RCA 630TS from ebay, first impressions

[Jonathan]

Thanks guys for the replies. It was on for about a minute, and the filament glowed bright. I do suspect vthe wires connecting the innards of the CRT to the plastic cap. How can I fix this or can it be easier fixed by someone else?

And I was wondering what the glass was for. I'm glad it's there.

As for the ion trap, I suppose it won't be too much of a pain then.

I wonder though, did the 630TS use a field coil inductor and not an electrodynamic speaker? Mine has a electrodynamic speaker as the field coil, with the audio transformer and speaker on a vertical braket, like how they are mounted in radios. Hammond part number 158T is a modern replacement for the field coil, btw.

Thanks.

Jonathan

[John Folsom]

Here is a technique I have used many times to repair loose bases on CRTs.

1. Heat each pin and use a solder sucker to get as much solder out as possible. Once you have done this to all the pins, the base will usually pull off. A little reheating of any stubborn pins will convince them to come loose. Heat each pin on the removed CRT base and blow out any residual solder from each pin.

2. Now dress the end of each exposed CRT wire by scraping with the edge of a knife or sanding with fine sandpaper to expose bright metal, then tin the exposed metal with a very thin dressing of solder. You need only do this to 1/16-1/8 inch at the end of each wire.

3. Strip a 6" or longer piece of stranded wire, and separate the individual strands.

4. Wrap one strand tightly around the tip of each CRT wire for 2-3 turns, and trim the short end of the strand flush with the pin, leaving the 6" strand extending the CRT wire. Solder each strand to the end of the CRT wire with as little solder as possible.

5. Once all CRT wires have a wire strand "extender" soldered on, feed the extender strands through the corresponding pin in the CRT base, and feed the base down over the strands to the CRT wires, tugging gently on the extender wires to get the cRT wires to feed into the pins on the bas. Feed the base all the way down till it is sung against the CRT.

6. Now heat each CRT pin and use the wire extender to aid flowing solder down into the tip end of each CRT pin.

7. Once all pins have been soldered, snip off the excess extender wire sticking out of the end of each pin, and you are done.

8. I will let you choose what kind of adhesive to use to attach the base firmly to the CRT. Some like super-glue, I do not. I prefer some sort of epoxy. I have also heard some use RTV.

Anyone else have first-hand advice on gluing CRT bases back on?

If the base is loose, but the electrical connections are OK, all you need do is glue the base tightly to the glass.

But if the electrical connections are bad, you can try just soldering each CRT wire to its pin by flowing solder down into the end of each pin, and sometimes this works OK. And if you have already pulled the base of the CRT off, you may be able to coax each CRT wire back into its pin without the extra trouble of soldering on the extender wires. But I find this method very helpful for 7JP4s and Color CRTs.

Good luck