Loose crt sockets

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by bandersen

It's my understanding that using a very hard adhesive like epoxy could cause the glass to crack if it has a different coefficient of expansion.

That makes a lot of sense to me; I am in the non-epoxy camp. Silicone holds on the cap just fine for my purposes, which do not involve violently yanking on the ends of CRTs. If you ever meet someone who does not know how to grasp the base of a tube when plugging or unplugging it, send 'em to me for a tutorial

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.htm

[bandersen]

I managed to get one CRT rebuilt by Hawkeye before they shut down and Scotty used some type of silicone on the base. I've found that a few tight turns of electrical tape does a nice job of holding a loose base on while testing a CRT.

[Kevin Kuehn]

Originally Posted by marty59

It had been referred to me by a through a radio/ham guy to use some Elmers white glue. Although you need to allow time to let it set up, I've been suprized by the results. No kidding!

That makes sense. That glue actually softens up when it's heated. You would want to be careful not to pull the socket off when the tube is hot.

[miniman82]

Sensor safe, that's the stuff I was thinking about. I've seen regular silicone eat through traces on PCB's, that was enough to make me look for an alternative.

[kvflyer]

There has been countless discussions of this topic on the Antique Radio Forum. The one thing that I came away with was that unfortunately Super Glue has a different temperature coefficient and has been known to actually crack the glass envelope of a tube and even pull a piece out of it. So, it is frowned upon.

With signal tubes, Elmer's Glue was mentioned many times. But tubes that get very hot, like power pentodes, rectifiers etc. may find it to be improper.

Several have suggested using sensor safe silicon sealant. No real negative advice against it.

As Bob has mentioned, a good wrap of black electrical tape will secure the base whilst you are testing the tube. You certainly don't want to flex the base and break off the wires at the glass seal!

[oldtvman]

BTW The clear finger nail polish worked great on the crt base