Ladies and gentlemen, may I humbly introduce....

[kc8adu]

gotta heat it in an oven while pulling the vacuum.
and an ac compressor is nowhere near good enough.not even the 3/4 hp robinair i use for ac work.
at the very least you would need a new getter.the cathode coating is gonna be dead too.
they are coated when the gun is made and are run at elevated heater voltage a while to expose the fresh cathode after evacuation/gettering.

Originally Posted by mbates14

its worth a shot, take an older picture tube that has gone to air, and hook an airconditioner vacuum pump up to it, as they are known to pull a VERY hard vacuum. Almost enough to implode the glass.

Take one of those, let it run for awhile and see if you can get a picture, it would be nice if you did. then the stumper is reactivating the getter, and sealing the tube