Picked up a 1959 RCA Sportable.

[Eric H]

I did some cleaning on this set today.

I washed the chassis in the Soap & Water parts washer at work followed by a thorough rinse with hot water, I washed everything, including the Flyback and Yoke, I tried to stay away from the power transformer as much as possible.

It's sitting in my Oven right now cooling down after about an hour baking at 170 degrees (the lowest setting my Oven will do).

I also sanded and polished the safety screen, it was pretty banged up but it came out nice. There is one small crack but it's way off in a corner, there was another deep scratch dead center that I couldn't sand all the way out (it might be slightly cracked too) but it's not noticeable any more.

I used a kit made for buffing out headlights, start with 800 grit (or 500), then go to 3000 grit followed by buffing with Rubbing Compound and a sponge wheel, it came out quite nice.

Oh, this chassis does have access holes behind the PC board so recapping should be easy.

It has mostly those Brown or Maroon Epoxy caps, I believe I'll change them all out anyhow.

The CRT is a 17DKP4, it has a really short neck like a Predicta tube, I wonder if it would work in a 17" Predicta (6.3 volt heater though)

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

This is a nice find! I'm impressed how RCA used a power transformer.

All the higher line RCA portables used a power transformer. The next year model of the set shown, used silicon rectifiers and a voltage doubler. Also, it was the first year to use a Nuvistor tuner. It also had a plastic back that would crumble from the heat.

[peverett]

How does the yoke cover look? These are an usually an issue with RCA's and Zeniths of this age(and other sets also). They used a plastic that falls a part with age(even on NOS yokes). There has been an article about making these on VideoKarma, but the person who wrote the article had access to a lathe.

I am in the process of trying to make one of these without a lathe for an Admiral portable that I have. So far it appears that it will not look that good but will work. I could buy a lathe, but have no room for it.

[Eric H]

Hi all, I made some progress on this set, I figured it had dried long enough so I recapped about 90% of the paper (or Mylar) caps and replaced one small Axial Electrolytic that might be in the Vertical section. Pretty much the whole sweep section is done, I'm going to leave the i.f. section alone, there's not many caps in that area anyway.

I'm going to leave the Cans alone for now also, 1959 isn't that old and they seem to be fine for now.

The Yoke Cover is in good shape, a little shrunk with age but useable.

Anyhow, put the tubes in it, brought it up to 70 volts to check for smoke, it looked OK so I cranked it up to 90 and it sprang to life, Oscillator humming, Speaker speaking, or at least whooshing, then the raster popped in.

Whatever killed the vertical must have been replaced because it's working now. I turned it up to a full 115 volts and it filled in nicely.
Hooked up a DVD player and after a little fiddling around I got sound, followed by a picture.
The Vertical was rolling but the Horizontal was dead on, a small adjustment of the Vertical hold and it locked solid! I like it when a set cooperates!

This set has a remarkable picture too, nice and crisp with good contrast.

I need to get some small stuff, Cork to make new CRT cushions, Knobs, I have some small knobs from some mid 60's RCA's that might work OK even if not cosmetically correct.

[Eric H]

BTW there's an identical one of these on eBay right now, looks to be in similar condition too. It's not mine, no affiliation, etc.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-RCA-Victo...item1c243b165f