Featured
Latest
Need a new CRT? Oh ...
 
Share:
Notifications
Clear all

Forum 141

B&W TV Need a new CRT? Oh to be back in '63!

7 Posts
6 Users
6 Likes
918 Views
irob2345
(@irob2345)
Posts: 546
Honorable Member Registered
Topic starter
 

I found this in the February 1963 issue of Radio Television and Hobbies.

Sure Brite Feb 1963

I used to buy tubes from this company (they had moved by then) to fix up old TVs and sell them, while I was at school. Bought my first car (a Thames 100E van) this way. What a piece of junk that was!

I wonder what happened to the plant and equipment from this and many other similar operations? Now that we NEED it!!

Maybe the clue is here - same company, December that year. The price has dropped!

Sure Brite Dec 1963

 

 
Posted : 09/09/2021 8:03 am
malcscott
(@malcscott)
Posts: 1566
Prominent Member Registered
 

I remember getting re-gun tubes from Dunelm Tubes at Billy Row, near Crook 2 miles from me. £5 for mono, only £3 if no g/tee. A56-120X £25. £15 with no g/tee or slight seconds. I fitted a A63-120X in my early Rediffusion RT514/25 (BRC 3000) in 1979 and it still produces a good pic today, Malc.

 
Posted : 09/09/2021 9:26 am
sideband
(@sideband)
Posts: 4214
Famed Member Moderator
 

We used to use Suffolk Tubes in Purley Way Croydon. You could whip a tube out of a set and run it down to them. If they had the same or equivalent in stock, you came out moments later with a guaranteed regun. If they didn't have it in stock, you could go back in a couple of days and collect the one you took in, regunned, guaranteed and looking like new. Those were the days! They could sort out screen burns as well.

 
Posted : 09/09/2021 1:18 pm
ntscuser
(@ntscuser)
Posts: 866
Honorable Member Registered
 
Posted by: @irob2345

I found this in the February 1963 issue of Radio Television and Hobbies.

Sure Brite Feb 1963

 

Eight Australian Pounds = Six British Pounds and eight shillings.

(16 UK shillings to the Australian Pound)

Classic TV Theme Tunes

 
Posted : 09/09/2021 5:22 pm
Cathovisor
(@cathovisor)
Posts: 6390
Famed Member Registered
 
Posted by: @sideband

We used to use Suffolk Tubes in Purley Way Croydon.

That'd put it right on Philips's doorstep, wouldn't it?

 
Posted : 09/09/2021 8:16 pm
sideband
(@sideband)
Posts: 4214
Famed Member Moderator
 

Yes it would but Philips didn't use Suffolk! That was when I was at my first job in Thornton Heath just up the road from Philips. One of my jobs was to drive the Morris Minor van down to Suffolk, unload half a dozen tubes at Suffolk and go back a couple of days later and collect them. Did a lot of business with them between 1970 and 1973.

 

Philips only used reguns for colour TV's as a cheaper option for the customer. I think they were Mullard Colourex rebuilt at Blackburn and shipped down to Croydon. 

 
Posted : 10/09/2021 6:59 pm
Sundog
(@sundog)
Posts: 173
Reputable Member Registered
 

I remember Suffolk tubes, they were better than some but worse than most - what a recommendation!

In 1969 - I remember the date because the moon landings happened at the time, I was working evenings and some weekends for extra cash in a seriously crappy TV shop that rented second hand TVs. The only thing remarkable about the shop was that there was CRT re-gunning happening in the basement by a quite skilled engineer on an as-needed basis.

It was really quite interesting. From my memory this is what happened:

The CRT would be mounted in a cradle and gas jets applied to the neck until the glass started to collapse around the gun. The glass would have also "gassed out" thus softening the vacuum. Then the neck could be cut off and a new piece of glass tubing would be welded on with the gas jets.

As the cradle was slowly rotated, the new gun assembly (bought from Mullard) would then be elevated up the glass tube to the correct point and the gas jets used to fuse the gun base to the tube; the excess tube falling away.

Next was pumping. The gun had a vacuum tube protruding from the base. This was connected to the pumping station. Pumping happened in 2 stages, soft and hard. The soft pump took the vacuum so far, then an oven was lowered over the CRT for the hard pump, presumably to de-gas the glass a bit and relieve stresses in the glass*.

Once pumping was finished, the gun's vacuum tube was briefly heated and fell away.

Next was getter firing. The getter in the Mullard guns of the time was placed against the side of the neck. A carefully wound inductor coil of hollow copper pipe was pressed against the neck, a button pushed, and a big flash happened, leaving a reflective coating inside the neck for oxygen absorption. The coil was fed by a high power RF generator with pretty big Valves showing through the caging. At the same time water was forced through the coil to cool it.

After this the CRT would be tested. Very often the picture centring would be close to the limit, but as long as the phosphor was good, the CRT would give good pictures and have a reasonable life.

*The engineer who worked on these was profoundly deaf. Nevertheless he could repair sound faults by feel, just needing to ask a hearing person whether distortion was present. One evening there was an enormous whomf and the floor seemed to lift. Moment later he arrived at the top of the stairs saying "did you hear anything?". A CRT had imploded in the oven but he had only felt the breeze.

These were mostly large and small neck monochrome CRTs. The next generation of direct view CRTs with rim band implosion protection created a big problem with baking.

John

 

 

 
Posted : 28/11/2021 7:50 pm
MurphyV310, Cathovisor, MurphyV310 and 3 people reacted
Share: