Estate Sale Finds In 2006!

[drh4683]

Excellent!

Thank you both polaraman and carmine!

Eric, I know what that TV looks like. I hope to be able to find that model some day! It is a space command 300, only reason I can tell is the elliptical shadow being cast onto the back of the cabinet from the studio lights! This proves it to be a space command, as thats where the black channel changer knob is. Its a space command 300 (which is apparently the remote they have on the table). Zenith made an 18" space command 300 color TV in 1969-1971. The 18" metal cabinet table sets like the brady TV and the one like mine are called "decorator series" (according to zenith sales literature).

Ive got a picture of what the brady TV would have looked like. This photo is out of the 1970 zenith color TV sales catalog.

Thanks for posting that pic! BTW, I have the factory cart for this TV too!

[drh4683]

Went to 6 estate sales today and found a nice 1968 Ford Philco roundie. Picked it up at 5018 W. 32nd st. Cicero, IL. Only cost me $10. I had my camera with me today and took pictures of the home the TV was in all these years. It was a typical chicago bungalow.
Model Q5528WA and 17MT80 chassis. The set was well cared for and was still in the living room, plugged in and hooked up to the central antenna! The TV still worked too! CRT is bright like new, and no cataracts at all on a 21FJ! Needs some touch up to get it just right though. Also has the EM84 magic eye tuning indicator tube! Never seen that before on a TV! The dial lights up nice, has channel window VHF, slide rule dial UHF. After pulling the back of, its got all original tubes, and the tubes say "Philco Cool Chassis". I guess thats supposed to mean its not a hot chassis as it has a power transformer. Its a nice cabinet, plywood. No particle board! Its a later model roundie and it appears to have a philco designed chassis. Solid state tuner and IF, the rest tube. As you can see in the first pictures of the TV in the home, the control door is missing. I looked all over the house for it and it drove me nuts that it was gone. I left a number with the people running the sale that if they run across it, to please call me. 1 hour later, they found it and got a call! I couldnt believe it! What luck! They said it was behind a picture on the end table in the living room! That made my day, and makes the set 100% complete! This is the first philco roundie I have run across.

[speidi1]

When the ol' lady raises that left eyebrow when she catches me trying to sneak in a new piece of vintage hifi, I drag her over here and ask her how she'd like a houseful of these things!

Heh. End of conversation.

No offense meant. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

[Chad Hauris]

That philco looks in great shape, although you'd thought they could put some speakers in those side areas! Usually sets like this do.

[Sandy G]

Doug- Wow, goin' into that house must have been like going into a time machine ! BEAUTIFUL set ! You are one lucky guy !-Sandy G.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Drool...... Nice catch.

[drh4683]

thanks-

Last night, fixed it up and got it working like new. Razor sharp picture! All of the original 6GH8's were perfect! I was shocked. This set must have 2 hours on it for those to still be good. Being a philco, had some other oddball tubes that you dont run across too often. Those were all testing excellent (which is good because I dont have those tubes!) Good news is, its an american made set, with a hybrid of american and japanese tubes having the philco name stamped on them. Only problem was, a shorted out 6AQ5 audio out. It was an intermittent short and would loose sound and video. Just to note, this is the same chassis that Art Margolis used in his do it yourself TV repair books. You dont see the front of the set, just pics of him working on various sections of the set. When I pulled the back off for the first time, thats the first thing that came to my mind. I then looked at a few of his books and sure enough, this was the chassis!
BTW, this is a 1968 set. Reason being, most tubes are dated 67-48, 67-52. The sams reference shows it for '67. Most likely this set was made for a few years.

[kx250rider]

That's a nice Philco! Those are pretty unusual with the round tube... In fact I can't remember ever seeing one. I had seen several CTC-11-based Philcos, though. That eye tube is also neat. I think I saw that in some 19" table model Philcos of the 60s.

Here's a photo of an estate garage that I bought last fall, and just finished going through this week! The widow still lives in the house, and the husband who put all this together had died in the 60s. Take a close look! She had left the whole thing virgin and untouched all those years. I felt bad to take it all apart, as there aren't many time-capsule work benches like this anymore. The widow needed the whole thing cleaned out because she's going to sell the house and move to a senior complex.

There weren't any exciting TVs in there besides the modified 8TS30 that you see on the bench, but a WEALTH of parts and other little goodies were found!! Quite a few NOS picture tubes that I put on eBay, and small tubes, a Riders radio series, tools, World War I and II stuff, etc etc.

Charles

[Big Dave]

Any color tubes?

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by drh4683

Last night, fixed it up and got it working like new.

Man, that is PRETTY!

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by drh4683

Went to 6 estate sales today and found a nice 1968 Ford Philco roundie. Picked it up at 5018 W. 32nd st. Cicero, IL. Only cost me $10. I had my camera with me today and took pictures of the home the TV was in all these years. It was a typical chicago bungalow.
Model Q5528WA and 17MT80 chassis. The set was well cared for and was still in the living room, plugged in and hooked up to the central antenna! The TV still worked too! CRT is bright like new, and no cataracts at all on a 21FJ! Needs some touch up to get it just right though. Also has the EM84 magic eye tuning indicator tube! Never seen that before on a TV! The dial lights up nice, has channel window VHF, slide rule dial UHF. After pulling the back of, its got all original tubes, and the tubes say "Philco Cool Chassis". I guess thats supposed to mean its not a hot chassis as it has a power transformer.

Cool Philco, Doug! --As for the chassis, though, it's a "Cool Chasiss" too, but not for that reason. Philco "Cool Chassis" tubes were called that because of an 'improved' structural design that was supposed to make them radiate less heat than other brands of tubes, thus theoretically prolonging the life of the tube and other parts in the set. I dunno if there was any truth to Philco's claim, or if it was just so much advertising fluff.

Anyway, great find! That's got to be one of the most attractive 60's Philco color consoles I've seen.

BTW, does that set really have an eye tube, or does it just look like one on the outside of the set? I've got a Philco stereo receiver from the late 1960's which has a tuning indicator that looks (from the outside) for all the world like an edge-viewing (long rectangular shaped) eye tube, but it's really a box with a conventional meter movement, a lightbulb, and some simple optics that projects opposing rectangular "shadows" on the background. Seems like a lot of trouble to make something that looks like an electron ray tube, but isn't!

[bgadow]

The late model roundies I've seen were mostly of the el cheapo variety but this was is a cut above. I saw recently an excerpt from a Popular Science review of color tv from about 68 and Philco was in the top third. I guess they had done their homework. I suppose that same basic chassis would have been used at the NASA installations that Philco-Ford had put together, so it had to be right. Whirled is correct about "Cool Chassis". I didn't know they were still using that in 68. I've seen a lot of print ads from the early 60s where they pushed it. I guess heat was a big problem with the Predicta so they apparently designed a chassis which allowed good airflow to combat the problem.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Any color tubes?

Wish there was, but there were only B&W tubes... I was hoping to find some color stuff, but it looks like the husband was pretty much out of TV by the time color came around. According to the military papers I found, he was already in his late 40s when he went in the Navy in '41 as a radar tech. So by the time color came in the 50s, he was about close to 65 and retiring.

Charles

[kc8adu]

Originally Posted by drh4683

thanks.

These are the best kinds of sets to find (atleast for me). I worked on both sets last night. The CRT in the admiral is GONE and will need a replacement, all of my crt jigs cant help it. Instant on really destroys CRT's, I hate that feature!
The zenith on the otherhand turned out just fine! Tested the tubes and replaced the typical tuner tubes etc and the typical alignment for color TV and this set produces an excellent picture!

watching antiques roadshow on your "antique tv" there?

[kc8adu]

got a sony kv-9000 for $5 at an estate sale over the weekend.looks and plays like new.
got new 23vaqp22 there for free.new not rebuilt sylvania.
the box was so rotten i didnt notice till i moved it to get at some parts.
the side tore out and there was a delta gun neck in my face.
as a joke i thought of mailing the warranty card.
shipping date was 1973.