[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks David and yes Furball is now fully restored into his position as master of the household none the worse for his wound which has now healed.

Since moving here I’ve felled many large trees but there are plenty left including two oaks and a blue spruce; the high wind up the valley side is trying to fell these for me today.

I agree the tube neck does look very vulnerable; I was surprised how long it was but then this is my first TV restoration so everything is new and strange to me. I believe the time taken to make the tube and speaker stand will be well worth it as both are now safely supported and can be moved around without difficulty.

The cabinet was indeed very rough and I think by restoring this first the hardest part of the job is now well behind me although the French polish to the cabinet top has slightly settled into the grain but doesn’t warrant extra work and I’m happy with it. The chassis however looked incredibly dirty and even after blowing it off with the compressor air line it still remains very scruffy; every time I handle anything on the chassis my hands quickly become coated in grime but taking the advice offered I’ll endeavour to see first light before attempting a proper clean up. One blessing though in getting a set in this condition is that it hasn’t been messed around with for many years.

I’m fed up moaning about the weather so this morning I put the heating on in the fridge (workshop) allowing it to warm up for over an hour before venturing in; I haven’t done any serious work in there for well over a year so first job was to tidy up and whilst tidying up I switched on four radios to check if they still worked but all was well.

With the benches cleared and everything tidy I was soon feeling comfortable and was surprised at how quickly it had warmed up. I carried the chassis in and placed it onto the bench then collected my notebook and camera so at last I was ready to make a start. The LOPT looked terrible as though it had been on fire and I held out little hope that it would be of future use; a number of the wires were broken and I presume it once had an insulated housing around it; well it doesn’t now and before blowing off with the air line the metal surround was full of debris. I made a note in the pad of the connections and also marked each connection using masking tape before snipping the leads.

With the LOPT now on the bench I could clearly see the damage. I noticed a single turn of winding wire around the outer circumference of the overwind and this easily pulled free its connection having burnt completely through; I thought it would be a waste of time but scraped the wire end clean and used a hook up to connect the multimeter to it then I prodded around and was totally amazed to find continuity between the overwind and the top cap of U191 I think this is the valve number but it was very dirty. Also continuity was shown to a loose lead that disappeared below chassis to a multi soldered connector; I marked this lead and it could possibly connect to U25 as U25 had a lead connected to each end and also a broken third connection? This was only a preliminary check and I’m trying to add comprehensive notes for other novices like me trying to restore their first TV. Finding continuity through the overwind really cheered me up; I’ll have to do some circuit tracing in order to re-connect everything correctly but it’s a good start and now I can design and make a new insulated enclosure for the LOPT; not today though because I dare not open the garage doors due to the high wind and I would be worried about getting the car damaged due to airborne debris flying around.

I took a number of pictures then knocked off for dinner; I spent a nice couple of hours in the workshop this morning and now need to get more geared up in order to fully concentrate on the chassis. Jeffrey very kindly sent me pictures of his home made LOPT enclosure and I’ll study these; I’ve been searching for a better T311 circuit diagram but so far have only a diagram in a TV servicing book that has many notes written upon it; I would like a clean diagram then I could take it and have it enlarged at a local printer. If anyone has such a diagram I would be very obliged to receive a copy and am willing to pay. I have Paul’s DVD but it is not shown on this.

I’m not in a hurry and will sit back to enjoy this chassis restoration after all I know if I try to rush the job I’ll only be heading for disaster and it is the work I do that is more interesting to me than to actually be looking at a finished restoration. This is going to be fun and as with the cabinet I’m well up for the challenge.

Kind regards, Col.