did my 1st cateract removal

[DaveWM]

this was a 25AXP22 out of an old RCA ctc 17. It had a very weak red gun, I had replaced it with another cat free some time ago for a buddy. Anyway the CRT has been aging outside for several month. It had a very bad moldy cat (big nodules growing around the edges). I checked it out and the time outside had def increased the cat so maybe in time it would come off.

I mounted it on a stand and had it outside in the hot FL sun, my guess was about 130-140 degrees after about 1 hr (its very sunny today and warm).

First I tried a variac and hot wire on a bow to try and slice it, no dice. it sorta worked but not very well and I ended up cranking up the voltage too high trying to make progress, the wire went slack and broke from the heat.

Next up I just tried putting pressure on the edges and in the sunlight I could see stress "fingers" forming in the plastic as the sun created shadows on the tube face. this was encourging but I could not see myself standing out in the hot sun trying to maintain the pressure.

I got some chop sticks out and wedged them in the edges just enough to maintain the pressure, I could see the fingers slowing growing across the tube face, so I tapped them in a bit more and then left it be. came back about 20min later and the fingers had progressed passed the 1/2 point. I removed them and inserted on the opposite side, this time the progression was much larger and faster. In about 1-2 min the lens just popped loose.

it was really pretty anti climatic and a real confidence booster to see it happen.

I did have on a face shield the whole time, and the CRT mount was very secure. I will be trying this on a roundie soon, wish me luck!!