There is a thread over on the BVWS forum about a few guys that went to visit RACS in France. They are there now, and mentioned that RACS may be closing for good this summer if they don't get enough crt's to rebuild. It's an expensive service, but as the last rebuilder in the world, if you have a valuable crt that needs to be rebuilt, now is the time.

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?p=500718#post500718

Darryl

I guess if RACS closes the next option will be to find sone way to have it done in China. Is there any place in the world that still uses the crt as a mainstream technology?

Or get the ETF rebuilding equipment up and running.

Is there any place in the world that still uses the crt as a mainstream technology?

Used to have CRT displays in the aircraft at my last squadron, but even those are being retrofitted with color LCD's.

A company called Q4 Services can supply aircraft simulator projector CRTs. I spoke with them at a trade show a few years ago and I believe they have the ability to rebuild the projection CRTs. I have no idea if they have any capability for television CRTs. As you would expect, the prices are high for the very limited numbers of simulator CRT that are made and still in service. Here is a link that may be of interest:

http://www.q4services.com/productsfull.php

It is not good if RACS closes as there is presently not any other known active rebuilder of CRTs for vintage TV sets left. This should be the warning bell for the ETF to expidite their efforts to start a rebuilding service/business.

RACS is also the only place that can do Pyrex crt's and 15GP22's. Realistically the ETF rebuild effort will never be able to do these, nor will anyone else in the world most likely. This is definitely a wake up call to all the pre-war and special crt owners.

Darryl

From the point of view of an extreme newcomer to this world, it seems logical that this service would not be profitable and therefore no longer available. I have seen threads of those commenting about people selling a vintage set for a hundred dollars and exclaim that the price is outrageous. How can we possibly expect there to be some one to provide such a highly specialized service to such a minuscule amount of people for prices that those few are willing to pay? Even taking into account the MUCH, MUCH smaller amount of people who both own rare and/or pre-war CRTs in need of rebuilding and the ability to spend a higher price to have those rebuilt, how many of those rebuilds would one need to perform in a year to make a living? It seems that the future of CRT rebuilding will be the hands of those who possess a passion for keeping them alive, and the means to make that passion a reality.

From the point of view of an extreme newcomer to this world, it seems logical that this service would not be profitable and therefore no longer available. I have seen threads of those commenting about people selling a vintage set for a hundred dollars and exclaim that the price is outrageous. How can we possibly expect there to be some one to provide such a highly specialized service to such a minuscule amount of people for prices that those few are willing to pay? Even taking into account the MUCH, MUCH smaller amount of people who both own rare and/or pre-war CRTs in need of rebuilding and the ability to spend a higher price to have those rebuilt, how many of those rebuilds would one need to perform in a year to make a living? It seems that the future of CRT rebuilding will be the hands of those who possess a passion for keeping them alive, and the means to make that passion a reality.

I have to agree... there's about zero chance that the rebuilding of vintage CRT's will ever become a sustainable business opportunity. Not unless something drastic first happens to our current technology base. But then at that point I doubt there would be many vintage sets left to restore. IMO we could very well be the second to last generation that will casually watch these old tubes.

I have 2 pre-war sets with pyrex tubes. Both tubes are weak but give viewable pictures. I'm willing to pay for RACS to rebuild them but there's a snag. There's a finite chance of catastrophic failure when rebuilding one of these tubes which would leave me with a completely non-working set. If I had spare CRTs that were totally unusable I would have no hesitation in getting them done by RACS.

I'm in a similar situation Jeff. While I do have one tube that is completely dead and still under vacuum, I have one that has a loose cathode connection and one that is extremely weak. The loose cathode one is working right now after several hours of white knuckle tapping on the neck several years ago, but will it come loose again someday? With the few hours these sets are operated, these tubes may be good for many years to come, but I'm leaning towards taking the risk of loss during rebuild and shipping.

Darryl

Hello to all,

I just posted a lengthy report on a 2 day visit to RACS here:

http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?p=3025855#post3025855

As this thread was the original, heavier read vouch to come back to the original and close this one, as its really double posting in two different locations.

Just my suggestion ...

jhalphen
Paris/France

Jerome,

Thank you for the update it is much appreciated. This info changes the entire dynamic of the CRT rebuild discussion at the ETF. Lets hope we get some positive discussion going about this.

Matt