summary of known CRT cataracts, removal technique, and a new observation.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by trinescope

I've only dealt with two CRTs so far; a Zenith 25GP22 and the weird wide CRT in a Datapoint 2200. The Zenith was the typical green halo and was the first one I did. I tried a heated copper wire but had little luck with it so I went out and got a heat gun. With the CRT wrapped in a heavy blanket I heated the faceplate as evenly as I could until small "fingers" appeared near the edges. Then I gently pried away the safety glass while still waving the heat gun around the faceplate. The PVA material was pretty easy to remove at that point. The Datapoint CRT was more like the RCA type cataract, but being a pretty small tube the heat gun worked here as well. Guess I was lucky both times since nothing went wrong.

At the time I thought about using a Nichrome wire, but didn't know where to find some.

I've tried heating wire...it always softened the wire to the point it would snap far too easily to work. I quickly learned that all Zenith style cataracts will cut with a UNheated steel wire and some elbow grease...the CRT doesn't even need to be warm. I successfully did a Zenith type cataract removal with cold wire on a 45degree fall evening.