CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[cmjohnson]

I name no names, to protect all concerned, but I recently bought a few tubes, and they arrived recently.

I bought, in total, nine CRTs. Three are brand new (old stock) VDC 9500LC CRT assemblies, complete with magnetics, shrouds, and VDC original packing materials.

They arrived in great shape. No damage done.

The other tubes...six of them....THREE were damaged. Electron guns broken in half on two of them, the third, the electron gun is off at an angle in the tube neck, the connecting wires bent to allow the gun to go off angle and off center. Without any broken glass, surprisingly enough.

By judiciously striking the tube neck I've been able to (mostly) restore the electron gun assembly to (almost) its proper location and direction. It needs a little more beating to be really right. At some point I will have to test it and see if it works properly.
If it does, the beatings will stop.

The damaged tubes were shipped with inadequate packing. All of them. The boxes were big enough, the basic rule of shipping anything delicate is that it has to be SUPPORTED by something. Something that is firm enough to ensure it stays in place,
but not so firm that it won't allow some room for the tube to move in response to an impact. The idea is, ultimately, to decrease
G loading on the tube as much as possible without allowing the tube to contact the walls of the box, and then be gently pushed
back into the center position by the resilient packing material.


If you can dislodge the tube out of its packing by hand, then it WILL be dislodged out of its packing during shipment. I guarantee it.


I submit an example of how I pack bare CRTs. Here's a set of three minty LUGs going to a happy G90 owner.

There are FIVE inches of foam padding, at the minimum, around the tubes on all sides in this 24x24x12 box.

The foam is of two durometers. Softer to absorb movement, heavier (the blue and white pieces) to keep the tubes
firmly in their general position. There is space for every tube to move, to a reasonable degree, but they're held
firmly enough that they won't hit the sides of the box easily.

This packing is fully compliant with shipping regulations for ANY carrier. It's insurable.


And it's but one example, incorporating several principles of delicate instrument packing, of how to pack a tube
so that it is monkey-resistant. Which is important when shipping via ANY common carrier.


Do not place GLASS, FRAGILE, or HANDLE WITH CARE labels on a tube shipping box. All that happens when you do
this is that the disgruntled distribution center employee of the day will single out the brightly colored targets on your
package for a little extra treatment.

Better to go stealthy than to alert a box destroyer of an easy target. But not THAT easy, if you pack it right!


Nobody wants to sell a tube and end up hearing from the buyer that it's broken. Nor does any buyer want to get a broken tube.

So do yourself a favor and really THINK about how to pack and ship such things. If you can move it around by hand in the box in ways you don't want to happen, it WILL happen. So pack it FOOLPROOF.

Lots of padding, lots of space. Room to move. You need all of them. Or tubes will break and nobody will be happy.

[deronmoped]

I used to box the tube in foam, then put it in another box with foam wrapped around the inner box. You have to figure that the box will most likely be dropped off the back of a truck or by the person delivering it.

[km987654]

Great advice

Even when properly supported postal workers still triumph !!

Look closely at the pin end of the neck. You can see a line that runs around the neck. Yes its been decapitated.

You really couldn't pack any better so there is always a risk.

[cmjohnson]

I wouldn't call that "decapitated".

"Circumcized", maybe.

The problem with packing like that is that it holds the tube too firmly in position, which means if you drop the box,
the tube accelerates and decelerates at the same rate as the box. There's no real opportunity for the tube to move
and get a chance to slow down gradually.

For a tube, the IDEAL packing profile is to support the bell end with heavier foam, support the midpoint of the neck with medium
foam, and support the end of the tube with soft foam. This reduces torquing across the tube neck as everything will move about
the same amount in response to impact.

You need the tube to be able to move...SOME...and you need it to move all together without applying stress across the length of the tube.

[Tim in Phoenix]

Guys

I wonder what Idiot packed your stuff so poorly that three tubes got wasted!

[cmjohnson]

He's no idiot, actually he's a very smart guy whom I like and respect very much. He was just a bit overly optimistic about how to pack a few tubes.

I'm the absolute reverse, a TRUE pessimist, a warrior for proper packing procedures.

I pack for WAR.


I've been an ebayer since 1999. I've done six figures in revenue over the years, and I've shipped about a thousand
items. Not ONE damage claim. Not one broken item. Because I know that UPS is pronounced OOPS,
USPS stands for Union Stooges Punishing Stuff, and FedEx's slogan is "When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight."

So I pack accordingly. It should withstand a trip through the jungle gym at the zoo during Gorilla Play Time.

[garyfritz]

[km987654]

[cmjohnson]

The foam in place packing is a great idea but it'd be better if it was a medium soft grade of foam rubber.

I wonder if there is such a thing as foam-in-place foam rubber?

There might be a market there.

I've gone so far as to line the inside of a box with fitted sheets of masonite to keep boot toes out of the box,
on a few occasions. (When shipping late model Apple iMacs)