Wow, that Philips gizmo is clever. It sure would simplify the optical adjustment process, although fabricating one goes far beyond my pay grade.
Meanwhile, I reopened the optical box today. After much fussing & cussing, I readjusted the spherical and 45-degree plane mirrors. Now, the picture is similar to what it was before I pulled those mirrors for resilvering:
I haven't yet done ANY of the multiple mechanical adjustments, so the picture is blurry and the screen geometry isn't perfect. Presumably things can be improved somewhat that way.
It also looks a little bloomy on high-contrast content, as you can see in the animated .GIF. Poor HV regulation? There's no quick/easy way to measure the HV output, as you would in a conventional TV, so this is only a guess.
Speaking of mirrors, I stuck my head up inside the pop-up canopy to inspect the big (final) mirror. Guess what -- it looks bad, similar to the degraded surface on the 45-degree plane mirror. That would explain some of the image weirdness seen in the last photo, which is more than just being out of focus.
Tomorrow . . . .
Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html