Quote:
Originally Posted by cwmoser
I would not think TV repairmen back in the day would want to stick their paw deep inside one of these consoles to make adjustments.
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We did not want to, but did want to get paid at the end of the week!
On most of the RCA style sets, the CRT stayed in the cabinet, so we placed a work-quilt on top of the set and plopped the chassis on top of that. We had aftermarket yoke and HV extensions for most sets and used those. It a set carried an odd-ball yoke plug, one cut the wires a few inches from the socket and spliced in 4 foot extensions. Once the repairs were done, we removed extensions and covered the splices with some of that new-fangled heat-shrink tubing.
We were lucky that there was no Zenith dealer in our area during most of the metal CRT years, but when one of those sets came in for anything more than a simple tube change, we used a small all-glass CRT test tube. We never would trust the plastic CRT covers on any B&W set.
If you were servicing the set in a home, your first would check to see if the floor was wood or concrete to access your shock risk, and in addition to HV worries, this risk included hot chassis sets. (I've been bit by hot chassis sets while wearing rainy day damp shoes on a concrete floor, than ever have from the HV.)
A rather not funny at the time accident happened to my boss back then. He was a little overweight and normally did not go on house calls anymore, but was caught when a loyal customer's set went out one evening near closing time and the road crew had left for the evening, so he made the call, and it was a metal CRT. I was just learning the trade and went along to help if he had to bring in the set. While working on the set, a gap opened between his shirt and pants, and the set owner's friendly dog wandered over and cold-nosed him. He jumped, got bit by HV, and turned the air blue.
Needless to say. the set owner's children learned some new words that evening.
Moral of that story: Don't work on a metal CRT set with a dog about!
Most of the plastic covers on the early metal CRT color sets were better made and lasted until the CRT's failed and the owner traded the set in. The color sets hurt much more than the B&W sets if one got bit.
With 20/20 hind sight, we could easily have made a HV shield from a junked color CRT cover to add protection on the old B&W sets, but it never occurred to us, as we had accepted the risk for so long.
James (who left active TV servicing in January 1961.)