CRT rebuilders

[charokeeroad]

If this company is still in business they might be a source for rebuilt tubes.
Right here in the US.

http://www.wmicronics.com/pictubesol.htm

[DaveWM]

this company has been hashed over before, turned out to be a dead end.

[dieseljeep]

I wonder what happened to all those firms that rebuilt CRT's? There must've been hundreds of them throughout the U.S. All of the equipment couldn't have been scrapped? How about Mexico, Canada? Something has to be done, and soon!

[bgadow]

For most of them I suspect it stopped being profitable sometime in the 80s. The small operators would have to compete with the OEM and big rebuilders like Channel Master, and as sets became disposable there were less and less people willing to have tubes rebuilt. There were several companies selling complete rebuild setups back in the 60s/70s, catering to TV repair shops, but I've browsed through the classifieds in electronics magazines from the later 70s and there were a lot of them for sale. I suspect a lot of those small operators never broke even, some may have never succesfully rebuilt a crt. Now, how would a rebuilder survive until 2012? The only real customer seems to be the government and maybe some industrial users. Let's say you are a one man operation, like Hawkeye was. If you wanted to make even a modest living (say, $30k/year) look at how many tubes you would have to rebuild. There is no way hobbyists could sustain you.

Video Display Corp is still rebuilding, correct? But they say they won't do vintage tubes. I wonder how much money it would take to change their minds? Looking at the kind of money being spent to rebuild 15GP22's, I wonder if that wouldn't change somebodies mind?

[Einar72]

I spoke with an elderly TV repairman the other day. He had once rebuilt tubes, and in 1988 or 89, I spoke with him about rebuilding a 2EP4 with an open filament. He wasn't rebuilding then, but said he was considering starting up again. As of 2004, he paid $ 7,000 to dispose of the rebuilding equipment. He said the guns were expensive, and generally wasn't worth the hassle. Wish I'd spoken with him sooner!

[John Marinello]

Clinton Electronics used to rebuild CRTs, but the cost was $350. That included new phosphor, aluminizing, the works. I was discussing the possibility of rebuilding & aluminizing a metal 16GP4 with one of their "seasoned" guys, and he said he would give it his best shot. He said it would have been a very difficult process, because the phosphor gets coated with laquer before it gets aluminized, to protect it. The laquer is normally removed during final evacuation, but is more difficult on metal tubes, due to the sharper corners. Also, metal tubes have a higher risk of imploding during final evacuation. The cost would have been the same, and if the rebuild wasn't successful, there would be no charge. How about that?? I was ready to do it, because aluminized 16GP4s don't exist, and this was when NOS 16GP4s were still bringing north of $300 on f-bay. This was right when they got bought out, and the new owners said "hell no" to metal CRTs.
They also bumped the price to $750++ for glass CRTs. Oh, well...

http://www.clinton-vdc.com/history.shtml

.

[dieseljeep]

I have never seen any metal CRT that was aluminized. I think if it was easy to do, RCA would have done it. Most of the metal CRT's were RCA sourced. They still made new metal CRT's well into the sixties.

[John Marinello]

Tung-sol has a spec for a 19AP4C, aluminized:

http://tubedata.tubes.se/sheets/127/1/19AP4.pdf

Never seen one. I had an NOS RCA 19AP4B, in a "silverama" box, but was not
aluminized.

[Einar72]

It wants to come home...

eBay #110829638512

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by Einar72

It wants to come home...

eBay #110829638512

If that machine could only talk...

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by kvflyer

If that machine could only talk...

It would speak Chinese, check the location!

[charokeeroad]

Originally Posted by DaveWM

this company has been hashed over before, turned out to be a dead end.

Just on the odd chance that things might have improved since the last time they were contacted I emailed them and asked if the would rebuild CRTs for hobbiests. They responded by saying they did. I asked if they could rebuild an 8" and they said they could. I'm just waiting for confirmation and pricing.

My hopes are not that high but it's worth a try.

[jr_tech]

Have you read some of these old threads?

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread...ight=micronics

good luck.
jr

[Kevin Kuehn]

Considering they have the color roundys listed under black and white types, they're obviously not too on top of the game. I'd be very leery until they provide references from customers they've rebuilt vintage tubes for. Odd that no one here on VK has had them do work. I'd proceed with extreme caution.

[Einar72]

I can't get 'em to answer the phone...