14-10-2011, 06:50 PM
Hi,
You really are too kind David and reading your comments has made me feel quite emotional.
I actually used a router to cut the stringing grooves but using a home made router bit to the precise width of the stringing; it worked a treat and thankfully didn't need re-sharpening lasting just long enough to complete the grooves.
With the cabinet successfully restored much to my surprise; I then had to wait a while as the warmer weather arrived allowing me to do outside jobs around home.
About a month ago I decided time had come to have a go at restoring the chassis but admit my heart wasn't in it and felt it to be an hopeless case as it was extremely rough. the LOPT housing had completely disintegrated to dust; in fact I didn't know it had a housing until later. I couldn't see many of the components on the chassis deck as everything was covered in debris and I ended up blowing it all away using my compressor and airline.
I had taken many digital pictures and drawn sketches with notes when I stripped the set and now I was thankful of these. Bench space was very limited so excluded doing any work with the cabinet on the bench so I made a bespoke cradle to hold the CRT/loudspeaker securely and safely.
With "the works" on the bench I had to use a mirror placed against the workshop window to view the screen.
A friend very kindly gave me a working LOPT and wouldn't even accept payment for postage on it. The original LOPT was beyond hope as the over-wind had burned out; in fact this was so bad I'm surprised the set didn't go up in flames.
I'm a member of another forum and received tremendous help from its members some of whom also kindly donated the parts as required whilst work was in progress and refused payment of any kind for them. The two threads combined on the other forum were huge as I went into great detail throughout the work but can only touch the surface here. It's a pity forum rules prevent me from adding links to the other forum but I'll abide by the rules and am happy to add the shortened story here.
Following the advice given it took a couple of weeks before the set burst into life showing "first light". This was a very moving moment for me considering I thought I was into a hiding for nothing but suddenly I had great hopes of finally seeing this set working in all its glory. One day my Chum Mike Phelan visited and Mike spent a couple of hours chasing a fault and ended up briefly displaying the test card before having to leave.
Mike had removed the tuning selector drum but gave me sufficient information to enable me to re-install it which I did. Shortly after I got the test card to display then took another week to iron out all the faults. Every capacitor above and including 0.001uF was replaced but excluded the two main electrolytics which were actually in working order and still are. Two valves (U25 and PY33) were replaced as were a number of resistors.
For safety I removed the two original mains pins on the rear of the chassis together with the two fuse holders and replaced them with modern safety types. Over the last few days the set has been winding me up with strange faults but finally today I can declare this a success story in fact I think it's a miracle and a restorers dream come true. The following pictures only tell part of the story as this set when I received it was indeed dire.
As Joe rightly says practice makes perfect but I've never worked on a TV before although I have radio experience so this was a huge personal challenge for me and I did the work in front of the world by doing it in real time on an Internet forum. I'm just pleased I didn't end up looking like a total fool as there was never any guarantee that I could restore either the cabinet or chassis.
I enjoyed this restoration immensely and have gained a great deal of knowledge and experience whilst doing so.
I hope this story encourages others to have a go. the main thing is to actually make a start and I agree with Joe even a pair of wooden ends from a Roberts would be an ideal first step.
Kind regards, Col.
You really are too kind David and reading your comments has made me feel quite emotional.
I actually used a router to cut the stringing grooves but using a home made router bit to the precise width of the stringing; it worked a treat and thankfully didn't need re-sharpening lasting just long enough to complete the grooves.
With the cabinet successfully restored much to my surprise; I then had to wait a while as the warmer weather arrived allowing me to do outside jobs around home.
About a month ago I decided time had come to have a go at restoring the chassis but admit my heart wasn't in it and felt it to be an hopeless case as it was extremely rough. the LOPT housing had completely disintegrated to dust; in fact I didn't know it had a housing until later. I couldn't see many of the components on the chassis deck as everything was covered in debris and I ended up blowing it all away using my compressor and airline.
I had taken many digital pictures and drawn sketches with notes when I stripped the set and now I was thankful of these. Bench space was very limited so excluded doing any work with the cabinet on the bench so I made a bespoke cradle to hold the CRT/loudspeaker securely and safely.
With "the works" on the bench I had to use a mirror placed against the workshop window to view the screen.
A friend very kindly gave me a working LOPT and wouldn't even accept payment for postage on it. The original LOPT was beyond hope as the over-wind had burned out; in fact this was so bad I'm surprised the set didn't go up in flames.
I'm a member of another forum and received tremendous help from its members some of whom also kindly donated the parts as required whilst work was in progress and refused payment of any kind for them. The two threads combined on the other forum were huge as I went into great detail throughout the work but can only touch the surface here. It's a pity forum rules prevent me from adding links to the other forum but I'll abide by the rules and am happy to add the shortened story here.
Following the advice given it took a couple of weeks before the set burst into life showing "first light". This was a very moving moment for me considering I thought I was into a hiding for nothing but suddenly I had great hopes of finally seeing this set working in all its glory. One day my Chum Mike Phelan visited and Mike spent a couple of hours chasing a fault and ended up briefly displaying the test card before having to leave.
Mike had removed the tuning selector drum but gave me sufficient information to enable me to re-install it which I did. Shortly after I got the test card to display then took another week to iron out all the faults. Every capacitor above and including 0.001uF was replaced but excluded the two main electrolytics which were actually in working order and still are. Two valves (U25 and PY33) were replaced as were a number of resistors.
For safety I removed the two original mains pins on the rear of the chassis together with the two fuse holders and replaced them with modern safety types. Over the last few days the set has been winding me up with strange faults but finally today I can declare this a success story in fact I think it's a miracle and a restorers dream come true. The following pictures only tell part of the story as this set when I received it was indeed dire.
As Joe rightly says practice makes perfect but I've never worked on a TV before although I have radio experience so this was a huge personal challenge for me and I did the work in front of the world by doing it in real time on an Internet forum. I'm just pleased I didn't end up looking like a total fool as there was never any guarantee that I could restore either the cabinet or chassis.
I enjoyed this restoration immensely and have gained a great deal of knowledge and experience whilst doing so.
I hope this story encourages others to have a go. the main thing is to actually make a start and I agree with Joe even a pair of wooden ends from a Roberts would be an ideal first step.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
