Building your own TV…”Not as outrageously impractical as you might suspect”

Heathkit, 1967

In the 1950s, 60s, and even 70s, lots of men (invariably men) were encouraged to hone their hobbyist “Do It Yourself” skills. Heathkits were the pinnacle of DIY in electronics – at the forefront of what we now call the “maker” movement. There were all sorts of Heathkits — ham radios especially, but everything from test equipment, oscilloscopes, an early analog computer (in the 1950s!) , and even an early robot and a PDP-8 minicomputer.

And television sets. Heathkit claimed you could built this set with complete confidence in 25 hours — a couple hours a night over a couple of weeks. You’d save money and end up understanding all sorts of useful things about television circuitry…and you could build it right into the wall for a really impressive custom setup as pictured here – although you needed over 20 inches of space BEHIND the wall, which undoubtably limited these sorts of installations. In-wall installation probably added considerably to the 25 hour build time, but in the end you’d have a color TV that would be the talk of the neighborhood.

Got the TV assembled? Good! Move straight on from that to a Heathkit electronic organ — build it only in 50 hours.