[drh4683]

Wow, thank god you guys are OK all things considered and that nobody had serious injuries. This heat gun method seems to have its fair share of dangers and Im starting to advise against it now. I've done some 10+ cataract jobs with success with the heat gun method until I had a 23EGP22 blast into peices in front of my face about 2 years ago, which Im sure most of you remember that disaster. My theory at this point is that the CRT face gets so hot and it starts to expand laterally. The bell of the tube stays cool since its not even heat and it does not expand (like mark pointed out), but when the lens starts to expand, it puts alot of stress at the frit seal and thats probably the weakest link and it fails right there. I could be wrong, I've never conducted stress analysis on a CRT before.

CTC17 had very good luck with the hot wire method on the Zenith tube. The key is keeping enough current going through the wire so that the PVA does not act as a heat sink when you apply the wire, otherwise it stops you dead in your tracks.

As for the sound, I remember exactly what the 23EGP22 sounded like. It was like a bomb, it sent a nice shock wave into the air and it felt like someone punched me in the chest and then there was Phosphor rain for about 30 minutes afterward. It was on a saturday afternoon and my parents were upstairs watching a football game. They both basically screamed out loud wondering what the hell happened and they both ran downstairs to see if I was OK and what happened. The sound was so powerful and intense. Then little phosphor flakes and dust were everywhere and floating in the air and I couldn't believe how far the glass traveled yet amazingly, I was scratch free. I couldn't believe I was OK. The sound of the glass shards striking each other was also incredible. It all happened in microseconds and it was over just like that.