My first find of '09... Philco 50-T1630

[RobtWB]

I had seen this beast on STL CL a couple weeks ago. Called them and they still had it. So I went after it.

It is a Philco 50-T1630 model. I have no idea what the chassis is. Can't really find any ID on it just yet. It may be F65379.

The cabinet looks worse than it really is. I think it should clean up and refurbish nicely to its original deep mahogony color. The safety glass and the gold Philco lettering is intact.

The clowns that I got it from had powered it up and said it works. It does not. All tubes light up, no smoke, popping, crackling, hissing etc...and the neck of the CRT does light up but no raster. Chassis is beyond dirty, and there is some rust spots visible.

I'll try and post pictures later tonight, can't seem to get camera/computer to download.

[RobtWB]

Here a few pictures of the Philco 50-T1630

[jln1966]

That looks nice. The gold etching looks like the etching on the 2 51 Philcos I found a while back. Mine are table models with metal cabinets. Does this have a 2 piece chassis or is it one piece?
John

[RobtWB]

front view with "mask" removed
rear view
front view after clleaning mask, glass, knobs

[Old1625]

Looks great after cleanup.

Lotta iron on that chassis....

[zenithfan1]

Sweet find!

[Dan Starnes]

That set sure cleaned up nice.
Dan

[Sandy G]

Think you got yrself a jim-dandy set there, Sport...I'm jealous...(grin)

[M3-SRT8]

That cleaned up nice.

Chassis looks relatively corrosion-free and complete.

I take it you're giving it "The Treatment", i.e. total recapping, resistor check, pot cleaning, etc etc...

LJB

PS: You Test the CRT?

[zenithfan1]

WOW, that does clean up well, I love it when it makes that big of a difference.

[RobtWB]

Slowly working on refurbishing the cabinet - trying to remove 59 years of dust dirt grime old wax paint splatter etc is time consuming. The front of the set, mask if you will, behind the 1/2 doors really cleaned up nicely. Thankfully all of the gold decal work around the knobs and on the safety glass, and on the front of the doors is 100% intact. The knobs are also 100% intact and should easily polish to as new. My goal is to get the cabinet as clean as possible and try to keep and refurbish the original reddish mahogany color, keeping it as original as possible.

Now the bad news. The 16AP4A tube is dead. No emission and a short on heater and cathode. Don't know where the heck I'll find a replacement. Maybe I'll have to see about a rebuild. Someone has screwed around with the set before I got it. The chassis is loose in the cabinet, and there are ancient splices to the wiring coming from the yoke. The set looks complete excepting the screws to secure the chassis to the cabinet. My tube tester is in storage so I'll have to wait a bit to check those. As soon as the weather breaks, we are suffering through a hellacious ice storm right now, I plan on starting on the chassis and electronics.

I have been documenting the progress with the digital camera and plan to post the project when completed.

[kvflyer]

A very nice looking set. I especially like how the front mask cleaned up and that the gold lettering is looking so good. Good work!

You may want to check out the Antique Radio Forum (if you are not already a member) and post a request for a CRT. You just may find one eventually. Sad that so many of these older sets and CRTs were taken to the dump.

http://antiqueradios.com/forums/index.php

Note: The ARF site is going down for maintenance this week coming and will probably be down for a week. So don't be disappointed if it doesn't work right a way...

[Tubejunke]

Is the 16AP4 a metal cone c.r.t. like the 19AP4??

[bgadow]

A little off topic, maybe, but what crt did a DuMont Savoy use? I might have a line on just the picture tube out of one.

[jeyurkon]

Originally Posted by bgadow

A little off topic, maybe, but what crt did a DuMont Savoy use? I might have a line on just the picture tube out of one.

If no one's answered the question yet I believe it was a 12JP4.

John