Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob
I do not feel comfortable handling large 70 degree CRT's like these either. The imploding glass can do a lot of damage to the person carrying the tube if it goes thump. You really should wear eye protection or better a full face shield, a leather welder's apron or coat and gauntlet gloves IMO.
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The 70-degree color tubes are among the most sturdy and least likely to implode of the large tubes, based on my observations. Still, great care must be exercised in handling them, just as with any large CRT. My main source of concern when handling such tubes is adequate attention to preventing neck breakage. I typically cushion surfaces such as floors and workbenches and move tubes around as little as possible when cleaning or otherwise servicing them in order to further minimize any risk of damage which might exist. In more than 30 years since servicing my first "roundie" color set, I have yet to hear of a single case of implosion of any all-glass 70-degree color tube, although I have seen several dead "roundie" tubes which had died of broken necks over the years. Most of those were the result of collision of the back of the set with a nearby wall or other piece of furniture. Every "air dud" roundie tube I've encountered had suffered its fatal blow during some sort of household accident while still housed in its cabinet. The one exception to that was the one my father deliberately "necked" to halt my efforts to repair the set when he considered me too young (I was about 12 then) to be capable of repairing the set and accomplishing the task safely. What he didn't realize was that I had already fixed the set and was about to make the temporary "clipped in" fix a professional-looking permanent repair and complete the final "setup" procedures like grayscale and convergence when I discovered the snapped neck. From then on, he became 100% supportive of my efforts to repair subsequent sets. Word-of-mouth advertising of my skills and some printed flyers my parents helped produce helped to recover several times the cost of the damaged tube. Between repairing his co-workers' sets and repairing sets for tenants at the family's rental properties, I eventually reached a point of earning more in 10 hours' work per week than other kids at school were making with 20-hour work weeks flipping burgers.
Some extreme case such as a tube being dropped and the faceplate or rim striking a hard surface such as a concrete floor would obviously result in an implosion, but proper care in handling the tube is typically adequate to prevent such extreme accidents. Certainly, adequate protective clothing should be worn "just in case" of a disaster, even though such disasters are unlikely.
"Fear" of handling such tubes can actually be almost as harmful as careless handling, since one's coordination and judgement may be significantly impaired by fear. A healthy respect for the hazards inherent in handling a large tube is essential, but attempting to service such a tube while under the influence of fear can be as dangerous as attempting to do so while under the influence of alcohol, fatigue, certain medications, or other substances.