55 Westinghouse 21" B&W
 

Here is the 55 Westinghouse B&W I brought back from MI. I am currently in the process of recapping it. This one was used long after it stopped working well. Lots of melted caps and burned out tubes. Several repairs with bad soldering. One of the 5U4s (there are 2) had an open filament. Weak CRT, but I used the rejuvinator, and it seems to have worked. I like the copper plated chassis and the swivel base, cosmetically this set is in great condition, except for the missing trap-door in front and volume knob which I broke myself trying to get this out of an attic in Michigan, this set is much heavier than it looks: all metal cabinet and chassis.

Hi Adam, that is a really cool looking set! :banana:

I love Westinghouse and their copper plated chassis, it has a such a high quality look.

I agree about the quality of the Westinghouse, a very well made set both structurally and electronically. Two LV rectifier tubes, now that's classy. This is the only one of their sets I have seen, but it makes me wonder why they weren't more popular and stopped making sets. I wonder if they ever made a color set, anyone out there with a Westinghouse color roundie?

Westinghouse had their 15" color set out just before RCA had the CT100. There were a few others that followed. i remember finding a Sams for a late 50's roundie... i think it was from 57.

You mentioned this set being heavy. Funny to think they use those skinny looking legs to hold it up! Kinda reminds me of Jeff Foxworthy talking about TV in the old days... having a 500 pound set sitting on top of a TV tray!

Westinghouse was in the tv business up until about 1970. They had a full line of color sets, too. Saw an ad recently in a Look magazine from about 1968 showing their color console. I've never seen one, only bw.

About the time they made this set they were producing the rectangular color set using the CBS crt.

Reminds me of the copper plated chassis used in some
of the RCA Golden throat radios.

I got this working last night. It works good, except for the strangest thing, on ch3 it gets ch5. I don't think it is a problem with the rf alignment, as I get a good ch2,4 and 5. A bad coil on the ch3 strip in the tuner? Oh well, I'll watch my dvds on ch4, I really would rather not take the tuner apart if I can avoid it.

Now I only have 3 b/w sets that don't work at all left (56 Bendix, 58 Hoffman, 58 RCA). 2 color sets that need a little work(63 Philco, 67 Zenith), and 1 that needs alot (63 RCA).

I haven't seen too much from Westinghouse out there. I do agree that they put out a quality product back in the 50's. My mom still uses her 1949 Westinghouse **electric** stove every day and everything still works on it. For years the matching refrigerator was plugging away in her garage, with handle nearly falling off but still workable. It got a little too frosted up and quit during a heat wave last summer. Still has a tiny 1939 Westinghouse frig keeping sodas cold on her patio. That thing came out of a 1904 apartment building and has been dropped on its side and bounced around from place to place and it keeps on going. But you can't watch Lucy on it.

I was working on this today trying to fix the vert. linearity problem it had. I'm not near a scanner now, so I will try to describe how it goes. The vert. output trans. is connected on one side to the cathode of the vert. output tube, in the middle to the vertical portion of the yoke, and on the other end of the coil to the other side or the vert. portion of the yoke and the horiz. output trans. at the same place one side the horiz. portion of the yoke is. It is seperated from the horiz. out. trans. by a 3.9k resistor, after which is a 30mfd capacitor connected to ground. Am I correct in assuming the vert. output tarans. is just using the connection to the HO trans. as a power supply and for no other reason? Anyway the 3.9k resistor was on its way out at only about 20k, so I replaced it. Afterwards the bottom edge of the picture would not fill the screen at the corners, in the same way it would if the yoke was moved back along the neck of the picture tube.

Originally the problem with the picture was that, first of all only the top half of it was visible, it would fill the screen, but it was stretched out and the bottom portion was not on the screen anymore, if I was to adjust it so the whole picture could be viewed, the top 1/3 of the screen would be empty, and the bottom 2/3 would have the entire picture. After replacing that resistor, this problem did not go away, the other one just started.

Then, I just decided to replace the vert. out trans. I had a spare, and even though the one in there tested OK (off by about 10% as to the resistance in the coil), it just didn't look like it should be working properly, so out it went. This actually fixed the linearity problem about 80-90%. Exactly what was happening, I'm not really sure, but I was happy it was working better.

Then I go and try to hook it to a VCR, so I can get something with a strong signal and a still picture to adjust it by. But when I hook it the VCR now all I get is sound and a blank raster. First of all this TV already had a strange tuner problem (it gets ch 5 on ch3) but otherwise its fine in that area. So I had been using the VCR on ch 4. Now it gets in ch4, sound and picture, if I use an antenna. But if I hook it to the VCR, just sound and a blank raster. If I remove one of the wires from the tuner, when connecting the VCR I get a picture, but its like one would expect with only one of the wires connected, full of snow and bad sync. But put both wires, and I'm back to a blank raster?? I tried the VCR on other sets, and I also tried other VCRs on this set, so I know its the TV. I can't imagine what is doing this. And if this has anything to do with changing the vert. out. trans., which I think it can't possibly. I can put up a schematic when I'm near a scanner tomarrow, thanks for any ideas anyone can give me, I've never seen anything like this before!?

update: The new problem seems to be somewhere around the 3rd if tube (6CB6) , the voltage readings on the schematic check out until that point. One end of the coil following it hooks to the cathode, the other to one of the grids, the grid side of the coil reads the correct 110v, but the cathode side reads 0v when the TV is hooked to the VCR, but the correct 110v with an antenna or nothing at all. The voltage readings at the 1st and 2nd IF tubes (also 6CB6) are unaffected. I tried replacing the tube, even though the original tested good, but it made no difference. I also checked the resistance of that coil to make sure it wasn't broken somewhere, it wasn't.

next update: I tried testing the voltage at more places and the problem seemed to be contained between the 3rd IF tube and the video output tube. But I couldn't find the source of the problem. Then I thought if I get some picture with only one wire connected from the VCR to the tuner, what if I put a resistor in there and see what happens, well nothing. But in the general mood of trying random stuff, I put the resistor across the antenna leads, and my picture was restored! The lowest value resistor I had (15 ohms) produced the best picture. But if I just connected the antenna leads together, with no resistance between them, I just got static and snow (not a blank raster, but no more sound other than static or discernable picture). I feel good that I got it to work, but I have no idea what is happening!

Ok, I tried different values of resistance, and what it wants appears to be very specific. Decreasing the resistance further, putting 2 15ohm resistors in parallel, just changed where I had to set the fine tuning, but putting two 15ohm resistors in series produced a picture nearly as clear as before this all started. But a 68 ohm resistor doesn't work very well at all.

I fooled with the resistors some more, I found that if I put 2 15ohm resistors in series, parallel with a 100ohm resistor, it produced a clear picture. I think that works out to about 23ohms, so atleast if I can't figure out what caused this I can just solder a resistor across the antenna connections on the tuner and fix it. I'm still not sure what happened though.

I put it back together with those extra resistors, and it seems to work. But after watching it for a while I can see that the vertical still isn't right, better, at least the whole picture is on the screen, but still a bit compressed vertically at the bottom and expanded vertically at the top. Everything checks out though, so I'm still not sure what's causing it, I have an extra yoke for this set, I might try that later, but its really not so bad now as it was, so I might move on to another set first. Again, if anybody can tell me why I needed those resistors, at this point I'm just curious as to what is going on. I thought the resistance across the antenna input of these sets was supposed to be 300ohms, with these extra resistors it should be around 20?? But then it works like this with the VCR or a RF modulator, but if I just want to connect an antenna it works better without the resistors.

Adam:

First of all I do not think a new yoke will fix your vertical problem. Usually a bad yoke results in a keystone shaped picture. Did you re-cap the vertical section? There is that 30mF cap, a 4mF cap and a 150mF cap in the cathode circuit of the output tube.

The video problem sounds like you're overloading the tuner with the vcr output.

Your location says LA, is that Louisiana or Los Angeles?

Steve (near LA as in Los Angeles!)

I re-capped the whole set, all the electrolytics and the wax/paper caps have been changed. That 4mfd cap was not part of my set originally. I also checked all the tubes and replaced the weak ones. I checked all the resistance readings at the tube pins in the vert sweep / deflection circuits and the only problem was corrected by changing that 3.9k. Pin 1 of the 6SN7 reads about 20k low, I am assuming this is due to that "several resistors and caps in one" component, but I think this shouldn't be causing my problem, as it would just have to do with the vert. sync pulses from the TV signal getting to the 6SN7 and not have to do with the vert. deflection? It sounds like you have the schematic, am I even thinking about this circuit correctly, I've been reading up on vert. circuits, if I'm correct the .1 mfd cap connected to the height control and then to the grid of the vert output tube is the one that is actually charging and discharging to produce the sawtooth wave? The height control controls the rate of charging, increasing the resistance from the power source (in this case the HO trans?) to that cap, increasing the charging time, the time which the electron beam is moving downwards (not in retrace), and therefore the vert size, and the 12BH7 is just an amplifier for the sawtooth wave, already created by the time it reaches its grid. I would think the problem would be between that .1mfd cap and the vert out trans. Changing the trans. did help, the picture was 'folded over' a bit at the bottom before. I don't think the yoke is bad either, next I'm going to try changing that 2.2meg resistor betwen that cap and ground. My meter really isn't sensitive enough to measure anything less than 1meg, I'll have to wait until the end of the week when I have time to go get one though.

I have to admit that tuner problem mystifies me, if the problem is in the tuner, and can be corrected at the antenna input, why would it show up as low voltage at the cathode of the 3rd IF tube and the voltage readings seem ok before that?

Anyway, I'm in Los Angeles, CA, actually I live in the valley, I just put LA because I figured everyone would know where that is.

Here's the schematic of the vert. section, for anyone following this. Working on this has really made me realize that I don't know what I'm doing half the time, usually I just replace a few capacitors and maybe a tube and its up and running. Still I think I'm doing not too bad for someone who studies ancient languages, and just decided to start repairing TVs having no previous background in electronics a few years ago.

Adam:

I usually replace those high resistance resistors (1 meg and above) when I redo the vertical section. Also, double check the capacitors that you replaced to make sure you put in the right values. Is that 150 mF correct? Poor linearity could be causes by a problem in the cathode circuit of the output tube.

BTW, I didn't mean for you to change your location listing on your heading! Anyway I'm just over in the Conejo Valley.

Steve

I checked again to make absolutely sure I didn't put a 150v 50mfd or something like that instead of the 150mfd, but I didn't. That 30mfd capacitor I had replaced with a 20, it was all I could get at 500v. But I didn't think that one being a little off would cause any problems, I just now put a 10mfd at 400v cap in parallel with it briefly, just to see if there was any change, there really wasn't. I changed that 2.2meg, and that did help a bit, after making some adjustments after it was changed, it really isn't too bad. I either have to settle for the bottom inch or so of the screen being a bit squished, or having about that much of the picture cut off at the bottom. But that's much better than it was. I think its time for me to move on, in the past 3 months I got 4 sets I have yet to start working on. And unless I'm watching a test pattern (which I have been known to do), this picture on this TV really does look good enough now.

I have been working on this all night, and now it is finally working well enough to make in into my rotation of daily watching sets. I replaced that big"all in one component" largely because it looked like some previous repair man had melted part of it with a soldering iron. It did nothing for the linearity, but it did improve the vertical sync on weaker channels, but what is really good is that it fixed that strange VCR / tuner problem (I don't know why or how but as soon as that was changed, it worked with the VCR without those resistors, and overall reception was improved as well. It turned out the final source of vertical linearity trouble was those magnetic rings on the back of the yoke, I went to adjust them and saw that the outer one was just loose around the crt neck. It must have happened the last time I was working on it, I couldn't get it back on there (the part of the yoke it attatches to is cardboard and it was just too worn, so I had to find where it should go and then attatch it with some tape, but that seems to work.
Oh, and Steve, the main reason I decided to change my location was that after you told me of your confusion, I thought maybe no one wanted to pick up any of the stuff I have in the TV swap board because they thought I was in Louisiana, but then its probably because nobody wants a CT-92 chassis with a bad tuner or any of the various other junk in my closet. :)

Adam,

I agree with Steve K. Try adjustin you AGC control, you are probably overloading the tuner/if when using the VCR. If the sound amp/discriminator tube is used as a AGC delay diode, try replacing it.

Have you replaced ALL the electrolytics in the vertical output circuitry? Sounds like the output cathode bypass may be leaky.

Regards....

This is a summary of what happened:

First I had changed all wax/paper and electrolytic capacitors, everywhere in the set, as well as a low voltage rectifier tube with an open filament and a weak RF amp tube and osc/mixer tube. It worked, but with bad vert. linearity, no difficulty hooking to the VCR, except it gets ch 5 on ch3 so I had to use ch. 4.

Then I changed R92, the 3.9K that only read about 2k. It did nothing for the linearity but decreased the vert. size too much, and the picture began to fold over on the bottom (it did this before, but I just had the size increased so that portion was below the screen)

I changed the vert out transformer, this increased the size and fixed the fold-over, linearity better but still bad.

At this point I wanted a strong signal, because it wouldn't sync vertically on a weaker one, so I hooked it to the VCR and found it got only a blank raster and sound. The voltage readings at the 1st and 2nd IF tubes were all ok, until the cathode of the 3rd IF which read 0 when hooked to the VCR. I had tried adjusting the AGC at this point and it didn't help. A resistor of approx. 20 ohms across the antenna terminals did, however with an antenna and not the VCR it worked better without this.

I changed the 2.2meg resistor R86, the linearity improved, but still not great.

I have a 20mfd electrolytic instead of a 30 at one end of the vert. out trans. (C2B), because I couldn't get 30 at 500v, but I put a 10mfd at 400v in parallel with it to see what would happen, and it made no noticible difference, so I removed it.

I changed that big thing with all the resistors and caps together going into the grid of the 6SN7, the vertical sync on weak stations improved, and the VCR / tuner problem went away, reception overall improved, and the picture had more contrast, no change in linearity.

I realized one of those magnetic rings around back of the yoke was loose, and I had had the horiz. width too high to compensate, the picture was way over to one side, so I had the width really high so it would fill the whole screen, with the width so high the vert linearity would only look good with a picture too big, after adjusting the rings and turning down the horiz width, the linearity now looks good.

I still get ch5 on ch3. The vert. linearity is good, not absolutely perfect, but good, actually the horiz. linearity is off a tiny bit, but not enough to be noticible. The VCR to tuner strangeness is gone. Thanks everybody for the information about this. At this point I'm really happy with the performance of this set, I have stopped messing with sets that work not as well as this, and I really don't need it to get ch3 as long as it gets ch4. I understand how my linearity problems came and went, if anybody knows what happened with the VCR, the tuner and those resistors and caps prior to the grid of the 6SN7 I would be very interested to know.

You should be able to adjust the oscillator coil on each tuner strip. Adjust it so ch 3 comes in on ch 3. Use a plastic screwdriver to adjust the slug in the coil.

They're Back!
 

Yes, once again, you can own a brand new Westinghouse color tv. Check out their site.

Westinghouse:
http://www.westinghousedigital.com/p...27-lcd-tv.aspx

-Steve D.

Hey Adam, you need this to go with the TV!

http://cgi.ebay.com/1950s-Westinghou...QQcmdZViewItem

I have one (the pencil holder, not the TV). Didn't realize they came in different colors.

Do you suppose the dealer would give you the pencil holder if you bought the TV?

Yours must be older, Phil. Betty Furness looks a lot younger in that picture!

veg

[QUOTE=Eric H]Hey Adam, you need this to go with the TV!

Thanks, I like that, but the price is too high for me, for that much I'd want another one of the TVs along with it.

I just won this set off Ebay for 99 cents. I really like the looks of this set. I have to go pick it up tomorrow evening. They have the control door. It is missing the volume knob. Anybody got one?

polaraman

Rich, do you happen to know the model number of the set? I have some Westinghouse knobs I can look thru... I cant really see the way they look, so maybe a model number can help if I can find it in Sams.

Charlie,

I will not know till I get the set. Maybe Adam can tell us.

polaraman

I also have some NOS Westinghouse replacement knobs that I can look through.

Wow, the pencil holder went for $210.00 !

Maybe I should gut the set and cut the top off!! Maybe glue an old Lucy picture to the safety glass. :D

polaraman

Rich, here's some of the knobs I have. The volume knobs are listed for the following sets:

H894T17
H867T21
H876T24B/H877T24B
H865T21B

Some of the colors are a little different. Some have the gold insert, some do not. Seems I remember a large fine tuner knob, but it's currently lost among the many others.

Model H-864T21B, it's in sams 270-18. The knob that's on mine is the one not in a package on the back right, in the first picture.

I can't beleive the pencil holder went for 212 times what the TV itself did.

While we're on the subject mine is missing the control door, anyone got a spare one of those?

According to the above mentioned Sams, there are several different models for this set... using five different volume knobs depending on model. It seems that I have two or three of the volume knobs. Maybe one of them will work out for you Rich. Lemme know what you find out when you get the set.

My model number is H827T21-15

polaraman

I looked up the Sams... 253-17... to get knob numbers. Seems they did not list the knobs. I went back and checked your set number on the packages in case I missed one, but no luck. I only have about 9 Westinghouse knobs in packages with numbers. Of course, if a photo of the correct knob can be found, I can look thru all the loose ones I have.

I'll second that !

National has a copper plated chassis in their 7 inch electrostatic sets.
And like Westinghouse, good electronics to mount on it.
Very Classy Indeed !
:thmbsp: