Taking the "heat" off printed circuits

[Charlie]

We've all had those tubes we try to pull out and end up taking out half of a circuit board with it. As soon as it happens, you just want to hollar "F*** it!" and chunk it out to the curb. Other times you end up with a tube socket that makes a bad connection, and you're afraid to try changing the socket because the board looks too brittle. Usually it is only the really hot ones that give this nightmare. CTC-15's use 6AQ5's for sound as do many other chassis. My Curtis Mathes is basically a CTC15, and the sound tube socket makes a poor connection. Luckily, I have the option of listening to the sound thru the stereo system, so I have removed the 6AQ5 altogether. I've noticed that this CTC9 uses two 6AQ5's, and the Predicta Princess uses the 6BQ5 for sound (and mine has a bad connection there as well).

At least RCA got wise with the CTC16 and placed the 6AQ5 on the metal part of the chassis.

Has anyone here ever thought up a way to try preventing this from happening? I was thinking about attempting to make a socket to place in the exhisting TV socket, and then place the tube on top of both. This would raise the tube about an inch higher away from the circuit board. Of course, most of the heat is going up anyway, but evidently the some of that heat is reaching the board below it.

Comments? Ideas anyone? Gimme your thoughts!