Jack the CRT Ripper

[Retro in RI]

So lately I've noticed curbside sets with the back ripped open and the back end of the CRT broken off. I'm assuming for the connector and copper. So far they've been later model black or silver sets so that, while a waste if they were functional, it really didn't bug me a whole lot.

Well yesterday I was out on my bike and saw two woodgrained sets on the curb. They looked like they had been in storage as the cords were neatly folded and zip tied and there was a layer of dust. Best of all, Jack hadn't "ripped" them yet. I was 2 miles from home and managed to get my car and get back in time. As I was walking toward them, some guy in a truck slowed to look at them too. I should have aked if he needed a set or just wanted the scrap, as I don't really "need" any more tvs.

Anyway, in the car they went. Got em home, plugged em in and hooked them to the DTV converter.They work great, not even a color adjustment needed!!! One is a 1989 19" Zenith Color Sentry. It needs a good exterior douching and the control panel shows some wear but not too bad, the other is a 1986 13" Sharp Lynitron in mint condition. Both are cable ready and electronically tuned. I'm a sucker for the wood grain models but prefer knob tuners. I just couldn't leave em there to get trashed though. I wish people would run these things over to the Salvation Army up the street or the Savers or goodwill. There are still plenty of poor folks out there who'd be happy to have them.

I did see a group of three later model sets too, one 19" and two 13", all in tact. If I had time i'd have run em to the Salvation army myself. It rained like hell last night so if they're still there, they got a soaking. Hope someone got them.

Al

[snelson903]

iv seen it too ,they clip off the cords rip off the back brake the crt neck and take the yoke coil. leaving a mess in front of peoples house's , they use a hammer on everthing. alot of the tv's are still nice working sets and crt monitors .

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by snelson903

iv seen it too ,they clip off the cords rip off the back brake the crt neck and take the yoke coil. leaving a mess in front of peoples house's , they use a hammer on everthing. alot of the tv's are still nice working sets and crt monitors .

I wonder if anyone doing that ever got a glass blast in the face. Anyway, I've noticed that even the poor are picky when it comes to TV sets. The store I work in, used sets usually sit there until sent out for recycling, in spite of one-figure pricing.

[snelson903]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

I wonder if anyone doing that ever got a glass blast in the face. Anyway, I've noticed that even the poor are picky when it comes to TV sets. The store I work in, used sets usually sit there until sent out for recycling, in spite of one-figure pricing.

i wondered that to ,how many get cut or glass in there eyes for a dollar or two worth of copper. in my area out on a main roadway there has been a front hafe just frt glass part and shadow mask ,of a 32 or 36 inch crt laying on the sidewalk and grass near street since october, after a scraper scattered the parts all over and took what he wanted and left the rest, the city wont touch it or the trash pickup , its still out now.

[Username1]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

I wonder if anyone doing that ever got a glass blast in the face. Anyway, I've noticed that even the poor are picky when it comes to TV sets. The store I work in, used sets usually sit there until sent out for recycling, in spite of one-figure pricing.

We have sets in pieces around town too.... Looks like the Apocalypse...

As for the "poor" not taking a crt set, let me tell you even in the 80's when I did company funded house calls for Sharp, Sanyo, and Panasonic, the people who had very very little, had a big tv and all the cable channels. The more economically polarized the more they are acutely aware of status symbols. Goes for high end and low end.

I have always wondered about glass in their face too.... Byt then I would expect to be reading about it once in a while if it were to happen....

[radiotvnut]

TV smashing for copper has been going on here for as long as I've been fooling with TV's (25 years). I agree that even the poor has gotten picky about what TV they'll own. 20 years ago, I could sell any kind of TV with a picture. Now, flattys have gotten cheaper to the point that anyone who wants one can get one (even if they have to pay $19.99/week from rent-a-center).

[CoogarXR]

There's one of those clothes donation boxes at the end of my street in a parking lot. People are always setting things there that aren't clothes; TVs stained-up mattresses, etc. When a TV lands there, it's smashed within the hour I bet. It's always a treat, because the recycling trailers are parked there too, and these TV smashers rain broken glass and plastic all over where you drive to get to the recycling trailers. Jerks. The problem would be solved though if people would read the signs that say "clothes only" on that box and stop dumping stuff there.

[Electronic M]

I guess you can call me jack then...Seeing as how I tend to take all but the CRT and cabinet from any curbed SS non-deltagun sets I find. I do pull pins out of the base/cut the evacuation nipple on the neck with pliers letting the air in to prevent implosion, but I tend to try not to break the CRT glass (in any major way) and bolt the back on when I'm done.

I do this as I can get loads of good parts for repairing tube sets and building projects for free. CRT sets here are often 0.50$ a piece at thrifts and often sit until the thrifts trash them anyway so it's not like folks out here are not already scrapping them by the ton.

There are some sets I pardon/save, but not that many of them show up at the curb.

I generally hate the copper scrappers as they see no distinction between say a roundy that is worth more than the copper it contains and 90's BPC set, and they generally lack respect for others' property. I'd like to think I'm different from them as I only kill sets that are truly worthless and try to be neat about what I do.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I guess you can call me jack then...Seeing as how I tend to take all but the CRT and cabinet from any curbed SS non-deltagun sets I find. I do pull pins out of the base/cut the evacuation nipple on the neck with pliers letting the air in to prevent implosion, but I tend to try not to break the CRT glass (in any major way) and bolt the back on when I'm done.

I am curious, why can't inline CRTs be used in sets that originally had delta tubes? With later model BPC sets it's pretty obvious, but I know there are early inline tubes whose model numbers start with 25V for example.

[Electronic M]

Don't know. I've always liked the picture of deltagun tubes better than inline tubes so I've never had the desire to try.

I do know that deltagun tubes have three separate grids and cathodes where as some inline tubes only have one grid or one cathode. Thus depending on what three are tied together in the circuit of a given Delta set the swap could involve a video circuit redesign.

IIRC somebody here had a chassis that was used with both CRT types and could not successfully adapt from it a delta to a inline tube.

[Rod Beauvex]

Don't delta tubes require more power than an inline?

[andy]

...

[truetone36]

Nobody even bothers to give TVs on the curb a second look around here. Nobody that is, except for me. I bring them home and check them out. If they work or can be easily fixed
I save them and fix the sets with minor issues as I have a friend who has a junk shop and he takes all the BPC and SPC sets I can bring him (surprisingly, he sells a lot of them). The sets that can't be easily fixed get scrapped. I do save the CRTs if they are good, so now I've got a bunch of 80s/90s CRTs that I need to find a home for.

[Retro in RI]

I used to think the same thing about the poor being picky til I sold a 2001 Sharp 27" to a guy with a wife and 6 kids in the minivan. Thier tv died the night before and he needed a tv asap to appease his kids so they could watch their Disney on VHS!!!!! Warmed my heart as I helped him load it safely into the van and took his $20.

Btw, two tv's were put on the curb on Sunday around the corner from my house, one 90's black and another console. Someone gently removed the back, with a screwdriver, and stripped the insides BARE!!! Absolutely nothing left. Amazing. At least they were neat about it this time.

Al

[Username1]

Funny stories like the copper strippers make me think about when I was a kid.
When I got home from school on Fridays, I would hop the bike and take off for where
ever there was a tv, (spied from the bus) Most thrown out in the late 70's were floor model sets.
I would bring tools, and take out tubes, yokes, power cords, removing the metal clip, not
cutting anything, I used them so I needed them. Portables I took home, lawn mowers too.

I know there were a few kids near me that did the same thing, But now it makes me
wonder how many adults may have been looking to take home any of those sets I
"pilfered" parts out of....? Kinda like some of you guys do now....
Or was repairing and selling stuff like that only a kid thing, as jobs were better
back then.....?