ADMIRAL 14R12 rust bucket project
 

This set I started working on at the end of November 2016 after I snatched the vertical output transformer to repair my other 14R12. I got this set over 20 years ago, it was going to be trashed. I did test the set back then and the crt, a 14bp4 still worked. I didn't realize how rusty and pitted this set was. It was like that when I got it. I decided to try something different with this set. Strip all the parts off the chassis and then try and clean it. Made a 10 gallon electrolysis bath to remove the rust off the chassis and parts. After the parts were pretty well cleaned I decided to experiment with re-plating the chassis. I've spent the last two months trying different types, copper, nickel, and finally zinc. The methods I tried were all off the internet. No dangerous chemicals to get rid of. I ended up settling on zinc for the plating because it has the best adhesion to rusty steel for the do it yourselfer. It also has the least galvanic reactivity to steel, unlike copper.
I'm now at the point of re-assembling the set.

Some more pictures.

Some more pictures. Zinc plating tub and zinc plated chassis parts.
Thanks for looking.
Ed

Good luck with your project! I actually really like those early '50's bakelite tabletops by Admiral, Motorola, and Philco. They've never taken-off with collectors, but they look great when all polished-up and are great players.

Nice work.

I finished restoring a 14R12 a couple of months ago. What a neat set. Good luck with yours.

Quite an impressive undertaking. The only time I ever tried electrolysis rust stripping I had a hard time keeping the parts from flash rusting before I could apply a new finish.

Thanks Crist,
This is the second 14R12 I'm working on. The first was the production run #8 set I finished last November. This set I think may be a production run #6 or #7. This set was too rusted to find any markings. According to service literature, only a few production runs had the color adapter socket for CBS COLOR wired into the set. My run #8 set only has the socket installed with no wires connected. The tuners in these sets were dated November and December 1950.
This set also has a different tube complement than my run #8 set for the vertical output tube. This set uses a U-Core flyback whereas the run #8 has an E-Core flyback. This set had its' bottom shield also, the other sets' was missing. Admiral had lots of production changes, just like Motorola.
Ed

BTW: The nice work you did on your 14R12 must have inspired/ motivated me to try plating this rust bucket set.:yes:

Thanks Tom.

Kevin,
Flash rusting was a big problem on a chassis this large. I couldn't get copper or nickel to plate fast enough to avoid flash rusting This old Admiral was copper plated originally. What I learned was, you have to wash/ scrub all the flash rust off in cold water right before dipping in the plating solution. The zinc plating solution , along with use of 4 zinc electrodes helped get the most coverage at the lowest voltage. The the amperage draw seems to be dependent on part size and distance from the donor electrodes. I used 6 vdc at about 5-10 amps for the chassis. I dipped it many times and rotated as needed. I know now, that a plating vessel twice the volume and having electrodes aimed at all chassis faces simultaneously would do a much better job of plating evenly. That would require twice the amount of ingredients to mix a batch of plating solution. The plating bath I used is 6 gallons of liquid.

Boy that chassis turned out nice!

What about nickel, though? I wonder.

I wasn't happy with the results of nickel or copper plating when I tried it. DIY decorative copper and nickel plating is fine for little stuff. Usable functional copper or nickel plating where you can solder and it seals the underlying metal is best done by professional plating shops. I found zinc to be the easiest to do for the DIYer. There is a website finishing.com that goes into great detail on the plating field.

I'm finally finishing up on this set. The only thing that seems to be hard to adjust is the vertical linearity and height. I encountered the same issue with the other Admiral 14R12 I repaired last fall. I'm not sure how well these first rectangle crt sets ever worked.

you are a the patience of a saint!
Unbelievable! Good Job!

A great effort on a really decent set! Kudos

Thanks