Will CRT rebuilders disappear in near future?
 

Can anyone speculate on the availablility of CRT rebuilding services in the future? It seems like it is getting to the point where new CRT-based devices are not being used in commercial applications and probably old TV enthusiasts will constitute the great majority of CRT-rebuild needs (and this amount may not be enough to sustain a commercial business rebuilding CRT's)

Just wonder if I should try and get round CRT's rebuilt now rather than wait to do it in case the service becomes unavailable.

Well I feel the same way about this. If CRT companies do go under, we should pool together, buy thier equipment and repair our own CRT's! Hech, I have a huge building out here I would gladly have the equipment sit at and operate!

Even if you have the equipment, don't you still need to depend on somebody manufacturing replacement guns? If nobody does that, aren't you still SOL?

I too am afraid that the CRT rebuilders will go under due to lack of business. Due to the cheapness of recent consumer CRT sets; no one is going to have the CRT changed in one. That fact along with everything going to LCD, Plasma, etc. will probably hurt the CRT rebuilding market. Our local parts house recently discarded a bunch of new CRT's that have been sitting there for years. The owner told me that they had tried to sell them for below what they cost the supply house with no luck. They finally discarded them and wrote them off because they were taking up too much room. He said the only one's that bought CRT's were the hospitals for use in their TV's. Since those hospital TV's were different from consumer TV's, I guess it was cost effective to replace the CRT when it failed. After all, you can't buy those sets for $99.99 at wal-mart. BTW, there are some hospital TV's around here that are still used after 20+ years. I guess they keep them going as long as they can. I wonder if there's any of those old '70's Sylvania GT Matic hospital sets still in use anywhere. Those were the ones with the motorized tuner and the UHF position turned the set off.

Besides meeting electrical safety and medical device non-interference requirements, I'd bet that many hospital sets were purchased as part of a package including the intercom etc. So, when the room is upgraded to a complete new system, the TV gets replaced - and in the future, that will be flat panel.

Law of supply and demand
 

Unless these guys are doing this part-time, I don't think rebuilding crt's would be a full time venture. It may take one of us the find the equipment necessary to rebuild these jewels of the past.

I wonder if the military has CRT's rebuilt?

Viva MEXICO!

I have the feeling that for many years after they stop doing it here, it will continue south of the border. Many of the rebuilders in Los Angeles (Dunbar, Pacificc Vacuum Sales, West Coast, and others,) sold their equipment to Mexican CRT companies when they went out of business.

Charles

Perhaps they are also doing it China. A recent thread of mine about a cheap Chinese set I found with a used VGA CRT in it turned up various listings for Chinese wholesalers offering "B" grade CRTs. Since then I have seen one more cheap Chinese set that had a CRT that looked older than the rest of the set (the corners were more rounded than recent CRTs). Though I doubt they will be doing anything with delta gun/round CRTs.

There is a popular bumper rechroming company called Bumper Boyz. They seem to be out of California but I strongly suspect the work is done south of the border. I can't imagine CA, with its strict enviromental laws, being a good place to set up shop, and these guys have low prices. I called them once and the woman who answered spoke hardly any English. I could see a similiar arrangement for crt rebuilding, assuming the quality control was up to snuff.

---

I don't forsee any long term future for rebuilding conventional CRT displays. It's doubtful that many countries would have any sustained interest because of the rapid advances in LCD and Plasma display technology. Places like Asia, China, even Mexico, are currently where flat screens devices are being manufactured - so why would they bother with CRT repair, in the long run? It would seem to be uneconomical for small or large business. Perhaps the best hope would be for a niche player - someone with the expertise, equipment, and facilities integrated into some other venue to absorb the costs - essentially doing it as a contribution to television history.

I have a Toshiba CRT HD tv. Am I pretty much screwed as well?

I get the impression that the couple companies left doing it (well, I only know of a couple) are being kept in business by industrial/commerical uses. Stuff like specialized monitors, arcade games, etc. Some of that will continue for a short while because some equipment would be too impractical to switch over to LCD or whatever. But we will live to see the day when nobody is doing it as a full-time business. As far as I've seen only Hawkeye is left doing color roundies-correct? It would be great if, should he look at leaving the business, advance notice could be given. That way some stashed-away duds could get rebuilt before he does. I have a couple up in the attic & I really don't want to spend the money on them right yet.

There are still A LOT of CRT applications in military, air traffic control, and other fields. In fact, another AK'er said that the updated version of the 21FJP22 is still in the current Navy parts catalog. I remember being told within the past 15 years that 10BP4s are still in use in some applications too.

HOWEVER, as Tom and Bryan said, somebody with an interest in TV history better get on the stick and buy some equipment, get as many guns as can be found, and learn the procedure.

Charles

If the quality was anything like I've heard about bumper boyz, I'd be afraid to look at a rebuilt CRT the wrong way... At least bumpers don't implode! :thumbsdn:

I know that company... They have booths at all the car swapmeets. I agree 100% that they, and most other chrome dealers, have the work done in Mexico. Their US locations are just offices and warehouses. A few do replate here in CA, but the cost is about double. Most of the reproduction bumpers for popular cars & trucks (Mustangs, F-100s, 55-7 Chevys, etc etc) comes from China. This brings up an interesting concept:

I bet there are more TVs total using 10BP4s than there are '55-57 Chevys. So with that logic, maybe it WOULD pay for a Chinese company to make 10BP4s.

Charles

Theres a 21FJP22 still in production? $5 says its made in china now.

I have seen those tubes go up for auction from our government,I have purchased many things here,they usually have a lot of tube testors,I have purchased expensive test equipment and other things here,you just have to keep doing a "search" every few weeks for "crt bulbs,electron tubes"I dont think they really know where to place crts,tubes in a correct area,sometimes you will see electron tubes come in a package with tire tubes.but from time to time you can find round vintage picture tubes,one time they had a bunch of those round zenith black matrix color picture tubes,.below is their link.
http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auctio...&convertTo=USD

I agree with another poster that the guns themselves will be the determining factor just how long the rebuilding process can continue into the future.

There are many throw away items in life we take for granted that can only be produced with highly specialized and extremely expensive equipment. Razor blades are a perfect example.

You are just not going to be able to produce a color tv gun out of your garage without spending $millions of dollars in equipment.

New guns can be made relatively easily. We had some made for a batch of replacements 12AP4s. The problem is that the people with the expertise to rebuild tubes are leaving the business because they can't make money. Unless someone comes along with the intention of rebuilding tubes for the collector community (and probably at a loss), the rebuilding of CRTs will end within the next few years.

Harry Poster mentioned in another thread:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...ng#post1442836

that he has run across CRT rebuilding stations in the past. I made the offer to take the next one off his hands. Does anybody out there have one for sale?

One has been offered on Ebay periodically. Maybe someone has the last listing saved and can tell us who the seller was?

As far as guns go, I'm sure a factory in China would make them, if you bought a few pallets worth.

---

That's an interesting idea to think about, Andy. I think we could get up to speed relatively quickly on most of the basics like 2x4s for wooden buildings and so on. The real problem is that the sheer size and density of modern human civilizations are fundamentally linked to all the mechanized advances of the last few centuries. The only way such a "back to the Stone Age" re-creation of modern infrastructure could happen is if it was with a relatively small group of people, about the same number as were on Earth at that time originally. Also, differences of opinion and beliefs that are part of human nature mean that a whole new set of wars would still be fought, likely.

Regarding possible sources of new CRT guns, isn't it likely that we could get them made by one or more of the companies in Eastern Europe that still make vacuum tubes for audio and other uses? Also, if these parts deteriorate when exposed to free air, wouldn't sealing them in airtight bags of some kind eliminate most of that problem? I have a friend locally, another amateur radio operator, who is from the Czech Republic and still talks to friends and family there; maybe I should ask him if he can find any contacts in the tube business?