15GP22 needs a ride Indy to Windy City - Videokarma.org TV - Video

ohohyodafarted · #1 07-07-2008, 06:26 PM

Hi Gang,

I am looking for anyone who would be able to transport a 15gp22 crt from Noblesville Indiana (near Indianapolis) to Gary or Chicago where I would meet you. This tube is far to fragile and valuable to trust to a shipping company. I am in Milwaukee, but I figure someone probably will be traveling this route in the not to distant future. If you could help me out it would be greatly appreciated.

I am working with John Folsom on the 15gp22 rebuilding project and this tube is going to be part of our experimental trials. If all goes well we may be able to rebuild others who need this tube.

I am in the process of working out the details of removing old cathodes from 15gp22 guns in preperation for rebuilding the guns. I am also trying to develop a method of qualifying bulbs that lost vacuum to see if they can be resealed.

Any help you can give to transport this tube will be most appreciated. Talk to your relatives and friends to see if anyone you know is making the trip from Indy to Chi-town.

Thanks
Bob

kbmuri · #2 07-07-2008, 10:34 PM

If all 3 guns would restore with a Beltron, would you still cut it open?

ohohyodafarted · #3 07-08-2008, 08:49 AM

Probably not, if the tube has usable life in it. But from what I understand, this tube is rather dead. Won't know until I get it and see what condition the guns are in.

The cost of rebuilding one of these tubes is going to be VERY expensive. It would not make sense to spend the money on a tube that is fuctioning properly unless you wanted to use it as a daily watcher, and the tube had a poor life test, and you expected to put a lot of hours on the tube watching it.

Do you know anyone who can help with the transport??

kbmuri · #4 07-08-2008, 11:39 AM

The guy's description was a bit confusing. He claimed to see a faint blue raster, then said the blue filament was "out". Because the blue was dim. He never said anything about red. I gathered that it has good vacuum, good green raster, weak blue raster, and unknown red raster. One would think it would clean right up with a Beltron and have a year's life of normal use (or forever in a rarely-on museum set). That's the only reason I asked. Seems it would be a real shame to cut it up if the red filament is still there.

I'm sort of between it and you, but not really. I'm 2-1/2 hours from Indy, it's 4 hours from Indy to Chicago, then 3 hours back to Fort Wayne. That's in a speedy red Corvette. It would be ten hours on the road, and I'm still job-stressed into a 6-day workweek right now.

Edison64 is directly en route over in LaPorte. He hasn't chimed in, but maybe you have a bribe that would get his attention? A fresh LP4 for his new porthole?

I would be inclined to talk to your nearest flying school/club. Lots of pilots need to get "hours" to stay current, and offer rides, lessons, etc pretty cheap. A quick jaunt from Milwaukee to Indy in a Piper 6-seater would probably be the least-stress route all around. Could probably get it done for less than the cost of road gas, in 1/5th the time.

old_tv_nut · #5 07-08-2008, 10:32 PM

I'll ask around work if anyone is driving to Columbus soon (which we sometimes do)- it would take them through Indy both ways.

ohohyodafarted · #6 07-09-2008, 08:31 AM

That would be great. I will keep my fingers crossed.

old_tv_nut · #7 07-09-2008, 08:32 AM

Well, no trips planned soon, sorry to say. Hope someone can help.

old_tv_nut · #8 08-18-2008, 09:59 AM

Any updates on the rebuild experiments?

I still have the CTC-5 with the aired 21AXP22A, and although I said I would get rid of it after 1 year with no replacement tube, I can't quite bring myself to do it.

SO... hope springs eternal that a way could be found to rebuild it also.

John Folsom · #9 08-18-2008, 10:17 AM

Wayne, Hawkeye CAN reebuild your 21AXP22 CRT, no problem. But it is not cheap!

old_tv_nut · #10 08-18-2008, 10:50 AM

I thought there was no way to be sure the faceplate seal is good, so it was only worth trying on a tube that's still under vacuum. Is that not true?

John Folsom · #11 08-18-2008, 11:42 AM

Wayne, you are correct, a tube that is not under vacuum may not be rebuildable. We put VACSEAL on the 15GP22 when we attempted the rebuild at Hawkeye. While the tube was not a leaker, we wanted to see how the VACSEAL cured in the oven. It cured nicely. If you were a gambling man (with money to risk), you could have Scotty run your leaker 21AXP22 with vacseal applied. But it the VACSEAL might not work.

old_tv_nut · #12 08-18-2008, 12:36 PM

Tell me how to contact Scotty (if he's not reading this)

John Folsom · #13 08-18-2008, 02:22 PM

Hawk-Eye Picture Tube Mfg., Inc.
724 Scott Avenue, Des Moines, IA. 50309-5052
Phone 1 (800) 238-3376 or 515/288-8567
scotty1@hawkeyepicturetube.com

old_tv_nut · #14 08-18-2008, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Folsom

Hawk-Eye Picture Tube Mfg., Inc.
724 Scott Avenue, Des Moines, IA. 50309-5052
Phone 1 (800) 238-3376 or 515/288-8567
scotty1@hawkeyepicturetube.com

I sent an email

ohohyodafarted · #15 08-19-2008, 12:53 AM

I'm still here KB.

During the summer time I spend as much vacation time as I can scrape together at our cottage in the last vestiges of the wilderness in the great northwoods of Wisconsin. Last week we heard wolves howling at the full moon at 2AM. That was a first for me.

I am going to test the 15gp22 I bought (the one under vacuum) tomorrow if time permits.

The 15g project is moving along. John Folsom and I have funded and ordered a new batch of stems to mount rebuilt 15G gun assemblies to.

I have perfected a method of removing the base sockets from the 15g without damaging the socket so that it can be reused on the rebuilt crt.

I have machined the tooling to EDM the old cathodes out of the 15g gun assembly using the EDM machine where I work. So now we can reliably remove the cathode assemblies from the 15g guns in preparation for sending the guns off to be rebuilt.

I have also been working (without much success) trying to develop a method to test the leaker 15g envelopes in an attempt to see if they can be sealed successfully with Vacseal compound. Early attempts have been a total failure using a laboratory grade vacuum pump and electronic vacuum meter I purchased for about $250.

I sopke to the former head of Rauland Picture Tube, and he told me that I needed to obtain a Helium leak dector if I wanted to test the envelopes for leaks. So it looks like we will have to obtain a Helium leak detector, which is a very expensive piece of scientific laboratory equipment. We need to pre-qualify leaker envelopes to make sure that they will hold a vacuum after we rebuild them. Because if they leak after they are rebuilt, we have wasted a lot of time, effort and BIG money if the rebuilt tubes fail to hold vacuum. So we need to be sure the envelopes are going to hold a vacuum before we attempt a rebuild. The envelopes have to be pumped down to a maximum of 10 to the minus 6 MM of Hg, and bathed in a shower of Helium while connected to the Helium leak detector. If there is a leak, the Helium atoms (because they are the second smallest atom known) will be sucked through the leak into the envelope of the crt and the Helium leak detector will be able to count the number of Helium atoms it finds in the vacuum stream flowing out of the crt. Essentially we are talking about a Helium mass spectrometer.

One of these units goes for about $25K to $30K new. I have located one in California that appears to be in relatively good condition, and at a reasonable price, but it still aint cheap.

Anyone have a couple thousand extra dollars they want to donate to the project to buy a Helium Leak Dector ???

That's all for now,
Bob