showing off my TV

[Charlie]

You're in luck kiddo! I have duplicates of this particular Sams, so I'll just send you one of these. PM me with your address and I'll get it out to you.

Looks like your sets uses either a 24YP4 or a 21ATP4. Was also noticing that you have those selenium rectifiers, but your set uses a dedicated 6 volt filament transformer to give you parallel heaters.

If all is clean and properly grounded, you shouldn't get that. There are only 2 other things I can think of...

1. Examine the dag coating where the grounding strap or spring makes contact with the dag. The coating could be worn off at that contact point. If it is possible to re-posistion the spring or strap across the dag... even moving it just a half inch one way or another... that may help. If a spring it used, sometimes they get rusty. That may also cause a poor ground to the dag coating.

2. The route you HV anode lead takes from the cage to the box... does it lay against the dag coating somewhere before it gets to its connection? This one is somewhat of a long-shot, but wouldn't hurt to check. If they anode wire is up against the coating somewhere AND the anode insulation is breaking down where it touches the dag, this could be causing a problem. Seems this would be less likely, but we've all seen stranger things. OR, since you mention it only being on that one side near the anode lead, perhaps that is where the arcing is actually coming from.

Just some thoughts there... hope they help some.

[Charlie]

The date on this Sams is September 1956, so your set was probably from 1955 or early 56.

[Chad Hauris]

Are you sure that the crt mounting brackets have a firm connection to the chassis? You can try taping some aluminum foil to the aquadag and running a wire from the foil to the chassis to improve the grounding.

[jstout66]

Hey mbates14, Great sets, AND I checked out your site on the restoration of the other one. I'm just amazed when younger people are interested in this vintage stuff now. My Uncle had a repair/ sales shop and I LOVED tinkering around with the older sets. I was about 13 when I fixed my first one! (I'm 38 now) I could diagnose the problems pretty good, but if it was beyond anything simple (tubes and such) my Uncle worked on it. I wish I had paid more attention back then and learned how to solder worth a crap, because when I get a vintage set now, they pretty much have to be working. I still like the old tube stuff, and am amazed when you younger guys take interest as well. I have a few friends younger than me (but older than you) that are amazed when I fire up some of the old sets with the backs off as they had never even seen a tube! Anyway.... just wanted to say "hey" and to keep having fun on your restorations. James

[mbates14]

anything tube always did fascinate me.

I dunno why, maybe the warm glow and sound made somethign tick in my brain.

Im not one of those teenagers that goes illegally and get drunk, and smoke, and go and doo all the stupid shit that teens do.

Im quite the opposite.

I love electronics, And i engineere amplifiers, solid state ones that is.

I built tube amplifiers, but only based on schematics.

The dag is grounded, and the wires arnt deteriorating.

its wierd.

I noticed too, that in the dark where the anode cap is, you can see blue streams of electricity down inside the glass comming off the anode connection. and a little bit to the right, there is the metal brace it arcs to teh dag.

I think the dag is deteriorating, and it looks like it is.

I have no idea how or what to recoat it.

[mbates14]

BTW

I restored my principals 1947 Zenith turntable radio

It works like a charm!

i recapped it, but the main reason for the failure was the AF plate load resistor, in other words, the resistor that connected the AF/driver tube to the B+ source was nearly opened.

But, it doesnt hurt to recap.

[mbates14]

also, its modern, but VFD displays interest me too.

I think because its also a tube, and they produce cool text and grafix.


I have a Noritake custom graphic VFD GU128x32-311

but, I have NO IDEA how to program C++ or for that matter, i dont know how to create drivers to interface this to the PC.

outta luck there, but I do know how to code PHP, mysql, and some other languages.

I know this is kinda unrelated.

Just thunked of something, don't use duct tape as it's probably conductive.......they usually have some aluminum and other powdered metal in the silver part.

I've seen wacky ass hot rodders paint their engine silver and proceed to get it all over the spark plug wires----then they'd bring it to me to finger out why it runs so bad.

Ummm, does conductive paint and spark plug wires sound like a good combo to you? Spark scatter everywhere! A new set of wires and all was good again.

Anthony

[Eric H]

I would try cleaning the area around the anode connector with a little denatured alcohol (discharge it first!) even thought it looks clean now it might have some small carbon tracks.


Eric

[mbates14]

ill say one thing, they dont make them like they used to.

Back in those days, they had some interesting designes i wish they still had today.

Now, they are just plain looking japanese jucnk.

in todays circuitry, one little component can cause a complete expensive catastrophe.

tubes, i bet my set with the strong tubes i have in there now, and the caps that are rated lifetime, I bet that set will last another 50 years.

try to get that kinda time out of solid state garbage of today.

it already lasted 50 years, lets last another round of 50 years.

And my silvertone, it is unrestored and it still works! take that and shove it up japan's ass. LOL

my 2 cents

Not to defend the new stuff but in many ways the older sets were just as prone or in some cases even more prone to catastrophic cascade failures as they didn't have anywhere near the integral protection.

Didn't I read somewhere a slew of suggested mandatory fuses on certain vintage sets for this very reason? A shorted tube can take out the chassis and vice versa.

Anthony

[mbates14]

shorted tube?

tubes can short? hell, i didnt know that.

I havent had it happen.

Anyway, for the most part that type of catastrophy is fixable, because most of the parts can be testes.

Try that on todays electronics, you cant test an IC.

[mbates14]

My set isnt fused anywhere except for the damper area, that has a special fuse.


Should i fuse it? Where should I put fuses?

[Charlie]

I've been lucky... only had one tube short on me. Was a 35z5 rectifier in a late 40s radio. WOW it really got my attention when that thing shorted!

Mike, you can develop a heater to cathode short, which would let your AC filament current get into your B+.

For your Silvertone, you could probably do good with a 2 or 2.5 amp fuse after the power switch.

Your schematic just went to the mail man. It's on its way.

[mbates14]

I recieved the schematic today, and man do I really appriciate it!

I notice that the cabnet is not the same? hmm.

anyway, its a 24yp4, it has to be.

I measured it with tape measure, it appears to be about 25 inches.

Anyway, I thought they were going to be like a copy run off a copy machine like justradios.com does.

no, its the original folder/copy from that day! THANKS dude.

I think it might have something to do with the rectifiers, because my vertical will shrink the longer it runs. if i blow a fan on the bottom of chassis, the picture will be returned to normal.

Anyway, the aquadag is comming off, because everytime i rub my finger on the dag, it is black.

How do i recoat a CRT? one of my friends said it was a magical wonder to recoat those.

gimme some ideas. Thanks!