[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Yamamaya42

Witnessing an implosion is very VERY unpleasant, I know this first hand.
It can best be described as being in an auto accident, and slammed into a wall at the same time.

It was back in my HS electronics class, ( where I got my CTC-16XL from), many people would often donate their dead and dying electronic stuff to the school, all sorts of fun stuff to play with, TVs, AMPs, Radios, you name it.

The TVs were mostly of the delta CRT type, hybrid, tube, solid , whatever, all sizes, mostly 19 inch, and 25vxx22 (whatever.)

And we get to play with them in the 2nd part of the class, Lab, which is what I was doing when it happened.
I don't remember the make or model, just that it was a 25v, with a bad/weak CRT, but good chassis, and hunting around, I found a GOOD CRT that was the right size that would fit, but when I went to put it in, the mounting bracket did not line up in the enclosure, all the holes to screw it down vanished. :/

Meaning I had to remove the tension band and bracket assy from the bad CRT and put it on the good one, no big deal.
Place bad CRT on big 3 inch styrofoam mat face down, tension band and bracket assy came off no problem, bad CRT was bound for the trash heap, went to remove the offending hardware from the good CRT and put the one that fit on...
started to loosen the tension band and... KABOOOM!
It suddenly decided not to be a CRT any longer.

It felt like I was hit by a car, grabbed by an unseen force and violently pulled forward, my ears were ringing for quite some time from the concussion and sound of it, we were in a rather large classroom, and to help keep things cool, the door was kept half open, after the implosion, it was slammed shut from the inrush of air.

The very first thing I remember is, after opening my eyes was, phosphor , phosphor everywhere...
it was like a silver cloud in the air, that soon coated everything.
Glass was ALL OVER THE PLACE, mostly in very tiny pieces, largest being 2 inches or so.
And the most miraculous thing was, I was unhurt, aside from a minor cut on the chin, and soreness days later being like what I can only describe as whiplash, from being grabbed by the sudden vacuum, an overall very nasty thing to go through.

Yikes. Glad I have yet to have that happen (knock on wood).
The closest I've had CRT damage wise is 2 rectangular color CRTs mid cataract removal developing screen cracks...one was definitely my fault the other was spontaneous. The one I caused was the first RCA CRT I ever tried a removal on. I was using the sun and wedge method and the wedges cracked the outer ring of the safety glass off...I was trying to chisel the rest of the safety glass off but I was getting lots of little cuts from it and between that and the 100 degree heat I gave up and set the scalding hot CRT in the cool water pool in the shade to switch to the water removal method...when the face went into the water I suddenly remembered what glass does when you change its temp rapidly and realized I was holding a bomb for a split second my mind raced "do I pull it out and try to save it or do I just run?" I chose to run and about 10sec later ting!, TING, ting, hiss gurgle...the screen cracked and it sucked water in....the water was still in there a few months later when I smashed it up and threw it out. The second did its face cracking in the sun and I was a bit further away when it happened so I was less scared and more bummed.

Back in my college senior design project I managed to have a near deaf experience. After I had brought in my hobby plasma speaker to show off it inspired another member on our team to bring in his electric fuel cell which was promptly filled with water, road salt (it was winter in Milwaukee), soap and other things and bubbles of H2 gas were being lit by our butane soldering torch. Our project involved high power at low voltage so we had to solder pencil thickness wires together. The bubbles ignited occasionally with the enthusiasm of good bubble gum to that of damp firecrackers...I was fascinated by this and was handed the torch. Now our lab room was a big room, it was a full size class room turned lab that could accommodate 5 or more 5 man teams and their projects easily. Within a moment of me having the torch I inadvertently found the mother of all gas bubbles in the tank, and it went off like a cannon!
It extinguished the torch splashed a bench of test equipment like a show at Sea World and I was deaf for a few minutes to the point where you could shout at me and I could shout and I wouldn't hear a peep over the ringing...one guy on our team who was some kind of military at some point and was tough'n'gruff who was on the far side of the room said it was such a bang he "almost shit himself". We were lucky about one thing...it was probably after 10PM and nobody else was in the building to hear it and complain. Our project and to an extent other projects in that lab were the animal house of senior design that year. Within a day my hearing had normalized, but I doubt I'll ever hear anything louder.