I think in this case I would try the heat gun first, being careful as always. Has anyone besides me tried the water method? I didn't have any luck with it on the RCA type material. I have this same basic set (CTC-12, same cabinet style) in an RCA and the cataracts were identical to this.

I pulled an Admiral just like that one out of a storage barn in western Michigan last month. Sadly, The previous owner drilled holes in the front plate because he planned to install the UHF chassis and needed holes for the knob layout. What some people do to these tv's!!!! Of course he never got around to switching the chassis and promptly lost all the original knobs. The set has a replacement CRT 19FAVb??? or something like that, 1970's perhaps?
Jim

i did the water method several times. it took a couple weeks on a rca tube once. also did a hammer and chisel on a ctc7 back in the early 80s.safety glass was already damaged (cracked) and we just took turns whackin away-i think about some of the risks i ve taken! that set had the finest picture for a roundie. havent seen anything as good as that since. gave it to my best friend who didn t even have tv. he put it in his kitchen (he spent alot of time there-500+ lbs) lost track of it since then. he probably ate it.

Probably would want to do the water trick out of the weather in some parts of the country this time of year. If done outside, the water may turn to ice and a broken CRT could be the result.

I'm still looking for a roundie. Its been almost a year, and so far, I've found nothing in the cleveland area. It seems as if Ohio is devoid of these sets.