15GP22.... Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. America, and All the Ships at Sea . . FLASH!!!!

[Pete Deksnis]

John and Bob,

Congratulations on your accomplishment.

It's an honor to know you guys.

Pete

[ohohyodafarted]

Originally Posted by sweitzel

Wow that is just fantastic news! We all knew you guys could do it!

One question, Was this the same gun that went through the partial rebuild previously when the stem broke? or was this another gun assembly?

We do not know for sure. We have a number of guns in the Q and we are not certain if this is that same gun or not. Our inclination is that it is not the same gun, because that gun was sent via USPS to the gun rebuilder and it is currently unacounted for.

[David Roper]

I've been holding my breath (and tongue) awaiting the test results. Now that they are in...



HOORAY!

Congratulations and much thanks to John and Bob for their success. This project was discussed at the first ETF convention in early 2003, now here we are in late 2009. That's determination!

[Dave A]

Where and how do we line up to join the rebuild parade?

[John Folsom]

Step 1: Send your check to Bob & John. Don't bother to fill in the amount, we will do that later!

[cbenham]

Wow, don't know how I missed page 4 with all the great pics and information yesterday. Congratulations Bob and John on the first rebuild of a 15GP22, and best luck with the Mitsubishi!
Cliff

[M3-SRT8]

"What's the matter, Sir Guy? Run out of hangings?"

"I know a ripe subject for one!"

Love the "Adventures of Robin Hood" still.

Great Job. Congrats to You Gents.

Lee J Barmakian

[Steve D.]

Hey Guys,

Just got caught up on my VK viewing. WOW! super kudos to both of you and Scotty as well.

Persistence does pay off.

-Steve D.

[tubesrule]

Cudo's to everyone involved in this project! Your persistence has really paid off.

Not to put a wet blanket on this, but isn't Scotty supposed to be retiring like really soon? Is this something that might be transferable to the equipment at the ETF?

Darryl

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by tubesrule

Not to put a wet blanket on this, but isn't Scotty supposed to be retiring like really soon?

OMG let's not even think about this. If it doesn't get mentioned, then hopefully Scotty will forget all about retiring!!

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by tubesrule

Not to put a wet blanket on this, but isn't Scotty supposed to be retiring like really soon?

In discussions with Scotty, this does not appear to be a stumbling block in terms of likely 15GP22 rebuilds. However, there's never a guarantee, and my information is months old.

Pete

[John Folsom]

First, thanks to all the kind words from the VK community. It has been a long road to this first successful rebuild. But it has been a lot of fun getting there.

Scotty is not likely to retire in the near future (months/year), but several years out is anybody's guess. And Scotty may not the the short pole in the tent. The era of he CRT is coning to an end, and our stem supplier or the vendor who replaces the cathodes and filaments in the gun and remounts it on the stem could go away at any time. And Bob's EDM process is vital to having guns rebuilt as well.

So Bob and I are going to attempt a couple of more under vacuum rebuilds, and Bob is going to try a leaker tube using his sealing protocol. We will attempt to do this in as timely a manner as possible.

Depending on the results, we will then consider the path forward. More to come......

[sampson159]

this process must be perfected and carried on into the future.congrats on rebuild.i hope this is the first of many to come!

[RetroHacker]

This is truly amazing. Excellent work guys!

I assume that you've come up with a sealing method to prevent the newly rebuilt tube from leaking, correct? That was the major achillies heel of the 15GP22 in the first place - faulty seals letting all the vacuum out.

I'm really interested to see how a rebuild goes on a tube that's already up to air (i.e. most of the other 15GP22's). In theory, since the guns are getting rebuilt, it should work - the stumbling block being possible phosphor degredation due to oxidization over the years.

-Ian

[John Folsom]

Ian,

There is no verified method for preventing rebuilt tubes from developing a leak, or for stopping the leak in a tube so it can be rebuilt. If our leak mitigation protocol works out, then the answer may be "yes".

The tube just rebuilt (a non-leaker) was treated with vacseal. Of course, we will never know if it does any good, we can only know if it does not.