Recent roundie finds

[Charlie]

For the past year and a half, I've kinda fallen out of the TV circle here at VK (formerly AK). This was partially due to having to move... something I didn't quite plan on so soon. I no longer live in town (Beaumont/Port Arthur area)... I now live full time at my place in the woods... about 40 miles north of Beaumont. Moving was a real b*tch... especially moving TV sets... most of which are now in storage.

Even once the move was complete, I was hounded by several different deaths of friends/family... some of which caught me completely off guard. Dealing with that was a real treat.

Even before the move, I knew I would eventually end up here in the woods. I also knew I would have to come up with a place to keep all of this TV stuff. I thought I would try building a "tv shop" in my backyard (being I have 8 acres here, I have plenty of back yard). Last year, with the help of a friend, my idea of a shop became reality. Actually, my friend did nearly all the work... and he was well paid for it. He basically did the outer shell, and now i have to do all of the inside stuff (wiring, insulation, central A/C, etc). Below is a couple of photos of what I have so far.

During all this time I was away from AK, looking for or working on sets pretty much came to a halt. It's been a good while since I last plugged in my soldering iron. I've really missed it.

This past June, I had a couple of roundies fall right into my lap. An uncle called me about an old color Zenith set that he found while cleaning out his wife's grandmother's house. He told me it was blonde, so I figured it had to be a roundie. He found the model on the back... told me it said 25LC30.

"Are you interested in this? If not, it's going in the trash!"

Hell yeah I'm interested! It was only an hour away, and I headed out that next weekend. Before getting there, he called again and told me he found another set in the barn... a Curtis Mathes!

I got there to find the two roundies... the Zenith was indoors and in great looking shape. The Curtis Mathes was in a barn and somewhat dirty, but overall looked like it would clean up pretty good.

The insides of both sets need cleaning. Looks like nests were built in both of them... the one in the house actually had corn in the cabinet!!! Corn sorta like what you'd find on a thanksgiving centerpiece... the yellow/brown/orange kind and hard as a rock (just the corn, not the cob). Never found corn in a set before.

It does not appear there was any damage to the chassis. They just need a good cleaning.

The Zenith was a VHF only set, and had a replacement CRT in it... a Sylvania coded 1978... had good filaments, but tested dead as a doorknob. Is this common with Sylvania tubes? This is like the 3rd Sylvania replacement I've found in this condition.

The Curtis Mathes had the original tube from 1966. It tested "okay" and will likely make a good picture. I did not expect it to be any good as this set has instant on... and seems those sets usually wear out tubes faster. This CM has the same exact chassis as my combo... basically a cross between a ctc 15 and 16.

So, photos are below. I kinda dig the CM cabinet... has that "to the side" look.

Also have a story on a Bendix I will put in the b&w section.