CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

racerxnet · Joined: 20 Jun 2007 Posts: 362 Location: Illinois

My machine is not L/C.

Mak

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

I have one red and one blue, 180DMBs, absolutely brand new, never used. Correct for an 8500.

Sorry, no green 8" tubes at all.

You will have to transfer the anode leads over from your existing tubes, as they don't have anode leads.

PM me if interested.

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

If you removed tubes from the LC hardware for an 8500LC, then you have bare tubes that will be missing the coolant chambers
that come standard on the 180DMBs that are found in an 8500. (Non-LC) You can't run those tubes without the coolant chambers
on them, or at best they'll age quickly, at worst the glass can break from thermal stress.

This kind of illustrates the issue:

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

I done it for a tv retro project(I used the cooling chambers from the tv I used for the project) the tubes are in great shape otherwise

I have the stock ac optic cooling chambers for the tubes and can put them back on the tubes no problem(just need to know what's the best stuff to use)

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

The plot thickens.

I have my "special" set of tubes made by Lexel Imaging for the Marquee HR (Higher Resolution) project. Supposedly they have special, sharper electron guns. They are type 9L P19LCP03(RJA, HKA, BMB).

I'm checking out my collection of LUGs and every one that's made by Lexel is a 9L P19LUG03(RJA, HKA, BMB) type.

This IMPLIES that they're a special version LUG with an improved, sharper electron gun system.

Which implies that they should be even sharper than the HR tubes I have.

Which is very intriguing.

So I went on a hunt to find a complete set of them and discovered that among the 48 tubes I got, not counting the ones in
projectors, with close to HALF of them being reds, I didn't end up with a single red Lexel tube at all. Every red is a Clinton, or a Mikado, and there's even a real Panasonic or two in there. But, drat, not a single red Lexel 9L P19LUG03RJA to complete the set.

I was hoping to set up a head to head comparison between the HR tubes (9LP19LCP) and the 9LP19LUG tubes. In complete sets.

Well, maybe I'll get some more when I pick up my next batch of tubes. I'll certainly be looking carefully for them.

Obviously I can still do a comparison, but I wanted to compare full sets after FIRST comparing just greens.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

And the plot totally changed.

The "special high resolution" tubes I got aren't the ones they were supposed to be. They're regular LCPs, made by Lexel, with the electron gun assemblies clocked wrong. The neck cards fit but they're rotated about 24 degrees clockwise.

Which means that the TRUE special high res tubes are probably still there...and I'm making it my mission to find them and get them.

Anyway, 9L only means it's a 9" tube made by Lexel.

The amount of time and effort I'm committing to refurbishing these LC assemblies and getting them ready for tube installation
has been a lot more than i initially counted on. Frankly I'm getting less enthusiastic it. It's becoming less fun. There are literally
THOUSANDS of screws to be removed, dozens and dozens of LC hardware pieces to be thoroughly cleaned, some get painted, all get reassembled with only stainless hardware, and then I use almost 5 ounces of silicone to pot up a tube and I'm getting just 12 tube assemblies per gallon of glycol and sometimes I have to chase down a leak and fix it, which can get messy.

Funny how it works...free stuff always costs you.

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

Don't give up it will pay off in the end

Besides think of the happy projector owners who can use the set for another 20 years or more

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Oh, I'm going to get them all done. Be sure of it. But it's starting to feel more like work and less like fun.

My carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms are starting to act up a bit. Fortunately, vitamin B6 keeps the symptoms knocked back a logn way.

I'm sufficiently commited to this course that I'm waiting for word on when and if I can do another major league sort and salvage session in a large accumulation of tubes that will eventually be sent off to recycling. It'll be a day's trip up, several hours of sorting and picking, and the following day, come home with a truckload. Hopefully.

Of course I understand fully that the CRT market is dwindling. But if this deal works out, I can sell good tubes so cheaply that
everybody with a 9" projector (or upgradable 8" machine) who isn't planning to ditch it this year for a digital will be willing to buy spares. Some day my remaining stock may end up being museum pieces.

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

Heck of the price is cheap enough I may buy enough sets to do a stack blend setup for 4K(provided I can get the gear to pull it off)

I already have a spare marquee chassis just would need the mounting plates for the 9 inch tubes(so at the least I could do a standard blend setup) and the boards(some got damaged due to a glycol leak from a project I did with the set)

I know how you feel about working through the pain but for me it's a pinched nerve in my back(yea not fun)

I know we are clinging to what others claim is a dying breed but I won't be giving up my crt sets anytime soon as I converted from a digital projector(no way am I converting back)

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Need the upper and lower mounting plates to do an 8500 to 9500 conversion?

I can help you with that. I'm having some made up right now at a machine shop, and they're charging me
a reasonable price. That price is 125 dollars for two lower plates. Uppers cost a bit less. I know they do,
but I haven't asked for a quote on them because I have enough for my current needs.

I COULD, if I had the room for it, do a 2x2 stack with four matched Ultras with LUG tubes, and be ready for 8K.

I tremble at the thought.

I'd need more throw distance, and this could possibly accomplished just by putting spacers behind the lenses.

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

I only would need one set of the upper and lower plates(I already have one 9500 just need a second one)

Hey a quad setup for 8k would be intern but I don't know if I would have the room to pull it off(hence why I haven't messed with the second marquee chassis I have now lately)

Not sure on the spacers but short throw lens would likely work also(again space for the entire setup would be at a premium for me given my room size)

Right now though without the gear to run them it's just wishful thinking for me currently

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Reworking these tubes to be used is not without its hazards.

Most of them have the wrong pin base on them. I have enough of the right pin bases, fortunately.

But to put the right pin base on, you have to remove the old one. Which is sometimes a very tricky business.

I can say that not every tube has robust, strong glass in the tube base area.

Despite my best and most careful efforts, I've lost three tubes to the button snapping off while attempting to remove the old
plastic pin base using the most careful methods I can come up with short of just melting the plastic off. Which would probably
be a bad idea anyway.

I use a razor blade to cut the silicone between the pin base and the glass base, and typically the pin base then easily lifts off
with just slight pressure. But once in a while I get one where the silicone in the button cover area adheres so strongly to both the
button and the plastic tube base that the button breaks before the silicone lets go.

Fortunately I've lost no "grade A" tubes due to button breakage yet. They've all had light visible wear so they were not the
most valuable tubes I have in hand.

I did lose one perfect green, and that hurt, but it wasn't due to the same problem or error. It was something else, and all my fault. I blame nobody but me for that one.

Tim in Phoenix · Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 4379 Location: Phoenix

Hey CM

Perhaps the appropriate solvent soaked overnight will dissolve the tube base or the adhesive without risking the glass. Xylene and toluene come to mind, but a chemist could advise you better. Such solvents are extremely toxic and flammable so proceed accordingly.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

I's a possibility but I'd have to come up with a way to soak the tube base assembly and not the rest of the tube. Which would require more engineering than it's probably worth at this point, as I have already re-based almost every tube. In fact I think I have only four or five more reds to re-base and test.

If I do decide to try to chemically loosen the tube bases, I'll do it only on the ones that don't come off easily with normal methods,
and on the next batch of tubes I get in, assuming I get another batch of tubes, which is far from certain.

I would have no problem at all in storing up a small collection of pristine tube for the years to come, even after they mostly become unsellable, just because a few tubes stored away in an attic are no trouble to store and some day they'll be neat relics of the past. The antique CRT collectors 50 years from now will be thrilled to find my hoarded stash of minty LUGS via my estate sale after I'm gone to the great theatre in the sky.

Tim in Phoenix · Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 4379 Location: Phoenix

Hey CM

You would only need to lay the tubes on a slant and insert the end into a cylindrical container of solvent; any metal or glass container would suffice. A tall form 250ml glass lab beaker for $12 should work.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

I finished up the last of them this afternoon. I had one or two more that were really tight, so I came up with a very gentle way to coax the pin base to separate without damage.

As before, I used a razor blade to cut under the base to the pins. Then I just started inserting single edged razor blades between the glass and the pin base, going around and around, stacking up more and more razor blades. Four per complete revolution, keep adding them until the base is pried away with this very gentle form of leverage.

20 razor blades and five layers later, the toughest pin base separates cleanly with no damage to anything.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

So why don't you delete your comments and then I'll delete mine?

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue May 17, 2016 10:39 pm Post subject:

I did it for both of you, in both threads.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

I appreciate the intervention, Curt. That was heading off the rails.

Let's not do that again! It was not fun.