Hi Shaft
One half of me agrees with Paul. The other half does not. I'm not claiming to be " The Worlds Leading Expert " on valve televisions but they were what I cut my teeth on in the 70s (the previous generation of 60s TVs that were consigned to jumble sales). Oddly for someone my age, I knew more about valves than silicon to start off with.
On balance I would have a go, especially if you have gone to the trouble of investing in a Domino.
I mean if you don’t have a go, you will never learn and you will miss out on all the “fun”. “Cheque Book” based collecting is OK and I know a lot of folk who do it, but it’s never been for me personally!
I don’t really recommend powering the whole set up slowly using a variac. Depending on the set, this could cause damage. If the HT is derived though a valve rectifier, the HT won’t rise gradually across HT reservoir cap in any case. Broadly speaking, the main area that gives problems with long dormant sets are capacitors
The first thing I would recommend doing is cleaning the entire set out and giving the chassis a good " eyeball”. Opinions differ, but a lot of folk change all the paper wax covered capacitors as a matter of course. Others also change anything plastic with " Hunts " written on it. Also look for charred components, and drips of wax on the chassis (a sure sign a capacitor has been getting hot.
It is vital that you reform the large reservoir capacitor before applying power. This can be done with the capacitor physically " in situ " if it is difficult to remove. The capacitor must be electrically isolated though and fed from a variable HT (DC) supply in series with a limiting resistor and ammeter.
Take a look here for instance: -
http://
http://www.vcomp.co.uk/tech_tips/ref...eform_caps.htm
I think you should seek advise, but please have a go yourself. Until you have made the set safe to power up, you won’t know what you are “ in for”. You may have an easy ride, but don’t bank on it. The real “nail biter” comes when the set is working well enough to be able to ascertain what condition the tube is in. The other component that gives problems is the line output transformer. Both these components can be difficult and expensive to find, although (in theory) it is possible to get the transformer re-wound. Most everything else is pretty easy to source.
Best of luck
Chris