Things to save from a CRT TV being scrapped

Have a big CRT TV sitting in a corner. Before I tear it apart and steal the magnet wire has anyone ever found a use for any of the components inside it?

You could remove the LOPT to use in a Jacob's ladder project.....

The scan coils will provide a small amount of enamelled cu wire...

The loudspeaker(s) may be useful?

I assume you take care when poking inside, the vacuum might cause an implosion if the CRT tube breaks. In addition to the magnet wire I guess there are speakers inside and may be transformers.

Thor

My father always used to warn against CRT's imploding a while ago I disposed of one in a skip and decided to see how easy it was to break it

It took serious effort with a large stone thrown with much force 5 times as I remember

Safety procedures were taken I hasten to add

Something like this Ian?

Probably worth extracting all those old tv programmes before you scrap it. Well on second thoughts probably not because they have still playing been playing them recently

thor

that tube didn't have any intergral implosion protection !

it reminds me of the tubes from the 1960's tv's

they needed a laminated glass to protect the tube face

tubes with intergral implosion protection have a very thick molded face

with a metal rim band keeping the edge under tension

in colour tubes the leaded glass keeps of the X-rays produced to safe levels

with an EHT of 24KV , the electons have enough energy to cause the shadow mask

(just behind the phosphor screen) to emit X-rays

john

Thor the screen that I eventually smashed had glass on the front that was 12mm thick it was a flat screen though I just thought that all CRT were like that that's why they were so heavy

I have just emptied and vacated a workshop. Those are the wisest words I have seen this year.

Pete

Back in the 70s my dad regularly had to dispose of CRTs. the basic technique involved having the CRT face down and dropping a brick on the 'neck' (not the front) from about 10 feet up a set of steps so he could easily step back out of the way.

Another way was to cover with a heavy 'blanket' (I recall it was some sort of mix of coarse coconut or hair and leather) and tap the bit where the wires went in with an 'ammer.

The principle was to try and break the fragile bit without the heavy glass shattering.

N.

As a child I saw a TV fall from the back of a Radio Rentals van doing about 25 mph along the High Street, I was amazed that it didn't break the screen, just scratch it, especially after all of my Dad's warnings about never playing in the front room because the television was so fragile.

Brian

The safe way is to cover it securely and nip off the end of the nipple where it was originaly sealed. If not unlucky, the tube will fill with air withno more than a bit of a hiss. Still need your ppe, mind. Just in case.....

Many moons ago I worked for a company that sold handling devices, we had to make a gripper to handle tv tubes, the customer said the screens had been discharged and we had had them for weeks, when I moved one I touched the earth point on the back and got a nasty belt so be careful when handling them.

Martin P

I don't think there is anything of value in a CRT.

As already mentioned early TVs had a nice sheet of plate glass in front of the screen which was worth keeping. As for the CRT we used to smash them at school, with teacher instructing us (6th form), by standing the CRT face down in an open box and knocking off the plug end of the gun with a weight, about 100g, suspended from the ceiling. Standing with the door of the room containing the CRT almost closed, you released the weight and quickly closed the door. It always worked.

JA

ISTR from my childhood that those old TVs had a big transformer inside with a big fat wire going to the tube. If you took the metal cover off the transformer and fired it up, then held a screwdriver about six inches away from it, a great fat spark would arc across the gap - all with no ill effects to the boy scientists involved. How we got away with this stuff I still don't know. But lots of fun was had. Those were the days when you could buy bottles of concentrated sulphuric acid at the chemist shop and they were happy to dispense it to a 10 or 11 year old boy, along with potassium nitrate, sulphur etc used to make experimental gunpowder and smoke bombs.

Hi

Some years ago I was training for several weeks in The Sony Trinitron plant in San Diego Ca

"not done it yet 07/09/2016 21:05:44" --has it correct.

Just break the vacuum seal port in the middle of the tube electrical connector. This was often done in the factory when the CRT gun was to be replaced due to a manufacturing defect.

Tellys seemed to come in two types when we smashed 'em to bits

Some imploded as soon as the first brick hit them while others needed some serious effort to make them blow up

Calor gas canisters were much more fun

Edited By Ady1 on 08/09/2016 01:50:03

Yes John,

The video shows how not to do it! And it gives some idea of what might happen if you don't do it correctly. Neil and others have described a much better/safer procedure, and that's how it was done way back.

Thor

It's 4 decades at least since I took a TV set apart, but the only things I ever found of any use were the focusing ring magnets and the deflection coild. The first were great for playing with and would probably find uses in the workshop. The deflection coild were an unreliable source of copper wire since they were potted with lacquer that made it hard to unwind them. All the rest except for the sheet of perspex in front of the tube was junk. Whether newer colour TVs used perm magnets I have no idea and the deflection coild are probably properly potted.