Some of My Stuff...
 

Pics taken yesterday of my collection, courtesy of Steve, aka Pielock373:

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...3/CIMG7067.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...3/CIMG7059.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...3/CIMG7071.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...3/CIMG7072.jpg

HOMINA ! HOMINA ! HOMINA ! (Tries to put his popped-out eyes back in head....)

Beautiful work Lee! Attention to detail is nothing short of astounding.

Please tell us about your methodology in restoration. What kind of techniques to you use WRT cabinet refinishing, and chassis detail etc. Would also love to see chassis underside photos.

Way to go man!

They work, too...:smoke:

http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/g...t=CIMG7062.mp4

Thanks...I work step by step, bagging and recording as I disassemble, restore, and reassemble. Final Reassembly is usually quite anticlimactic, as all the parts, fasteners, bezels, cabinet, chassis, etc have been all restored.

I usually disassemble, label and bag. With the Chassis on the bench, I check for a good/bad CRT, power up the chassis with a variac to hear a transformer hum, tubes light, etc. You guys know the drill. Total recapping, pots and controls cleaned, tubes checked/cleaned/replaced, ww's and resistors checked, etc, then troubleshooting.

I have help. Troubleshooting is my biggest shortfall, as I am not a trained engineer. For the final tweak, Henri Cournoyer and Dick Slade, good buddies that they are, have bailed me out on many occasion. You Guys, too. This site is a Godsend.

I think the difference with me is I will restore EVERY part to near or like new condition, but as authentically as possible. The devil is in the details. I have to watch myself to see that I don't over restore a set, particularly one with an origional finish on the wood cabinet. You have to make it all blend as an assembly.

Is the DuMont with doors a Royal Sovereign with a shot CRT? I would hate to be looking for one of those! Seems like something like a 30" (30BP4) was the tube and as mighty as the early DuMonts were, the way I hear it is the old metal/glass bonded cones are inflating with age at the joint. I hope you just have your CRT out for the restoration!

Nope. The 30BP4 is shot. Busted faceplate, unrebuildable.

I need a rebuildable one, to send out to France.

LJB:smoke:

Gosh, I hope France is not the nearest facility capable of rebuilding a CRT! :scratch2: I know that prospects are thin here in the US; hell, we can't even manufacture our own combat boots. Anyway, I better avoid an economic/political rant (rage)! I though that some guys bought Hawkeye's equipment and were going to be able to do some rebuilds. I wonder if that is true. One factor is that SOMEBODY has to manufacture the electron guns. I wonder how that happens.

Ya know, if there is not a way to replace or rebuild CRTs, our hobby will eventually die out. Really, right now we are running on the fumes of smoke stacks of old, or should I say NOS or parts donors. I would like to say that it will be after we are long gone and any remnants of the TV boom of the mid 20th century will be in museums.

Hawkeye donated their rebuilding equipment to the Early Television Foundation and they are in the process of trying to get it set up and running.

You can read about it on their Blog.

With any luck this will turn out to be a great thing for TV collectors, for one thing they can focus solely on rebuilding vintage tubes and not have to worry about making a living at it, although the expenses could be considerable.

I wish I lived nearby, I'd love to be able to help set it up and learn how to rebuild tubes.

Well, depending on your financial status in life, you could just acquire all of the machinery and possibly data from a defunct corporation and make your own shop in CA. I am sure that the machinery is scattered all over the country and there should be enough ex-employees of the trade floating around to gain the hands on knowledge that would be a great asset for such a venture. I saw a TV show recently that talked about a company that has a huge inventory of old factory machinery of all types and conditions. They are like Harry Poster in that they sell 'as found', 'repaired', or 'retrofitted'. Of course, this idea is NOT a "get rich quick" scheme at all. Actually it would be just the opposite! Someone would just have to have the capital, time, and love of the hobby to do the work for people at a reasonable cost.

It's the sheer SIZE of a 30BP4 that precludes it being rebuilt in this country. Hawkeye's facilities could only accomidate up to 27" CRTs.

France rebuilds big 'uns, for their railway and defense departments, and others no doubt.

I would like to get one. As you can see from the pics, that Royal Sovereign is in primo shape. It came that way. It used to be owned by a VP of Sprague in the 50's. His grandson sent it to me.:smoke:

Why do I get the feeling that in 2210 that people will look at what's survived of our treasures & wonder WTF were they FOR ?!? And furthermore, why do I feel like they'll be more like the Morlocks than the Eloi ?

I think that DuMont products were primarily targeted at the wealthy for a couple of reasons, but the main one being the retail price they commanded. Of couse most people here know that the quality was SUPERB! I once owned an RA109-A that even back in the early 80's when I found it providing a home for mice in a dirt floored out-building of an antique/junk store owned ironically by the man who had sold the set brand new and knew it's complete history. How cool was that? He told me about the day it came off of the truck and was sold to the then president of Stanley Furniture Company which at the time was a BIG deal. It along with Bassett Furniture are two primary reasons that my county was once well populated. Now it is like a sad, ghostly, bunch of once mighty factories, now empty and falling apart, that at least provided some type of employment for the masses. Now there is nothing but "can I help you" service industry jobs for people.

Anyway, supposedly this man paid around a grand for the DuMont back then, which was like buying a car. I wish I could have kept it, but with room always haunting me in my modest abode, I had to let it go to a boiler maker in Richmond. I always wondered if he got it going. I am pretty sure that the 19AP4 was weak because it had a booster on it.

Lovely collection there!

BTW, has anyone ever said that you bear a certain resemblance to Mandy Patinkin?

Ha! Yup. Quite a bit...:smoke: