RCA Victor 1-X-51 Vacuum Tube Radio Repair 1951 - This was - Supposed - to be Easy! - Part 1 [4K]

72 year old AM vacuum tube radio with a cool dial and bakelite case is on the bench for repair. Should be pretty straight forward All American Five repair, right? Supposed to be... !

See the checklist which appears when status changes, for tracking what is discovered that needs addressing in Red, followed by Green when resolved.

Also similar to RCA Model 1-X-52, 1-X-53, 1-X-54, 1-X-54, 1-X-55, 1-X-56 and 1-X-57.

NOTE: This is not instruction, it is for entertainment for people like me who enjoy watching projects and the experiences gained. If you attempt to do any of the things in this video you are at your own risk. I am using special tech-bench safety equipment not detailed here so don't take for granted you can just plug these old items in safely without them being checked and repaired correctly. Check out the link below to Mr Carlson's Lab video below.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND REFERENCES:
[note: am in no way representing how these folks have shown doing these things - I don't even think they would approve.]

Frequency generator modification to add an inexpensive frequency counter: Thanks Tony B. for the video and description - it works very well! Here is the link to the xraytonyb video (he also demos it by doing an alignment):
   • Tenma Signal Generator Mod and Demo  
@xraytonyb

Thanks to shango066 for championing the approach of "fix it first", before mass re-capping. See shango066 for many examples of that approach.
@shango066

Awesome discussion of bench safety including variacs and isolation transformers by Mr Carlson's Lab (highly recommended):
   • Tech Tips Tuesday, Isolation Transfor...  
‪@MrCarlsonsLab‬

Modification method for a commercial Tripp Lite isolation transformer for tech-bench use by Todd Harrison, his channel is called ToddFun:
   • ToddFun.com: Isolation Transformer - ...  
‪@ToddFun‬

Camera: Canon G7X Mark III
Mic: Rode Micro
Video Editing Software: Power Director
Video Editor: just me

People interested in the following topics may be interested in this subject matter: 1950s radios tube radio repair, tube radio restoration, vacuum tube radio recapping, RCA Radio, RCA tube radio, radio recapping, valve radio