12LP4 base ripped off, questions about putting back together.

[DeLorean00]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Couple of tips: Heat and desolder the leads and pins (file or poke the ends of the pins with a screwdriver to open them more after if needed) so you can see the lead in the hole before you install the base. If any lead is on the short side and difficult to get in the pin a single 3" strand from stranded lamp cord or a single solid core phono tonearm lead (Radio Shack used to sell good stuff) added to the end of the original helps to thread it right.

Thank you for the tips! I really appreciate it!

Originally Posted by Eric H

If you need to bend the wires to align them don't let it bend at the glass, it will break off.

Ah, yeah that is a great point I didn't consider. I will carefully bend the wires above the glass just enough to get proper routing and no shorts. Thanks!

I'm really curious to see what this CRT shows when I hook it up to my Super Mack when I am done. Even if it is super weak, I will still have learned a lot.

[DeLorean00]

So I am having some issues getting this base back on. I bent all the leads into roughly the correct shape but it is really hard to get them to fit into the base because the sides come down and make it basically a blind job. After tons of attempts, I seem to always get one wire not seated, then I finally got all 5 in I think but I really wasn't able to verify. The wires did not come exactly flush to the edge of the pins on 3 of them. I tried flooding all with solder but I still had a bad connection with one pin because emission was zero unless I slightly touched the base. So I ended up pulling the base off again starting over.

So what I have tried is soldering on some solid core wire the same gauge to extend the wires out enough to get more working room. However, the problem I am having with that is when I try to get the soldered joint inside the pin it won't fit, even though they are butt to butt and soldered with the only the smallest amount of solder possible.

I have considered removing the extending wires, then cutting part of one side of the tube base cap off so I can use it to align and adjust the pins. Given this will make it weaker when its glued in place, but I am running out of ideas on how I should make this work.

The final thing I have heard Bob Andersen talk about is a pin crimper, that might help me on the leads that are a little short. Has anyone used one of those before? I have a ratching crimping tool with adjustable heads I use for Molex connectors that might work.

Chris

[ohohyodafarted]

I have done this several times. I found that just cleaning the pins out is not good enough. After I remove all the solder by heating with an iron and slamming down on the work bench to get most of the solder out of the pins, I then take a small drill bit ( sorry I can remember what size, but is either a #60 or possibly slightly larger) and drill out the pins to get the inside perfectly clean right down to the inside walls of the brass pins.

With the inside of the pins perfectly clean it is much easier to get the wires to slide inside the pins. Sometimes I will extend the wires like you did, but usually if the original wires are clean you can get them lined up perfectly and they should slide into the pins after a little bit of trial and error.

[DeLorean00]

Originally Posted by ohohyodafarted

I have done this several times. I found that just cleaning the pins out is not good enough. After I remove all the solder by heating with an iron and slamming down on the work bench to get most of the solder out of the pins, I then take a small drill bit ( sorry I can remember what size, but is either a #60 or possibly slightly larger) and drill out the pins to get the inside perfectly clean right down to the inside walls of the brass pins.

With the inside of the pins perfectly clean it is much easier to get the wires to slide inside the pins. Sometimes I will extend the wires like you did, but usually if the original wires are clean you can get them lined up perfectly and they should slide into the pins after a little bit of trial and error.

Thanks for the tip! I will try drilling it out.