavemagnet antenna box on card stock to conceal the non-empty-state electronics inside of. The appeal of not using a DVD player is that you are not limited to only DVDs as program material....If it were me making this, that would drive me nuts.

Exactly, which is why I had thought of an outboard audio amplifier. More tubes! :D

Another consideration is the knobs. And do I really want to use that big channel knob escutcheon on this set?

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2676/3...5a95f4da18.jpg

It may seem like that can be thought about later, but I have to cut the new holes in the cabinet before I mount anything, and the depth and style of the knobs will dictate the hole sizes.

:D Tim , If you do this right and really make it look good , some day 50 or so years from now it's gonna end up on the bay , selling as ; "Super rare Zenith prototype TV !" and someones gonna pay Gigabuck$ for it :yes:

When Bryan Gadow brought me that cabinet for you, I was sure there was a plan. I figured a 7-inch CRT was a bolt-in but the big chassis may need to go vertical. The speaker opening was 8 inch, this Zenith was not TOTL for sure.
The veneer work is not too difficult. I guess that teletone cabinet is not worth saving, huh.

You may be able to reposition the controls that use pots (contrast, brightness, vert hold, horiz hold). The tuner (channel selector) looks like it would not be repositionable. But if you build a new mounting for the pots you should be able to make use of the existing holes in the cabinet. And add a third hole symmetrically opposite the existing hole on the lower right. And another hole for the tuner.

The Tele-Tone cabinet came apart in my hands readily, and all the glue from the plywood had separated. Shot. Although I did save some of the veneer for future piecing in to other sets if needed, and saved the front so I could use it as a template for the knob holes.

I have no intentions of moving the controls around on the chassis....so I'll just work with what I have, although I may end up lowering the former radio chassis shelf.

And as you can see, just enough room in there :)

I think that's a great idea. Looks like a perfect fit too.

I believe you're on to something here!

I cant wait to see your progress on this :)

I had thought about making a pre-war set myself, but feel that I should better spend my time restoring the sets that I presently own.

On your knobs and screen shape:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/rca_trk-5.html

As for the knobs, I think the Tele-Tone knobs are a close match* for the knobs on the 1939 TT-5 and TRK-5 , on all but the channel selector dial plate.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/rca_tt-5.html

My suggestion is to drill all 4 holes in the radio cabinet the correct size to fit the shafts and the fine tuning knob will cover the hole. For channel numbers, I's suggest that you take some period number decals and label the top positions on the cabinet wood, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or better still assume the set had been upgraded pre-1946 to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 as that would make centering better. I'd recommend the later and stick the numbers above actual channels 2-7 so they will center correctly. The below manual shows how RCA did the channel numbers. See manual page 6 which is PDF page 4.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/pdf/r...ers_manual.pdf

Since most pre-war factory built sets had rectangular masks and most home made sets (or kit sets) showed the round tube, I think this set was built by one of your ancestors and it should carry the family name!

James

* In my humble opinion, Tele-Tone intentionally made their cabinets look like the RCA sets to confuse mail order buyers.

Don't lower the knobs, raise the CRT! Weren't the prewar CRTs mounted with wood? I could also send you a support bracket from a porthole Zenith, if you want a metal one.

Really glad to see this coming together! I wasn't sure if the cabinet had made it to NY yet or not. I had also thought of doing this myself but I have enough projects. I kinda hated to part out the Zenith but it wasn't mint and it was actually worth more in parts. Both the chassis and speaker found good homes. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

I shelved the project for a couple months until the snow flies. It's going to be a really fun winter project, first thing I have to do is restore the Tele-Tone chassis. Once I get that up to working condition, getting the proper fitment with the controls won't be too bad. I'll just use the old cabinet front from the Tele-Tone as a template for making the proper holes in the cabinet.

Right now I'm just finishing up a GE 801, a 1949 Philco AM/FM radio for a friend, an 8TS30, and getting the vehicles and house ready for winter.

Started playing around with this the other day. Looking pretty good!! I carefully cut the holes for the tuner shafts and jigged the chassis in. I had some leftover Admiral labels, so I added them to the cabinet for control labeling.

All I did with the cabinet was re-glue every loose joint, then scrub it down with white Goop hand cleaner and a toothbrush. Rather than refinish it, I'll wipe it down with a little stain and leave it as is, to give it an "authentic" look :)

Now, for the extra holes.....the one on the right I'm just going to leave there as it's not terribly noticeable. For the center, I was going to move the focus control for the set to that position, but decided instead to put some kind of really neat pilot light there, or maybe a Zenith nameplate off of something of the era if I can get one.

Have to come up with some type of knob arrangement too, and of course the chassis restoration. But I gotta say, I love looking at this thing :)

Now I know I've seen that before... :scratch2:.

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...6&d=1451479985

http://www.earlytelevision.org/image...n_IMG_1940.jpg

The heck kinda set is that? :)

Andrea 1F5.

A very historically significant, rare, and valuable set too. Easily $10K plus. The only commercially sold pre-war 5" tabletop set with an audio section that I'm aware of. The one pictured is very nice, but needs that sharp-looking "Andrea-Radio Television" decal above the screen to really be complete.

If I'm not mistaken that particular one has a cabinet that is a replica, which would explain the missing decal.

If it is, it's amazing work. Perfect actually. I am surprised though that a complete set of decals was not reproduced for it after going that far.

I believe that particular Andrea set was part of Dave Johnson's collection of over 200 sets including 20+ prewar sets. It was sold a few years back at an ETF auction.

Update?