Questions About the 21AXP22 Color CRT
 

I'm the new owner of a CTC-5 that still has a working 21AXP22. I need to transport the TV about 30 miles. One leg of the cabinet is cracked such that it would be unsafe to transport with full weight, so I plan to remove the chassis, tuner and deflection coils to reduce the weight before transport.

My question is:
Should I also risk removing the CRT and packing it separately, or is it less risky for the metal-to-glass vacuum seal to leave the CRT in the cabinet?

Considerations:
The metal CRT only weighs about 28 pounds. The cabinet weighs far more, so the weight savings by removing the CRT might not be that significant. Plus, keeping the CRT in the cabinet would allow it to remain horizontal, which might guard against cathode material falling into the shadow mask.

On the other hand, the leg repair may require turning the cabinet on its side or even upside down, which would place the CRT's metal-to-glass bond in an unusual attitude. In the process of fixing the cabinet, the CRT might be jarred more than if gently transferred into a padded carton first.

Just how fragile is the metal-to-glass bond in these tubes? Are they as bad as the 15GP22? Is a working 21AXP22 a "don't touch and pray constantly" zone?

When I got my 21CT55 the and the seller who was transporting it to the ETF in Ohio from Texas asked me how I thought it should be packed I asked them to pull the chassis, knobs and pencil box out of the cabinet and transport the cabinet face down on blankets...on the trip home I did the same and had styrofoam sheet insulation between the blanket and floor of my truck. The 21AXP is still putting out a good picture today.

I've had a number of NOS CRTs, better than half were color, in original packaging in my hands and all of them were specifically designed to transport the tube face down on styrofoam padding so to me that is the most correct way to store and transport them.

I have also safely transported 2 more AXPs in cabinet upright and one on its side (I thought that tube was dead, but after I got home I found it just had bad heater pin solder and was easy to fix).

I've also transported 3 loose ones face down without incident.

All the gassy ones I've had/seen (and I have seen a few) were DOA from previous owners. And most were kept in humid non-climate-controlled spaces for years.

I worry about the face seal, but I worry as much about the brass evacuation nipple on the neck of most 21AXP22s.... Every gassy AXP I've seen had the brass nipple....The only all glass envelope 21FBP22 I've seen gassy (there have been 2 so far ) also had the brass nipple...I believe those brass nipples are less reliable than glass evacuation stems.

If you are gentle with it it should arrive as good as it left.

If the set has raster your fine, but if not beware....A gassy tube can test strong on a CRT tester (but have weird cutoff behavior and sometimes visible purple neck glow of death) and yet be unusable in a working set.

The bad one I had had gone to air and then wouldn't keep vacuum after Scotty's attempt to rebuild and seal it. I volunteered it for a dry run of the leak tester that was first demo'd at ETF some years back, and it turned out the leak was at a very small ding on the edge of the metal-metal face seal, not at a metal-glass seal.

That leads me to think that it is best not to risk damage removing and replacing the tube if it is securely mounted in the cabinet.

Also ditto regarding every CRT package I have seen ships it face down.

Another note: I believe the 21AXP22 used a different glass formulation than the 15G, hopefully less likely to leak at the metal/glass junctions.

Just a silly sounding caution, but if you do ship it in the cabinet (which I would), don't get so cautious about the face that you forget that the neck sticks out of the back. I once sold a set to someone, and after cash changed hands, he and his buddy picked it up and promptly necked it while carrying it through the front door.

THANKS for the terrific info! Nothing is as reliable as actual experience. Would love to read more knowledge, stories and advice about how to handle these metal tubes and sets of this vintage. If you have any, please post it here. And special thanks right away to Electronic M and Old TV Nut. Wow. THANK YOU!

I wouldn't pull the tube or chassis or do any of that work.

Lay down some foam rubber in your vehicle and haul the set face down.

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Or face down on folded mover's blankets. Been there done that 10,000 times (more or less:D) with no issues.

Thanks! I will follow your advice. My cabinet has solid doors, so that will make it even easier. I'll remove the pulls from the doors, wrap the cabinet in plastic to keep the doors tightly closed, then gently transport the cabinet face down on blankets and Styrofoam padding. Should work out great. Many thanks for the advice.

Does anyone know where I might be able to get some big sheets of foam rubber inexpensively?

What I've saved are the foam cushions from chairs and sofas left on the curb. Free! And they can be used to pack along the sides if needed.

Otherwise you can always grab a cheap twin-size memory foam mattress cover. They tend to go on sale very cheap, and you can then roll it up to save space when you are through using it.

https://www.amazon.com/Spring-Soluti...garden&sr=1-32

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4x8 styrofoam sheets are under $10 at Menards so that is usually where mine come from.

So in theory, if you were to patch the ding, say with nickel plating, the tube should be able to hold a vacuum -provided it survived another rebuild attempt?

I hate the rigidity of Styrofoam, and much prefer the foam rubber. Styrofoam is always a mess to deal with, cut, store, etc. And the foam gives a lot of shock prevention and also keeps items from sliding around.

No Styrofoam sheets or peanuts for me.

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Don't know if nickel plating would do it, but yes.
I wonder if welding around the ding would work.

I bought some very expensive vacuum sealant that was supposedly rated to withstand the oven temperatures. Scotty put it around the metal-glass seals (where he thought the problem would be), but of course we learned much later that wasn't it.