Today's Mystery Guest (RCA CTC-4)

[Electronic M]

On my CTC-4 I was able to get away with not cutting the skirt and instead use a modern anode lead salvaged from a 90's BPC set and a few layers of thick plastic ziplock bag type material stuffed between the skirt and the HV suction cup. Back when I was active with that project it did not seem to allow any arcing or corona.

I feel it is best not to cut or modify any of the original mounting hardware as you never know when a good 21AXP might surface. Going with that thinking I saved the unmolested bell insulator as is from my set and refrained from cutting the HV lead to have the plug. I was able to make a decent HV plug by striping a good length of spare HV cable folding the wire neatly and tinning the strands together with solder....There are better solutions to the plug then I implemented, but my way does work.

With how perfect your set is I strongly encourage you to not do any thing permanent to mount a different type of CRT which may end up only being a temporary substitute.

[Phil Nelson]

Yes, I'm always in favor of the least-destructive solution. Today I laid my hands on a modern anode lead. Perhaps I will try that with some insulating layers between the anode cup and the metal ring (and one hand hovering over the power plug).

Phil Nelson

[stromberg67]

Good suggestion, Tom. I also would like to keep my 4 as original as possible. I installed a 21FB in a CTC-7 once, and used a Cool Whip top cut in half with GC high voltage putty between the halves. I wedged it between the ring and the CRT with great results, no arcing. I know Cool Whip is still available, but I don't know about the putty. I'm pretty sure a sub could be found to work.
Kevin