[Dave S]

I visited a CRT rebuilder called Superior Tube in Carteret, NJ about 10 or 12 years ago when I was first trying to get my 12AP4 rebuilt. I knew nothing at the time of the obstacles to having this done. But the guy there was in the business, and more than willing to take on the job, so off I went, with all the various pieces of my tube in hand.

However it seems that the "old guy" whom I never met had recently sold the business to his assistant (or was it his accountant?) and the "new guy" was either naively optimistic or perhaps just desperately trying to make ends meet.

What a strange place it was! I should have gone back and taken some pictures. The "inventory" of dud color tubes was kept mostly outside, face down on the front lawn. I guess that probably worked ok, but it reminded me of some kind of weird Halloween display.

Inside, it was dark and dirty. I remember thinking "how can they work on something as precise as the inside of a picture tube with all of this dirt around?". There were racks and racks full of duds inside, mostly color but also one whole section containing "antique" tubes. He assured me that he should be able to find a 12AP4 in inventory, but of course that wasn't to be. But he urged me to leave my tube with him, in fact he would begin the job NOW. He wanted to cut the neck off right away, that day (maybe to lock me in as a customer?) and then order a new gun assembly. Then a few days and a hundred and fifty bucks later, I'd be on my way with a good-as-new tube!

I looked at the wobbly, ancient lathe he was using to weld the new gun assemblies onto the tubes, and the sooty bunsen burner flame that was used to melt the glass. And the steel mesh safety cages surrounding the evacuation area, all of which were full of broken glass on the floor, several inches deep! And I started to think that maybe this wasn't such a good idea!

I didn't know at the time that there was no way he was going to be able to rebuild my tube (and obviously he didn't either), but I got the heebie-jeebies from the Frankenstein-esque atmosphere of the place. I've never been to any other picture tube rebuilding enterprise, but I really hope that's not how it's actually done! I've also been told that someone was selling some kit or franchise (or snake oil?) decades ago which would allow you to rebuild tubes in your garage. I don't know if that could have been true -- does anybody have any info on that?

So anyway I decided to wait a bit before I committed. I'm glad I did, 'cause when I went back a few months later, the shop was gone.

--Dave