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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday August 03 2019, @06:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the watch-for-the-flyback dept.

https://www.automaticwasher.org/TV/tv-restoration.htm

Last February, while out on my usual estate sale Saturday runs, I stopped at a sale in the western Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka. I usually go to between five and ten estate sales every Saturday looking for vintage automatic washers.

Down in the basement, hidden in the corner, was this beautiful 1951 RCA wood consol television set. Needless to say (although many have asked) it's a black and white set, color TV's were not introduced until 1954. The cabinet was in very nice shape and everything seemed intact with all of its original knobs. Since I had my camera with me, I was able to shoot a picture of the exact house and spot in the house I found it in.

One thing your[sic] not suppose[sic] to do to an old radio or TV that hasn't been run for many years is just go and plug the thing in and flip the power switch on. The best thing to do is use a device called a Variac which allows you to slowly bring up the power to a full 120 volts over the course of many hours, sometimes days. You start it out about 20 volts and every few hours up the control dial another 10 volts or so and watch for any adverse reactions (you know, adverse like smoke, fire, explosions, etc) until you reach a full 120 volts, just like normal house voltage.

But I noticed that this TV was already plugged in, so I assumed that someone else has already tried it out at the sale today, I decided to just let it rip. After warming up a minute the TV came alive with near perfect sound and a very blurry, rolling, out of sync picture. Well that's a good sign, at least the picture tube worked. I figured it would be a fun new learning experience; I always wanted to know how a TV set worked and now was my chance. I bought the set for $30 and schlepped it home.


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  • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Saturday August 03 2019, @06:41AM (13 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 03 2019, @06:41AM (#875021) Journal

    This is nearly as exciting as the Snow report on getting laid by his cow-orker! Or the cartoons on ancient hieroglyphic comment lines. Um, could we possibly have something of more interest to Millennials, and us Double Millennials? Let me tell you about those iron stylai and wax tablets, back in the day of ancient Londinium, before Bodaceia burned it to the ground.

    Or, we just limit ourselves to what has happened since Kardashians, post-Armenian Genocide, and pre Greek independence.

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  • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Saturday August 03 2019, @07:22AM

    by jmorris (4844) on Saturday August 03 2019, @07:22AM (#875027)

    Well you can try restoring an old plasma set or something. Perhaps a 1st Gen iPod would have the right collectible value to make restoration worthwhile?

  • (Score: 5, TouchĂ©) by janrinok on Saturday August 03 2019, @07:59AM (10 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 03 2019, @07:59AM (#875034) Journal

    I did not play a part in selecting this story, but it is one that I have enjoyed reading. Renovation of old possessions is a skilled art whether they be Chippendale furniture, Fabergé eggs, old masters, or home items from yesteryear. Those that carry it out enjoy such endeavours and play an important part in protecting our history. Reading how others do it is interesting and thought provoking. The writer has been honest about what he has done. He has made mistakes, (to be expected as this is his first attempt at renovating a TV) and his has overcome some of the problems by using modern components in unexpected ways. But he has successfully achieved what he set out to do and he should be proud of that at least.

    I suggest that you wait for the next story to come along.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:12AM (8 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:12AM (#875036) Journal

      Ah, janrinok! I understand your interest. But I invite you to look at it from my point of view. At nearly 2400 years old, there is a plethora of things that may be brought back and restored, and what not. '64 Mustangs, Onagers from the Germanic Campaigns, Tycho's full scale astrolabes! So you can see how this might grow tiresome, for a person of my age. Not to say that you younglings, persons of 60-70s, should not have your nostalgia and be able to watch all the old-person pharma ads on TV. But just a bit repetitive for someone with my historical perspective. All I am saying.

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by kazzie on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:46AM (5 children)

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:46AM (#875040)

        Tell you what: when I finally get around to building myself an Antikythera mechanism, I'll write an article and submit it for you.

        • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:54AM (1 child)

          by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:54AM (#875046) Journal

          I look forward to this with great anticipation!

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @05:08PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @05:08PM (#875196)

            Where have I heard this before......

            Is Tim Curry a personal hero of yours? ;)

        • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday August 03 2019, @01:09PM (1 child)

          by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 03 2019, @01:09PM (#875100) Homepage Journal

          Are you planning to just duplicate the antikythera mechanism? Or update it with modern astronomical data, but using the ancient tech?

          • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday August 03 2019, @02:51PM

            by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 03 2019, @02:51PM (#875151)

            Undecided. At the moment it's still a vague aspiration.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by EvilJim on Tuesday August 06 2019, @09:42PM

          by EvilJim (2501) on Tuesday August 06 2019, @09:42PM (#876777) Journal

          here you go: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1821540 [thingiverse.com]

      • (Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @09:55PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @09:55PM (#875259)

        Oh, that's right, this entire website is devoted to worshiping you. Please forgive us, in our frailty and shortcomings, for not properly anticipating what the mighty king aristarchus wants. Oh, this just in, I had forgotten- the whole world is here for you. We're not worthy.

        Your babble is an incredible waste of time, bytes, and carbon.

        • (Score: 0, Troll) by aristarchus on Saturday August 03 2019, @10:21PM

          by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 03 2019, @10:21PM (#875264) Journal

          Truly, AC, you are an ass. Down on your knees, knave! Your kraven kvetching will kettle you knot!!

    • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:57AM

      by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:57AM (#875048)

      I've done a few running repairs to an RGB CRT that my retro computers use, so I can relate to the author's experiences. Skilling yourself up to replace a line output (flyback) transformer, inside a device you were told as a kid to never open because of the high voltages therein, is a bit of an experience.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:32PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 03 2019, @08:32PM (#875241) Journal

    as exciting as the Snow report on getting laid by his cow-orker!

    Is there a link for this report?

    ancient Londinium

    Londinium was featured in the mid 1960's Batman tv series. Lord Fogg was the villain. Batman and Robin had to go to Londinium. Set up a temporary batcave there. They never mentioned in the episode whether the bat computer could operate on 240 volts?

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.