Picked Up An Admiral 27 inch Black and White

[damen]

I had a friend who worked for Video Display in Atlanta rebuilding tubes. He said the safety glass was removed and the tube fitted with a steel safety band after the rebuild process in stead of replacing the separate glass. You could pre-order a tube with a safety glass for an additional charge if you wanted. I did this several times, those tubes now have the RCA type cataract.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Zenith made a nice 27 inch set in the mid 50s.
http://www.tvhistory.tv/252KA21A5.jpg

jr

I had forgotten about that 27-inch Zenith; thanks for refreshing my memory. Now that I think of it, however, I do remember seeing full-page color advertisements for these TVs in National Geographic magazines of the 1950s.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I had forgotten about that 27-inch Zenith; thanks for refreshing my memory. Now that I think of it, however, I do remember seeing full-page color advertisements for these TVs in National Geographic magazines of the 1950s.

Zenith and DuMont were the only TV manufacturers I knew of that offered 27-inch televisions, although I saw a post in this thread which stated Magnavox and Zenith offered 27-inch TVs, probably in the '50s. Large TV screens were falling out of favor with viewers by the end of the 1950s, as I don't remember seeing any ads for TVs this large in magazine ads of the 1960s to the end of the NTSC TV era.

How times have changed. It is now 2022 and the large TV screen has returned, although by "large" I am referring to today's HDTVs and projection televisions, many if not most of which are 32 inches or larger. In TV's early days, the entire idea of 27-inch CRT TVs, IMHO, was to make TV movies look as large (or at least come close in the 1950s) as they would in a motion-picture theater; the effect may have been lost, however, on other types of TV programming unless, again, the intent was to make the picture look almost literally larger than life.

Today's HDTVs are excellent at creating this effect (the larger the screen, the better(!)), which probably scares young children half out of their wits. I have a 32" flat-screen HDTV which makes a beautiful picture, but the sheer size of the screen makes just about everything (including, of course, those hideous scenes of violence on the evening news, not to mention violent scenes in prime-time TV shows and movies) look gigantic, especially on very large screens, say 60 inches on up to 70 inches or more(!).

[Aperna1985]

my set is from 1962 so it's not just a 50s thing

[jr_tech]

A quick perusel of the tv history site ( http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950-1959.htm ) turned up a number of monochrome 27 inch sets in the 50s:

Admiral, Arvin, Capehart, Crosley, Emerson, Hallicrafters, Hoffman, Magnavox, Motorola, Muntz, Packard-bell, Philco, Setchell Carlson, and Zenith.

Oddly, no RCA, GE, Westinghouse, or Sylvania 27 inch monochrome models were found.

Many Dumont 30 inch sets were likely converted to 27 inch when the 30BP4 became unavailable.

jr

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

A quick perusel of the tv history site ( http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950-1959.htm ) turned up a number of monochrome 27 inch sets in the 50s:

Admiral, Arvin, Capehart, Crosley, Emerson, Hallicrafters, Hoffman, Magnavox, Motorola, Muntz, Packard-bell, Philco, Setchell Carlson, and Zenith.

Oddly, no RCA, GE, Westinghouse, or Sylvania 27 inch monochrome models were found.

Many Dumont 30 inch sets were likely converted to 27 inch when the 30BP4 became unavailable.

jr

RCA made a 27 inch set in 1953. It had a 27MP4 rectangular metal cone CRT in it! I installed a rebuilt CRT. The big metal CRT's were only guaranteed for 6 months by the rebuilder!

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

RCA made a 27 inch set in 1953. It had a 27MP4 rectangular metal cone CRT in it! I installed a rebuilt CRT. The big metal CRT's were only guaranteed for 6 months by the rebuilder!

Much thanks for the info! I remember seeing a 27MP4 years ago in a collectors’ stash and thinking that it must have been removed from a RCA set, but never found out for sure.

jr

[Aperna1985]

Ok guys I removed the Cataract. I can't believe how easy it was. I'm starting to wonder if it's just an Admiral thing. I was watching a video where the same thing happened to shango. I put the tube outside on the garbage can, and started to pick at the glue to put my wedges in, and then the whole lens just broke free. So after a few hours of cleaning and siliconing, the tube looks great. I put it back in the TV as soon as the silicone dried to keep it from getting broken.

Here are some pics along the way

Also, the tv is still on stock caps, so it's not perfect but it's working.

I tested all the tubes, and changed 3 that had bad grid leakage once they heated up. I need to order the one for the sync separator and one of the tubes in the tuner and then they should all be in good shape. This set must have more miles than a New York City taxi, half the tubes have been replaced already, not to mention the combination of cigarette gunk and dirt inside. It took me a while to get everything clean. Also, I think my heathkit pattern generator needs some caps so excuse the test pattern. But here's everything. The next step is recapping the vertical section

By the way, how do I put the legs on by myself, this set weighs a ton.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Aperna1985

...By the way, how do I put the legs on by myself, this set weighs a ton.

I think putting the legs on would not be too hard by turning it on one side first; but the dangerous part could be trying to stand it upright as it is temporarily pivoting on two of the legs. (How sturdy are the legs?) Maybe attach something sturdy and slightly taller than the legs to the bottom before rotating it upright, getting it to turn and rest on the additional support first and then tilting it slightly onto two legs to remove the added support?

[Electronic M]

Sounds like the entire face was cataracted...I LOVE it when RCA style cataracts are that bad as it often requires zero effort to fix. I've only encountered it a few times and I think all sets were from a wet TV shop basement in Indiana. One of the roundy tubes from there I picked up, walked 10' with the tube face down and the safety glass simply dropped off.

How long are the legs? If under 12" lift the light side of the cabinet and screw 2 on, then lift the other side and screw on. If significantly longer than 12" get 2 shorter legs than the set you're going to install and install them on one side install longer legs on the other side then swap the short legs for a matching set.
The problem with installing legs with the set on it's side then rotating it over is if you and a buddy aren't strong (and non-lazy) enough to not touch the set to the ground while rotating it, odds are you'll ballance it on 2 of its legs through a good portion of the rotation and it's not unheard of for those screw on legs to snap when supporting lateral forces equal to the sets weight, then other bad things happen. Ask me how I know...

[Aperna1985]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Sounds like the entire face was cataracted...I LOVE it when RCA style cataracts are that bad as it often requires zero effort to fix. I've only encountered it a few times and I think all sets were from a wet TV shop basement in Indiana. One of the roundy tubes from there I picked up, walked 10' with the tube face down and the safety glass simply dropped off.

How long are the legs? If under 12" lift the light side of the cabinet and screw 2 on, then lift the other side and screw on. If significantly longer than 12" get 2 shorter legs than the set you're going to install and install them on one side install longer legs on the other side then swap the short legs for a matching set.
The problem with installing legs with the set on it's side then rotating it over is if you and a buddy aren't strong (and non-lazy) enough to not touch the set to the ground while rotating it, odds are you'll ballance it on 2 of its legs through a good portion of the rotation and it's not unheard of for those screw on legs to snap when supporting lateral forces equal to the sets weight, then other bad things happen. Ask me how I know...

It really was completely cataracted here's a pic of the lens and the PVA. The interesting part was the PVA was rubbery almost like rubber cement, and the Lense was much bigger than the tube. There was probably 1/8 inch overlap on top and bottom. Also the gray screen on the tube has few tiny little holes in it maybe 3 or 4 of them. Almost like the seat in a smokers car. Not big cigarette burns but the tiny pin holes from the ash. Also when I shut the set off there's a tiny little dot on the screen that lasts for about 2 minutes. I've been turning the brightness down after shutting it off. So far it's been running for about 2 hours straight with no real issues, but I shut it down and unplugged it for the night. There's a light hum bar that comes and goes, and an occasional twitch in the screen, it almost pulls to the right slightly like the vertical hold is a little off for a split second then is fine for a while.

The legs are probably 6-8 inches long. I was afraid they might break or the brackets might bend putting 2 legs on at a time but ill give it a shot.

[Aperna1985]

It looks great on it's legs.

[Tube TV]

I somehow missed this thread earier. That Admiral cleaned up really nice.

[zeno]

Can confirm Maggy had a 27" B&W. We had one from the pre UHF mandate apx 1963. Jug went soft & the old man got a Zenith console color
to watch the '67 Red Sox in the world serious.
LEGS put set on side, put on two legs. Tip up on the two legs, lift the other side
& screw / twist on last legs.
If you got 2 men put all legs on & flip !

73 Zeno
LFOD !