A new to me restoration, Toshiba RC-691F

[cyb3rbyte]

Hello everyone, it's been a while since I posted a restoration here. I was recently feeling the itch to start a new little project, so I finally bought this guy which has been in my eBay watchlist for a long time. It's a Toshiba RC-691F in a lovely red color.



I've never seen this particular model anywhere else, even on yahoo auctions where I typically find many of my oddities. I love the sloped form factor, and even though it's described as "non-working" for the clock mechanism it looks like a typical Copal movement so I have high confidence in getting it going again .

Hopefully it arrives in the coming week, and I can show you all my progress. I'm excited!

[jgofish]

I must have looked at that clock at least 100 times. It just seemed at little risky for a man with my limited talent. It probably much better off in your hands and at least I"m not tempted by it every time I flip through the adds. Good luck with it and be sure to keep us posted

[Guest]

Yep, these are all Copal on the inside, so the motor won't be too hard to get going again. Looks like this is the Canadian version as they sometimes get the brighter colors similar to the Japanese-only versions. Sometimes the model will have a "C" at the end, but not every time. Good luck on the restoration!

[flipoclock]

I was eyeing that one as well but since they did not ship to Europe, I would have to have them send it to my US forwarding address, pay shipping twice + import duties... I passed

[Mackey]

It’s definitely eye-catching. Looking forward to the full report.

[Johan de Jong]

That's a good looking clock! Hope you get it fully working and looking forward to see the result.

[cyb3rbyte]

I came home last night to an expected package! It came much quicker than I would have thought from Canada though!

First impressions, it was a mess. Some paint speckled all over it, as though it was in a room that got hastily painted. Scratches all along the crystal (no cracks luckily) and there of course were pieces rattling around inside it. No detached tiles though.



Initial triaging revealed that it had dirty volume pots for the radio, and no movement from the Copal-II motor at all. It also had a really interesting wire coming out of it which I thought was the FM antenna, but it was far too long and also had two connections. It seems that at some point, someone added speaker wire to the actual speaker output in an attempt to add external speakers to this little guy! I quickly clipped those off the circuit and disposed of the extra wire.



The connections to the motor were also perplexing, and it was a little tricky getting it removed thanks to the position of it being directly near the alarm switch. After a deep clean and two rounds of oiling, it’s come back to life!





After getting the mechanicals in order, I decided to go after the cosmetics. I VERY CAREFULLY pried the melted in crystal off the plastic surround, and got to work polishing it up. It looks better after two passes with plastix, but there are some tiny paint specs here and there yet. The alarm knob had way too many of these, they cleaned up in the sink with a firm brush, warm water, and dish soap.

[cyb3rbyte]

After getting the clamshell put back together, this clock is similar to it’s other Toshiba sibling, the RC-803F in it’s construction. In order to remove the top shell completely you need to unscrew the speaker, and sleep button. A word to the wise when opening one of these, take your time so as to not snap any wires on accident!



And with that, this clock is almost done. I still need to polish the case plastics to remove more of the random paint specs but it certainly looks much better than when it came in! It of course received a new neon bulb as well. I’ll grab a couple desk shots when it’s finished for you all .

[Johan de Jong]

Nice work! These I find the most rewarding jobs: when you find a neglected clock and with a simple fix and a good clean you turn it into a piece of beauty thanks for the detailed pictures and story!

[flipoclock]

Nice work and happy to see that another one (initially) sorry looking cool flip clock got saved from the parts bin (or worse)!

[cyb3rbyte]

Hello all! Sorry for my absence lately, I have missed posting here and sharing my restorations with you. Work gets so busy when you are done with school and in your first few years of a full time job...

Thought I would update you on the final results for this little Toshiba. I've gone back through and done a thorough polish of the case plastics, including the crystal, to remove the paint specs and discoloration.

[flipoclock]

Great result! I still love the shape of this clock, it is so 70s and spacy!

[Jumblejeff]

That one looks amazing. Nice work.
My day job is dragging down my “flip clockin” too….welcome back