CRT rebuilding shown on The Science Channel

[Chad Hauris]

I just watched a show called "How it's made" and it showed the CRT rebuilding process. The CRT they focused on appeared to be a 70 degree deflection angle 17" or so rectangular monochrome green screen. Not sure what this would be used in! They show a CRT heating cabinet full of different types of specialty CRT's.

The show will be repeated tonight at 11:00 PM central time and repeated at 9:00 CT tomorrow morning on "The Science Channel".

[Chad Hauris]

Here are some photos of the CRT heating cabinet and the long CRT's.

[kx250rider]

I bet those are airport/bowling alley monitor tubes. They still have plenty of those, even at LAX.

Charles

[ChrisW6ATV]

Charles, you are right about rebuilt CRTs being installed in airport monitors; my company used to do that all the time in the 80's and maybe early 90's. (I have replaced CRTs in LAX!) Those CRTs look very unusual, though, not like any I have replaced in information-display monitors. If that show is displaying a current operation somewhere, I wonder if it could be radar tubes or something similar. Airport displays have always used regular P4 wide-deflection CRTs, and color CRTs similar to consumer TV ones more recently.

[Chad Hauris]

I think this is probably from fairly recently...they also showed CRT guns being assembled (by hand) so maybe this is an OEM manufacturer as opposed to being strictly a rebuilder. Everything appeared to be hand-made though, nothing looked mass-produced. The CRT's must be for some kind of almost irreplaceable application...hopefully the company is still in business because it showed a lot of labor going into making/rebuilding the CRT's which I'm sure is expensive.

They showed some CRT's in that cabinet which appear to have about a 16" long neck and a 7" rectangular screen. Flying spot scanner maybe? Any ideas on what these would be used in? Also looks like maybe some round CRT's at the upper right in the shot of the cabinet full of CRT's.

[orthophonic]

The flying spot scanners used in the Rank cintel are about
7inches and have about a 16" neck, could be what they were.
The Rank Cintel is a telecine, almost all feature films for
home video and broadcast are transferred to digital tape
with these as well as any tv show originating in film.
The replacement spot scanner tubes cost from $12,000 up
to $20,000 dpending on the grade, and ony last about 2,000 hours before quality deteriorates.

[zenith2134]

Damnn, that much huh? Amazing really.

Caught this episode this morning at 10:00 AM EST. Wished they showed more pictures of it in operation; the building process for a CRT is fascinating.

[dr.ido]

Does anyone know what season/episode this segment was in? or what other items were featured?

I'm trying to find it online, but so far none of the epsiode lists mention anything about crts.

[zenith2134]

It was the episode with wooden barrels, Car seats and fire hydrants

[Carmine]

I don't know if this is a "rule", but many of the How-Its-Made episodes that I have seen are showing factories in Canada.

[jhal]

Originally Posted by Carmine

I don't know if this is a "rule", but many of the How-Its-Made episodes that I have seen are showing factories in Canada.

...and several U.S. companies as well. I think the show is produced in Canada, so it only makes sense to find places close. I am glad they have come out with new episodes.

[dr.ido]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

It was the episode with wooden barrels, Car seats and fire hydrants

It's season 10 episode 6, but unfortunately nothing newer than season 8 seems to available anywhere.

[old_tv_nut]

I happened to record it from the satellite, and the tiny credits at the end lead to:
http://www.lexelimaging.com/