Need Help With A General Electric TV 1949

[Jeffhs]

My apologies. I did not intend to scare you with my remarks regarding high voltage, shock hazards and the like. It's just that your references to TV parts as "thingys", and to the picture tube socket as a "half-moon metal attachment of sort" in your original post, immediately sent up a red flag in my head -- that perhaps you were not too experienced with working on television sets.

Your concern that you might damage something in the TV is well and good, but I would be more concerned with personal safety, i. e. avoiding electric shock. Television sets can be repaired or replaced, but once a human life is lost (in this instance, due to a severe electric shock that can and often does stop the heart for good), it is lost forever.

The residual charge on a television picture tube can be lethal, even if the set is turned off and unplugged. This is why I mentioned discharging the tube (and the doorknob capacitor, if one is present, in the high-voltage cage) to ground before beginning any work on the TV, even replacing tubes. I mention replacing tubes because many older TVs have some tubes mounted extremely close to (or, in some cases, directly underneath) the picture tube (I've owned a few such sets). It is all too easy to accidentally contact the bell of the tube while replacing a smaller tube in the set, resulting in a shock.

One other tidbit of advice I'd like to pass along is to keep one hand in your pocket, if possible, when working on a TV, radio or, for that matter, any vintage or antique electronic device. This reduces the chance of an accidental shock going through your heart, whereas if you are working inside a set with both hands and get shocked, the current will go through your body (from one arm to the other) and could very easily (almost too easily) stop your heart in an instant.

I realize this post is off topic for this thread, but I simply wanted to point out some of the potential hazards of working on television sets, or for that matter any electronic device. Be careful. Death is permanent. One of the last things I want to see is a report here in VK of a member's death, caused by a severe high-voltage shock or anything else, while pursuing his TV restoration hobby.