Zenith 28T925R
 

Hi Folks....First time I have posted on here, but read the forums religiously.

Up here in Calgary, there is very little in the way of vintage tvs in the market, be that Craigslist or Kijiji, but I hit the jackpot today.

I found an old 1949 Zenith 28T925R "Mayflower" porthole set for $40.00. Have only had a brief look at it this eve, but will have a good look on the weekend with better lighting.

Case is in ok shape, very restorable. Chassis is mostly complete, but looking further back it looks like the speaker may be missing. The crt was broken in half at the neck, so am looking for a 12LP4 crt, should anyone have a working spare sitting around. The right hand knob appears to not be original, but looks to be something from the same era.

Here are a couple of pictures. :banana: From what I understand, these sets are not the easiest to restore, so am not going to jump into this for awhile.

Nice find and a nice price :thmbsp: I think that's one of the less common models - I know I've never seen one in person.

I haven't restored a porthole set yet, but from what I've read some models have odd power supplies and the flybacks are often fried or at least look horrible.

Good luck finding a 12LP4.

I love those Portholes - they are really fun restoration projects.
I have a 12LP4 that I paid $120 for - purchased it when I went to pick up my Zenith porthole.
The problem is finding someone who can and knows how to
box it up and ship it. I'd sell mine to someone who would
come by and pick it up but have no desire trying to figure out
how to safely ship it.

Carl

Hi Carl.

Agreed about the shipping of a 12LP4. or any crt for that matter. The risk is great and unless it is done with someone who has knowledge on the proper method of packing a crt, the chances of it making it to destination intact are slim.

I will keep looking. If anyone has a donor set, and has the correct on/off knob on the right hand of the set, I would love to hear from you. Same goes for the speaker. However, does anyone know of a outfit that sells old radio/tv speakers, reconditioned or otherwise

thanks

Ross

PM Me about the 12LP4. I may be able to help...

Randy Bassham shipped me a CRT and it was an AWESOME pack job..
He bagged it in a trashbag, put it in a box, and used a can or two of expandable foam..
When it got here, it was still tight in box and perfect when i removed it :D

He shipped me a 17RP4 CRT :D

SR

Hello I have the very same set that I picked up at the early tv convention this year I only payed 25 bucks for my little beauty and it has a good 12lp4 what a stroke of luck hopefully we can get my photos on this new to me computer congrats on your find happy collecting... Timothy

Hi Timothy...I would love to see some pics of your set, as it will help me identify what is missing from mine, as I can not find a lot of pics on the internet of this set.

Tomorrow I ll post a few more, as the first few were taken in poor lighting

thanks

Ross

Expandable foam..never even thought of that...That's an excellent idea, makes a perfect mould of the crt.

thanks for that!!!!

Are you sure it's a 12LP4? My Mayflower is a 10" set.

It's an easy restore but there's a fair chance the Flyback will be bad.
I found the early RCA "Fly1" will drop right in and work with no mods except changing the Yoke Network to the RCA values.
The RCA Fly runs cool even after extended periods of operation.

These make a very good picture but weigh a ton, I had to remove the power supply chassis just to be able to lift it.

My Mayflower running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXlF0haH-zY

The Flyback swap:

Here are some additional pics. Got the chassis out this eve, no easy task, and along with that got a look at the old crt.

Eric, I was just going by what I saw on Radiomuseum and in the Sams folder, but def could be wrong. They both stated a 12LP4 crt. I ll try and look at remnants of the crt and see if I can identify it for sure. If you and others can look and see what else might be missing. I see that there was an hv cage that is missing and the back, along with the four mini knobs under the gold cover plates and the one contrast/volume knob.

That looks like a 10" CRT from here, just measure across it, if it's close to 10" then it has to be one.
There may have been a 12" version of this set because I know there were a couple versions.

If it's a 10 then I believe the actual correct CRT for these is the 10KP4 Aluminized tube but of course a 10BP4 would work fine.

Here's a picture of one of the small knobs, they all look the same.

The HV Cage on these was made of Fish Paper I think, that's why most of them are missing.

Mine has the back but it's not in a position where I can easily take a picture of it, it isn't a flat back though, it bulges out about an inch at the edges.

I found a picture of someone elses set showing the back, you can also see the HV cage, it may be metal, you can't really tell from the picture.

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...2&d=1277175306

Hi Eric..

Pulled it out of the garbage and sure enough, its a 10 inch and not a 12inch crt. Thanks for making me double check!! Dont always believe what you read. I have a weak 10BP4 which will suffice for testing etc once I get a chance to start work on it.

Thanks for the pics of the little knobs, that helps a lot.

Correction:
In my post above I meant to say 10FP4 and not 10KP4, the FP4 is the Aluminized version of the BP4.