Texas Recycles Day 2005
 

It's time for the annual posting from Texas Recycles Day 2005, This is the 3rd year I've been doing it now. It was a real bonanza of old equipment, filled up 2 pickup truck loads and a full 1 ton van load.

I got a 46" Magnavox projection set (works but is a little dim), Catalina tube type 25V" color, 23" GE Black and White solid state console, Zenith Chromacolor II, RCA Mural TV, National SW tube receiver, HAmmarlund ham transmitter, Zenith 25v" chromacolor picture tube in shipping carton, Sega Dreamcast, oil rig music box, Heathkit tube type tuner, and much more! See pictures.

More pictures from TRD.

Wow, that's quite a haul!!!
I'm a bit surprised the there aren't any speakers in the load? Weren't there any, or did you choose not to take them?

Hey Chad.That was quite a haul.On that 46" Magnavox in addition to cleaning the mirror and lens you may have contaminated fluid in the green and blue coolant fluid.It's a common problem with Magnavox projection tvs.Look into the lenses while it's on.You'll probably see stuff floating around in there.A lot of times there is a thick yellow crust on the fisheye lens and you can't even see the picture on the tube you're looking at.What it is is some type of mold that supposedly got in the fluid at the factory.It takes a while to show up.It doesn't respond to red light so the red is not a problem.It's not really a problem to change.You can get new fluid from MCM.You remove 1 tube at a time and take the overflow chamber or diaghram off and drain it out.Then mark the tubes' position on the chamber with an awl so you get it exactly where it was.Take the chamber off and clean everythng with denatured alcohol.You can rinse most of it away with water but the denatured alcohol is needed to kill the mold.Put everything back together and refill.Don't fill the overflow chamber all the way to the top.It will cause it to leak when it gets hot.Just try to get all the air bubbles out of the chamber itself.I take the tube,yoke and all out when I do this procedure.Reinstall the tube and recenter it with the centering magnet if needed and converge that gun to the red.Best to only work on one tube at a time and get it converged before starting the other.Most look fantastic after this unless the tubes have a lot of hours on them.We get a lot of work doing this procedure.It's still happening on newer ones too.Always the blue though.Those big projectors are one used tv I can always sell unlike regular tvs.Walmart is trying to ruin that too.New HDTV RCA projection sets for $899.Right now I can still get around $400 for one though and I don't have to resort to the flea market.Just make a few phone calls telling people on my list I have one.

I never had much luck with those Magnavox projections sets. They always seemed to lose the flyback within weeks of selling. I think they sat around for a long time unused and the flyback absorbed water through cracks in the case.

Be sure to check for bad soldering on the two vertically mounted power supply and deflection boards. If any of the boards are double sided you need to resolder all the front to back feed throughs on both sides.

Chad,

Looks like this year it was not raining and cold. I remember you wearing your rain gear last year. A good day would bring out the folks. Those big projection sets bring about $400 to $500 here also.

Post some pics of the two tube sets!


polaraman

Wow; I wish we still had the monthly "bulky item trash day" in Los Angeles... All through the 70s, they would have a scheduled day where each neighborhood could put out large items for the trash. I was too young to drive, but would ride my bike around our neighborhood and see what I could get. It was a middle class World War II retired middle income neighborhood, so most had nice TVs from the beginning and would upgrade and discard the old. I found plenty of 60s color sets, B&W 50s consoles, all types. I even found a few small B&W round tube sets. But with the left-wing environmentalist lawsuit-happy feel-good California government (Post-Gov. Reagan), it is now an arrestable crime to leave a TV in the trash (or car tires, paint, or most anything). So the way they do it now is that they hold recycle drives at designated locations a few times a year, and highly-paid men in white plastic suits come out to your car and "safely" remove the TV and send it to a very costly hazardous waste dump out someplace in the Mojave. It is also a crime to pick anything out of the dump, or trash cans/bins on public property if a "civil criminal" has put one there. :no: I'd go further but this isn't the politics forum...

But if I see a TRK-12 in the trash, I will still pick it up. But I'll have to put it on eBay right away to pay the bail and criminal defense. Then the rest of the profit can go to pay the fines for possession of and movement of a hazardous material in the State of California.

I am always envious of Texans... They all are polite to eachother, and now to find out that you can still rescue TVs from the recycler! Wow! Next time I move, it's Texas or Bust!

Charles

I have always been a part of Texas Recycles Day in Midland as the designated official recycler of TV's and other electronics, I'm really glad they give me a chance to do it as I don't have to try to outrun the trash trucks or pick out of dumpsters as I did when I was a kid.
All of the TV's/equipment either are used in our historical preservation collections, or parts salvaged for other repair jobs, or some of the modern working sets we don't need we donate to charity.

Was really excited to find the projection set...have never worked on one before. Thanks for the tips, I'll have to start working on it. It has a picture but is kind of dim and it does look like there is junk floating in the image.

I did get some speakers! They are in the van towards the front so they really didn't appear in the photos. I'll try and get some more photos here shortly.

There is another company that is the official recycler of computers and they filled an entire semitrailer with computers till it could hold no more. I got some of the extra ones since they had no room. Got an HP 550 mhz with 384 Meg of ram. I think it was junked cause it wouldn't boot up Windoze 98...installed Slackware Linux and it works great.

Great job!
 

Great load, Chad. Reminds me of the good ole' days when Harper Woods, Mi., where I lived as a lad, had every May 1-5, "Harper Woods clean up, fix up, throw out week". Boy! Was that ever fun! All the old tv's, cabinets, etc.... I miss those days......... My mother wasn't very happy about it, though. Man! It was fun...... :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :yes: :thmbsp:

i agree on the maggie projection set. get the gel out of those tubes and then you can watch it. also resolder the deflection and power boards. i get $250.oo for replacing the fluid in those tubes. the rca fluid is best. i dont like mcm,s fluid in a can. i buy mine from electronic parts unlimited in florida. they have great prices on everything. get almost all my rca parts from them. did everyone know mcm is actually a retailer you cant get much wholesale from them. and we even have an open account there. steve

What's a Catalina? :headscrat

veg

Those are some good finds. I don't think I have ever seen a soild state b/w console set before. Seen both in a color console, seen both in black and white portable, but only seen tube b/w consoles. Never seen a Catalina television either. The only Catalina I know is the Pontiac, it was a full size model from the 60's, not as classy as a Bonneville, but a step above the Ventura.
Berkeley, CA still has a day when they will pick up any trash you put out. I think it is in early June. I found a lot when I lived there. I still have the 50's/60's recliner chair I found (the upholstry is white with puke-green colored flowers on it).

The Catalina was the store brand of White's, which was an appliance and auto parts store.

I have been debating with myself. Next Saturday is "Hazardous Materials Recycle Day", a once a year thing. I mentioned a couple years ago to the program director about my interest but he never gave me an answer. That year I went, to dispose of some stuff, but there wasn't anything exciting in the dumpster. My only fear is that someone will bring in a roundie & nobody will be there to rescue it.

Where I am, they do a yearly electronics "E-cycle" day. I got rid of some junk at it this year. It was a very efficient operation. You stopped the car and were surrounded by men who emptied it in about 30 seconds. Everything was dumped in boxes based on what type of electronics it was. Even if I had been hanging out there all day I doubt I could have rescued anything because it was all happening too quickly. I passed a semi trailer full of TVs. All I could see was 80's and newer sets though.

Fortunately, my area still has the fall and spring bulk trash weeks. I usually find a lot of good stuff, including a lot of electronics. There was a time that I picked up every decent TV I saw. I mostly just look for old stuff and speakers now.