1084S Question

[koaftder]

Pop it open and blow out all the dust. Take a slightly damp rag and clean off the accumulated crap on the back of the tube where the wires harness it. Keep one hand in your back pocket when you're working on the thing.

[koaftder]

LOL! Are you sure you didn't mean to say 'front pocket'? lol   Umm... to the original poster, the advice above is a surefire way of getting zapped! lol

If you're going to be taking a damp anything near the back of the electron tube, you'd better be sure you discharged it first. Easy to do and will save you the risk of potential shock. Personally, I'd just take a can of air spray, or better yet, take a vacuum cleaner hose w/ brush attachment to the guts of the monitor to get up any dust, webs, etc. Those cans of air just end up making a mess out of your house and eventually back into whatever you were "cleaning", but people still buy the things.

The popping is caused by one of two issues. One is a break down of the dielectric material in the flyback, the other is poor contact with the back of the tube (the conductive paint on the glass) and the grounding harness. You can spray air all you like on a decade old + tube and it won't make a better ground path.

Yea, I get your joke about the front pocket thing. Huhuhuhuhuh "pocket pool". The point of the "pocket rule" is that you don't make a circuit from one hand to the other thus zapping your heart. I don't think anybody ever got killed from a finger to finger zap.

Yea, working on monitors can be dangerous. If you're uncomfortable with it, or don't have a clue about electronics then by all means, stay away from it. Else, proceed and keep your gear up and repaired. Working with old, classic equipment means you spend a lot of time fixing your gear.

[koaftder]

Holy crap Red! IF he didn't get the idea from my response, he'll surely see this one!!!!  lol

To the OP, if you want to discharge your tube and eliminate the risk of getting fried - get yourself a long/thin flat blade screwdriver and a jumper wire with alligator clips on each end. Secure one end of the jumper wire to the chassis (ground) of the monitor and the other to the conductive part of your screwdriver. You of course, are only gripping the handle of the screwdriver at this point (common sense eludes us sometimes)... Next, (and with the monitor off of course), find the suction cup attached to the tube which usually has a thick red wire coming from it and going to the HV section of the chassis. With the alligator leads connected like I said, sneak the screwdriver underneath the suction cup toward the middle and wait for a loud (or soft sometimes) cracking/snapping/popping sound. Repeat until you hear nothing. There... that's all there is to discharging a picture tube. Don't be a careless monkey about it and you'll be fine.

Wow, the grand master of electronics advocates shorting parts to ground with a screwdriver. :roflmao: Yea, folks do it, but it's not something to brag about. Most folks don't screw with alligator clips discharging a tube. Just one screwdriver under the suction cup and another screwdriver pushed against it to the conductive paint on the glass. Not that any of this crap matters since I doubt the original poster is interested in extricating his tube.

[koaftder]

Do you have a better suggestion for cleaning the muck off the back of the conductive paint on the tube which frequently leads to popping on old monitors because it interferes with the ground path through the wiring harness? Yea, I was a monitor repair guy too back in the day.

[koaftder]

Your method was fine (damp cloth), but you forgot to mention that the tube needed to be discharged first, which caused me to laugh out loud when I read it     Personally, I vacuum the surrounding area first (it's usually coated in black fuzz) and then spray contact cleaner on a cloth to tack that crap up.

Yes, I should have mentioned to discharge the tube. Probably shouldn't have even posted, but part of me wants to help out.

Contact cleaner is probably a good idea though I never used it because I've seen contact cleaner degrade some kinds of plastic, probably would have helped a lot when working on sets folks have smoked around. All that greasy crap from cigarettes coats everything and the dust has a party in it.