Got a Beltron, looks like it restored my RCA B&W TV CRT

[wa2ise]

Just received the Beltron 8080A CRT restorer, and after figuring out which adapter the 21CEP4 required, (I didn't get the chart saying which adapter goes with witch CRT) hooked it up. The green meter didn't read any cathode current. Had to figure out if the Beltron was even working. Between the cathode and G1 was about 120VAC, and using a diode and a 100K resistor I could make the green meter show about 0.5ma. Okay, do position 1, jack up the heater voltage to 10V, I see about 0.05ma. On to the cleaning and short removal, but no shorts found. Now to restoration, Turn heater voltage to 10V, and in about 10 seconds the blue restore indicators start flashing. The instructions didn't say to expect this, at least I didn't see it. Pulled the adapter cable out of the socket after a few seconds before it might blow up the CRT... But I go back to position 1 to do a test, and the CRT now produces the 0.85ma. And connect the TV set CRT socket to the CRT, and the CRT looks normal now, and it looks steady for the last hour or so of TV watching. It's likely too early to do a just yet.

[tvtimeisfun]

Please post a picture of that rca tv and Beltron tester thanks... Timothy

[wa2ise]

Old picture, with brightener

As the TV is in my "shop", and not easily viewable as normal, here's a badly angled shot of the restored CRT.

[Mal Fuller]

I've had a Beltron like yours since the 1970s. I'm totally sold on it and learned how to "play it" like a fiddle over time. Tubes of different manufacture respond differently to different approaches with the Beltron. Tubes of Sylvania manufacture prefer a gentle cleaning, while RCA manufactured tubes like a balls to the wall restoration process best.
I was a Sony warranty station and the Beltron was referred to as "Lazarus" for its ability to raise the dead, in a Sony service bulletin.
Learning to quit while you're ahead is an important strategy in successful use of the Beltron.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Mal Fuller

I've had a Beltron like yours ... while RCA manufactured tubes like a balls to the wall restoration process best....
Learning to quit while you're ahead is an important strategy in successful use of the Beltron.

I didn't do another restore, after I tested and found that the CRT cathode looked to have waked up. So I did quit when I found myself ahead...

And the CRT has held up thru 3 episodes of I Love Lucy, an hour of some art show on PBS, and 2 episodes of the Lone Ranger and so far half an episode of Roy Rogers. On "COZI TV". So I think I can declare a

[marty59]

The Beltron can be rather crude in it's operation but it does do the job! I do like my Sencore for the clean function as it doesn't heat up the filament and is pretty gentle for that as well as the remove shorts function. But for rejuvinating I believe the Beltron has the edge.

However on really bad tubes the Sencore will respond through the motions and respond while the Beltron just sits there showing no action. Just like tube testers, I believe it's good to have more than one CRT tester/rejuvinator too.

[Zenith26kc20]

Been using a Beltron for years. With the exception of some Zenith "tri-focus" tubes, it's been a miracle worker.
I have to use a B&K 467 (I hope I remembered that # right) on the Zeniths.
Love the case Beltron put the innards in!

[old_coot88]

Back in the day when CRT 'restorers' first came on the market, a big deal was made of how "restoring" was fundamentally different than the older "rejuvenating" process. Rejuving or "shooting the tube" was brute force stripping of the cathode, while restoring was a more benign "boiling" of the cathode surface to bring up more of the underlying emissive material. The restore process had to be scrupulously time limited to prevent destroying the cathode.
I often wondered how much of a real difference existed between rejuving and restoring.

One thing we learned early on was to never rejuv or restore a CRT in the customer's home, because the tube would almost always be flat again in a week or two. Learned this the hard way when a competing shop came in and hung a brightener on the tube, which brought it back up again. And the customer called up raising hell. Afterward, we always gave the customer the choice of a brightener or CRT replacement, but never a rejuvination or restoration.

A brightener would generally give the jug a few more months of useful life.

[wa2ise]

Well, it's not a week or two yet, and as the set is at my mom's house and I returned to my apartment in the city I work in, it will be a while before I return there to see if the CRT stays restored (if the getter stays good). I did put a few more episodes of the Lone Ranger and Roy Rodgers on it. Some good old fashioned fist fights and shootouts.

[old_coot88]

Rental sets and loaners were the only thing we ended up doing CRT restorations on. Unless it got a really solid ''take" on the life test, we generally hung a brightener on too, which seemed to help the jugs stay up longer in rental or loaner service.

[andy]

...

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by andy

.... It's generally wise to stop as soon as the lights start to glow brightly.

That's what I essentially did. Unless I can't read, the instructions I had didn't mention what to do when the 2 blue lights started to light up. So I pulled the plug on the adapter cable. This was in about 5 seconds. I think I checked for shorts, and if I did, found it clean. And then checked for cathode current, which came back from the dead.

So is the 1 to 2 weeks mentioned above operating time, or just time spent just sitting around not powered up? Maybe the getter gets used up from junk boiled off the cathode?

Hopefully I'm not beating this thread like a dead horse, I'm happy that the CRT came back, but if it's going to last a week or two, then I'd be disappointed...