Late 50s philco curb find

[JGlenn]

Cool thanks for confirming the year for me. I looked around and found adds from 56 and 57 with similar looking models but no perfect match. Where would I start with something like this? Its sitting in my furnace room now where its somewhat warm so hopefully it dries out. Should I try bringing it up on a variac or just replace all the caps first?

[DaveWM]

I like to put a meter on the B+ disconnect the HOT and the VOT (all tubes) and bring it up slow while monitoring the B+. If you take all the tubes out of circuit you can check for reforming of the caps, the current should be very low all the way up. You want to monitor the B+v also, with no plate loads you could go over voltage so watch that as well. If they come up ok, then I put the tubes in and monitor the B+ again (volt and current) to see if it comes in ok. I dont like a slow power up once the sweep circuits are hooked up, dont like the idea of a osc not oscillating due to low v, so that power ups is pretty quick (you already know the B+ is not shorted prior to the full powerup). Keep you eye on the voltage and current.

I like to keep the current meter on even after power up and it is running fine, at least for the 1st few hours of service.


opps I just realized the era, it may have a tube recifier, so you will need to leave that one in. Just be carefull not to go over V due to lower loads.

I also take a primary pt reading of ohms just to be sure its not a dead short (hard on the variac), I also monitor the AC current. My sets look like they are in the ER when 1st power up...

[Charlie]

JGlenn, I have one of those. Got mine just before Hurricane Rita, and that was what we had to watch during the storm as the new color set I had wouldn't pick up crap during that windy night!

I spent a couple of days going thru it... had lots of stuff to replace. Someone had already done a lot of work on the deflection board... looked like work from the 60's or 70's judging by the caps used. I found the chassis pretty easy to work on.

Back then, Don pointed out this was a great chassis as far as performance, and he was right! Once I re-capped everything, this baby played great, and still does today! I watch this very regularly, and haven't done a thing to it since the re-cap. In fact, I watched it last night for several hours. The sound is great on it as well! Mine actually had tubes in it date-coded from 1983 when I got it! The CRT had been replaced in the 60's.

This is one of my favorite sets... and to think I nearly turned it down! Glad I didn't!

Hope yours goes as easily as mine did!