URGENT-Get Your CRT Tubes Rebuilt Soon!
 

Scotty at Hawkeye is knowlegable, friendly and great on helping us rebuild old CRTs, there's no question about that. In a recent phone call, he's stated that business is slow and not sure how long will stay open. I urge all AKers considering a CRT rebuild to do it soon.

I missed the chance to use a local CRT rebuild shop 8 years ago which was of couse the last in my area to survive.

Everyone should work on getting their rebuild projects planned before this business is gone forever.

What does shipping usually run? I know it depends where you live........

I plan to have two 21FBP22s rebuilt this summer. He isn't closing up that soon is he? I was going to drive out there, I don't trust shipping them.

perhaps a group run could be an idea....

I have a couple duds that I'd love to have done but I can't justify the price with shipping. Maybe something could be arranged whereby everyone would take their tubes to the ETF convention and then someone else could drive a truckload out to Hawkeye? Just an idea.

Yes, I'm sure business is slow for him as how much is it that he wants to build a 21FB??


I stilll haven't heard any prices. What about a group effort?

Shipping to Hawkeye
 

Greyhound's the way to go on this. I shipped a 21" Predicta dud to them last week from here in Mesquite, Tx. (DFW suburb). With insurance, it was $40 and there the next day. Greyhound doesn't use machines and therefore it's safer. A real side benefit with that is that you don't have to pack like you do for the others. Also quicker and less expensive.

Larry W.

I second Greyhound for shipping CRT tubes to Hawkeye. As long as well packed, they arrived without any issues or damage. AKers, get Hawkeye busy rebuilding tired Roundie tubes and ye monochrome CRT tubes. Let's see the end of analog TV and the beginning of digital in style!:tresbon:

I'm sure that if everyone gets off their ass, and starts to send in tubes we've all been procrastinating about and putting off getting done, there will be lots of work for Scotty.

Like any small business, with cash flow, its easier to stay around.

I'm going to call him about my 23MP4 when my tax refund arrives.

Has anyone written up directions for the proper way to pack a CRT for shipping?

I paid around $400 including shipping to have my 21FJP22 rebuilt by Hawkeye. I can definitely say it was worth every penny. He did a fabulous job.

There were some good ones on here, including diagrams. But they are buried deep and I don't remember what the thread was called. The basics are: pack it face down, with some padding at the bottom of the box; around the neck you use an egg-crate design with interlocking cardboard pieces which gives good protection if properly designed. If you look at most old picture tube boxes, that is how they did it.

I understand Hawkeye will send you a proper (empty) box for shipping your
tube on request (I believe I saw this on their website). Good luck.

Anyone can pack a CRT with some info, I'll do some pics of a CRT box a company did for a tube of mine 2 years ago

5 or 6 years ago i called scotty about the 21fjp,s he said he had only 4 or 5 guns left and there would not be any more. i bought a gun assy for $125.00 now he seems to have plenty he is a damn lier. i would not trust him as far as i could throw him. steve

I don't know why you assume that Scotty lied to you. At that time he probably only had a few left, but they have been surfacing from various places since then. I've never had anything but honesty from Scotty.

I need to get my Predicta Holiday CRT to him, good idea on the tax return, that is what I will do with mine.
Dan

Steve McVoy is correct. I have dealt with Scotty in person, visited his business, and watched rebuild tubes. Scotty is EXTREMELY honest. Four or five years ago, when I first became involved with Scotty, he indicated that his supply of 21" round CRT guns was very limited. But he has since found a source of supply of new-old-stock guns, and now there is an ample supply. So this exonerates Scotty. He was not, and is not a liar. Shame on you for calling him one.

Same what John Folsom said!

Long live Scotty and his business

Mega-Dittoes to that one!

so you are calling me a lier. he said there would be no more period. he lied he f$$king lied. steve

Steve, did you read this? Maybe at the time when you talked to him, he thought there were going to be no more guns. He later found a source for them. Now there are guns. That does not make him a liar.

Steve, no one is calling you a liar. I think the explanation you got from me and from John Folsom explains why Scotty told you there were no more guns.

A collector sent me this:

I just was in communication with VDC about a couple of round CRTs for my early color sets, and received the following good news from them. They still rebuild some of the old color units at $250 each.

Also I have been in contact with Jeff Aulik from Clinton in Illinois. I specifically asked him about rebuilding the Philco Predicta CRTs because he told me a year before that they still do those. Here is his recent response: "We do and we don't rebuild CRT's at Clinton. Rebuilding is extremely time consuming. Everything is done by hand by the Engineering staff, from making the electron gun to putting the finished tube in a shipping box. We accept only a small number of rebuilds each year, chosen on the basis of which ones can make us enough profit to justify the number of hours spent, in addition to the oddball and sometimes expensive items that have to be scrounged up (usually related to making the electron gun.)"

So, there may be options for having your tube rebuilt. Check with Video Display and Clinton.

Erv Kuczogi
Video Display Corporation
570-253-3910

Jeff Aulik
Clinton Electronics
(815) 633-1444

Does anyone know if Scotty can rebuild the 7DP4 for the 621TS?
The electrostatic focus makes it an oddball.

I had Scotty rebuild a 7DP4 quite a few years ago. If he still has (or can get) guns, he cn rebuild them.

I never had anything rebuilt by Scotty however i spoke with him many times over the phone and he seems very pleasant . At one time i was going to have a round color tube rebuilt by him and that was a few years back . At that time he did say his supply on the gun assembly for that tube was limited however he stated he was searching for more becuase of the demand and rarity of that gun . He was nice enough to stear a guy to me who needed a few b/w tubes being i had a lot of crts at that time and i made a few bucks as well . Enough to buy something else to putz with . Cant say anything bad about Scotty , he always seemed nice and pleasant . Even the famous Vaughn in Long Island always spoke well of Scotty and they do buissness often i think .

While I haven't had Scotty rebuild a tube for me, I too have been in touch with him and found him to be quite straight up. He had warned me about the shortage of guns as well and that he was trying find a source but at that time whatever he had is what he had and when it was gone, it was gone.

He has also helped me on a couple of other items and I have found him to be knowledgeable and truthful.

Not to beat a point down but Bill at Moyer's told me that there were no more flyback transformers for my CTC-21 in their stock and they were gone some time ago and didn't expect to see any more even in aftermarket versions. So if he gets a hold of a batch, does this mean he lied? No! That is the information he had to work with.

Same kind of situation. Even with the internet, no one can know exactly what is out there completely. There may be stashes of 15GP22 crt's out there we don't know about...who knows.

So basically, IMHO, no one lied to anyone on this situation and to call Scotty a liar on this issue, I think is a mistake in a situation that is destined to be forever in flux.

Just my 2 cents.

I received a quote from Hawkeye of $300 to rebuild my 23MP4. Truthfully, that is way over budget for me.

VDC told me they had 23MP4s in stock for $139, so I ordered one. Turned out that was an inventory error, but they had a substitute. That's fine, as long as it'll work.

So I get a 23EWP4, hook it up and all is well. Except they charged me the $139 for it while their advertised price for the 23EWP4 is $59.

I'm going to call them next week and see if they will refund the difference or give me a credit, as I plan to get a new tube for my little Philco.

Video Display has 8 23MP4 CRTs, $139 per each, you could buy a spare for
what Scotty charges:

http://vdc.mybisi.com/product/56478/23MP4_416108.html

Do not depend on their Site to give you accurate information on what's in stock.

They did not have any 12WP4'S in stock despite the Site saying they had 9.

Hi to All,

On the topic of CRT rebuilding, over here in Europe we are not sitting on our butts doing nothing!

Witness, for instance this rebuild by French Co. RACS of a very rare pre-war Telefunken tube model RFB/VI-1 for our friend Eckhard in Germany.

RACS gave me permission to post these pictures, so here they are.

Rebuild was routine, except for the electron gun which the Lab commented "Had the complexity of a "Rube Goldberg" device": successive interconnections of focussing grids in the sequence G1-G2-G1-G2-G1-G2

The gun was entirely rebuilt, using the original metal electrodes which were remounted in a "copycat" entirely new gun.

Other interesting comments: the supplied tube was down to air, so of course it was cleaned out to all transparent glass then new P4 phosphor was applied. RACS commented that the internal side of the faceplate was slightly damaged by the many years the CRT had been down to air, so minute internal surface irregularities can be seen (with your nose on the screen!) after recoating.

And, oh yes, the CRT glass is Pyrex and rebuilding involved the now mastered art of fusing "salami-slices" of different glass softness to match Pyrex to soft glass.

Each picture is named with the proper step description in the rebuilding sequence.

Next step in the project is "bring your dead CRT to the ETF Convention" May 1-2-3 for a bulk shipment of 10-15 tubes to France to save on shipping costs.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

Telefunken pre-war CRT, 2 last pictures

What CRT does the Holliday use? 17 incher?? If so, I may know someone who has an NOS one.

Looks like there's a metal tube in the background, are they having good luck rebuilding those?

Also, can they aluminize tubes, and would a super-bright picture be somehow undesireable on a prewar set?

If they can aluminize tubes, how about metal CRTs? I heard that it was a difficult process due to the tight corner formed at the faceplate/cone bond. The specs on the 19AP4C states aluminized, but I've never seen one.

I may have a CRT to send to you to france, it's gone to air , DO the rebuild CRT projector tubes jphalen? I need a single red phospor CRT projector tube rebuilt that has gone to air with an open filament??

please reply

Hi to All,

For John Marinello:
Q: Looks like there's a metal tube in the background, are they having good luck rebuilding those?

A: Will ask today

Q: Also, can they aluminize tubes, and would a super-bright picture be somehow undesireable on a prewar set?

A: Yes they can, in fact it's part of the normal routine. However, for TVs which have an EHT of less than 8kV, the screen is not aluminized. Reason? under 8kV, electrons don't have enough acceleration to get through the aluminum barrier, hence no picture or very dim picture. The 8kV limit was determined by experimentation + experience (RACS has been in operation for 35 years +)

Q: If they can aluminize tubes, how about metal CRTs? I heard that it was a difficult process due to the tight corner formed at the faceplate/cone bond. The specs on the 19AP4C states aluminized, but I've never seen one.

A: Will ask today, i'm fairly confident they can, over time they've dealt with a considerably variety of tubes, B&W and Color, consumer & military.

For Vintagecollect:

Q: I may have a CRT to send to you to france, it's gone to air , Do they rebuild CRT projector tubes jhalphen? I need a single red phosphor CRT projector tube rebuilt that has gone to air with an open filament??

A: will ask today. Tube ident, manufacturer & basic data would help.

please reply - Will do! as soon as i get answers.

2 things you all should know:
- I don't work RACS, nor have any business ties. Like all people on this forum i'm into vintage TVs, and when i learned that we still had a CRT rebuilding facility in France, it seemed an interesting challenge to nurture contacts between this Co. and the worldwide community. In other words, i help with all the language, translation & cultural aspects.

- RACS rebuilds tricolor CRTs, but like all companies in this trade, they cannot re-screen a tricolor tube. in other words, guns YES, screens NO.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

Hi jhalphen,

Additional questions: When they re-phosphor a P4 CRT do they use the original silver activated Zinc Sulphide + Zinc Cadmium Sulphide or do they use the modern cadmium free P4 replacement?

The modern replacement doesn't look as nice to me because the three components are randomly distributed when mixed. Since it's random it can't be perfectly uniform. You end up with colored blotches. I seem to be the only one that complains about this. Even a color CRT with a monochrome picture looks better to me because it is uniform. Oddly enough I have defective color vision but am still sensitive to this.

Actually, on a large CRT I'd be sitting back far enough to not notice it, but on a small 8" or even 12" it really shows up.

I understand the need to go to cadmium free phosphors, but if they're allowed to use the original for vintage or historical restorations, that would be great.

John

Good Evening Gentlemen,

Answers from RACS, today, late afternoon, France:

John Marinello has a sharp eye indeed to see a glass-metal tube behind the Telefunken! - see pix below.

Metal/glass tubes are no different for us than all-glass tubes. Of course, there can be problems of separation and cracks at the glass/metal boundary, these are known problems and we have means to solve them, not always, but frequently.

Successful rebuilding of glass/metal tubes:
Success depends on mastering stresses at the glass/metal boundary, we have good experience in this domain, but no one can guarantee a 100% success rate in this operation, old glass/metal has it whims and CRT rebuilding is a mix of science & know-how, therefore some fail.

Tube aluminizing:
Correction: OK for tubes at or above 12 kV EHT, not 8kV as quoted earlier. My mistake or new directive, i don't know.

Aluminizing metal envelope tube:
Aluminum is evaporated under vacuum inside the CRT. The vaporized aluminum is therefore deposited everywhere, but in this precise case, the aluminum deposit is only important on the screen, not on the bell, which being made of metal, already has excellent conductivity. If some aluminum is not deposited on the bell and there are bare spots, the EHT wiil circulate without problems and it is not a small bare spot which will impede its passage.

What is really important, is the quality of the Al deposit on the phosphor layer. if you look at the photograph, you will see that the evaporation filament is in the direct axis pointing at the screen. Nothing will prevent the Aluminum from being deposited wether the screen is all glass or glass/metal.

For Vintagecollect:
Awaiting your data on the Red projector CRT.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France