Buckle up - this is going to be a long ride!

A few months ago the legendary Elli Buk's collection was auctioned off over four days in Boston. Within that vast collection were many collectable early TVs including three rare Dumont Cliftons. The auction house was going to allow Internet bidding so that just left one hurdle - transportation. Sire I could use a commercial shipper, but that would get expensive and I was wary they would know how to handle a fragile TV.

As luck would have it, I have an old friend that makes an annual trip from coast to coast picking up and delivering vintage electronics. Better yet, he's not that far from Boston. So, I contacted him about the possibility of picking up, storing and delivering the sets. He agreed which just left one hurdle - actually winning one of the Cliftons!

No Cliftons the first day of the auction but I wanted to get my feet wet with the bidding process. First up, a GE 803 which I lost out on. Then, a nifty bakelite Crosley that I won :) Then, three lowly 7" Motorolas no one wanted at $250. The auctioneer lowered the bid to $150, $100 then $50 when I figured what the heck and got them. Good for parts if nothing else I figure.

That was it for day #1. Day #2 had a couple Cliftons on the block. I lost out on the first one to another VK member. The second came bundled with a bakelite 10" Emerson and National 7" TV-7W which at the time I didn't really want to deal with as not to overburden my friend but I figured I had to got for it. So I did and I won :thmbsp:

Now I just had to pay up (they took credit cards) and bide my time for a couple months until they would arrive.

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So many missing knobs :tears: The 7VT2 gold knobs are impossible to find. The blond knobs are tough too.
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Finally, here's the Emerson, National and Dumont sandwich.
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Greats sets. If you would like to sell the bakelite 10" Emerson Let me know. Its a set I would love to have. Already have the back for it.

This is a model 614 Emerson. I also have an Emerson 648 in an identical bakelite cabinet. I plan one keeping one and selling the other. Not sure which yet, but both already have backs :)

The big day finally arrived. All the sets fit inside a min-van with room to spare. A Philco 90 and RCA TM-35 monitor came along for the ride.

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I love the wooden knobs and big dials :) The function knob was loose so I stuck it in my pocket lest it get lost.
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Clearly it had a back originally, but I haven't been able to find a photo of one
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One side has some scuffs but otherwise it's in good condition.
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Serial # 6278. I wonder how many they made ?
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Here's the power supply. It had been removed to lighten the load.
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The Clifton was much to heavy to carry up the stairs to my place so we decided to pulled the upper chassis and CRT. We carefully pulled off the front wooden knobs and removed two screws at the rear of the upper chassis. The CRT is very securely mounted the the chassis and it pulls out as a complete unit.

The empty cabinet is still quite heavy but we managed. Or I should say they managed as I was just manning the camera ;) I did help carry up the chassis though.
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807
 

If one or both of the 807 are bad, let me know I have some.
Joe

Well....here you go. This is what the back of the Clifton looks like...........Not much to it.



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And a close up of the ID tag attached to the back.......................


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Thanks, I'll keep you in mind.

Excellent :D I was picturing a masonite back with 100s of holes in it.

Time for a closer look. While cleaning the CRT I discovered it's a 12RP4. Never heard of that one before.
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It's listed in my CR70 so I hooked it up. The emissions are great but I had to drop the cutoff from -52v to -36v to get a response.
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Next up a little cleaning.
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Here's a closer look under the main chassis.
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I found some evidence of rodent activity but all the wiring looks OK
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Now here's a look at the lower chassis.
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The CRT gasket is a massive check of rubber. There's a small scratch in the safety glass and I'm not sure sure it really is "safe". It looks more like just plate glass to me.

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Here it is all back together.
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I used some lemon oil follow by Howard's Feed 'n Wax on the cabinet.
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It's looking a whole lot better now :) I think all it needs is a little touch up on the screen surround and the black base.
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What a beauty. Now...how soon will we see it workin' ? :D

Man that set really cleaned up nice. :thmbsp:
Joe

That is one serious "brick s***house" design there. A 12" tube with 2 parallel 807s for horizontal sweep? And a SEPARATE 807 just to develop the HV?

Talk about wretched excess! I love it!

Really fascinating to watch this one unfold. Looks like you've got a really great original condition Clifton to restore. Thanks so much for sharing the experience with us.

Just a beautiful set. Wow.

I remember there was something historically significant about the Clifton, but for the life of me I can't remember what....

That is a well designed set. Those Cliftons always remind me of early British or pre-war sets. The chassis are quite roomy to work on. I wish the RCA chassis I have on the bench right now was so uncluttered. I will be eagerly following the restoration progress on this one. Done yet?

Nope, not done yet ;) I'm just starting to put together a parts list. For sure I need to get a whole bunch of 475volt or higher 10uF and 47uF caps.

Does anyone know of a domestic source for 500 volt 105C Rubycons ? They look like very good quality caps with a loaded life of 8,000 - 12,000 hours :thmbsp: Most generic caps are only 2,000.
Digi-key and Newark list them but the minimum order is 1,000 pieces !

http://www.newark.com/rubycon/500bxc...00v/dp/54T7071

Hi All;
Bob, maybe You could contact Rubycon direct and talk to a Sales Rep, maybe someone there could either get the quantity you want, or tell you where you could get what you want.. Good Luck !!!!
THANK YOU Marty

Good idea. I also found some in the UK for £1.325 (about $2) each for a quantity of 20.

They don't ship internationally, but I might be able to have someone in the UK order and ship them for me.
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/alumin...tors/7497366P/

I finally realized that Nichicon makes a 10uf, 500v cap with similar specs to the Rubycon and they are readily available from Digi-key.

About a buck each if you order 25 or more: http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...892-ND/3664442

This set uses an even dozen of them.

My order of caps has arrived. I tried to get the highest grade caps at a reasonable cost.

All the electrolytics are rated for 105C or 125C and 8,000-10,000 hours life. Generic caps are typically 85C and 2,000 hours.

The white caps are metallized polyester Mallory 150 series. The box caps are Y2 rated AC line filter caps.

I'll hold off on ordering any resistors until I test them.

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That set is definitely worth the upgraded caps. I'll bet it is quite reliable once it is restored. Love your YouTube restoration videos by the way.

I just recently found your Youtube videos also, good stuff.
Have you figured out how you'll rebuild the paper caps? My next set uses caps that are similar and I'm not sure how I'm going to rebuild them yet.

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My only thought so far is to use some plastic tubing to enclose the new cap, paint it brown or dip in brown wax, and wrap a replica paper label around it.

OK, so it's only been 13 years. Let's get after it!

Now I'm in a house with a large workbench rather than the cramped apartment.
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Plenty of room the get both chassis up on the 8' long workbench
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Very roomy and easy to work on. I've already replaced a few of the caps in this photo.
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Although the service info lists most of the carbon comp resistors as 1/2 watt, they are all the size of 1 watters. Only one tested out of spec so far.
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Easiest recap ever.
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Boy are these "SEALDTITE" caps garbage!
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Now as for the eight twist-loc electrolytics... They are trivial to unmount as they barely twisted the tabs.
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However, I was quickly reminded why I stopped attempting to restuff them.
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Instead, I'll finally give CE Manufacture caps from Amplified Parts a try.
Just over for $300 for eight caps but I figure the labor savings are worth it. Plus, it will look authentic and no need to reroute wiring or install terminal strips.

I had to get creative for some to get the need values, but I think it'll be OK.
For example, I need a dual 40uF @475 which they don't carry.
So, I ordered a 4 X 20uF @475 and I'll tie some sections together.
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While I wait for the electrolytics to arrive, I poked around with the Mallory Inductuner.
The shaft was frozen as they commonly are from hardened grease.
The cover is impossible to remove without some major surgery, but I was able to get into enough to flush out the old grease and spray in some new lube. Also cleaned the roller inductors.
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It's moving freely now and I couldn't resist hotwiring the dial lamp for a preview.
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I pulled out the power supply last night and gave it a look over.
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I find it interesting that all the tube sockets and held in my screws rather than rivets. Same goes for the terminal strips on the main chassis.
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The 10,000 volt HV/EHT supply is an RF type and regulated using an 0C3 gas tube for a reference. A 6SN7 tube is the blocking oscillator and the HV output is sampled using a 180M voltage divider. The coil primary is driven by an 807 tube - precursor to the 6BG6. The only early B&W set to have a regulated supply to my knowledge.
The 807 has gone to air so I'll need to track down a replacement.
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Also, the B+ delay relay coil is open :(
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Not much work needed down here otherwise. The brunt of the B+ filtering is done by two huge filter chokes. Just three 40uF caps do the rest.
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