aquanaut Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 I have been thinking of making one for some time now and have nearly completed my first one. I bought an old tv off the net for $5 and away i went. It was a little harder than i thought it would be, the tube of old tv's can hold a charge and it can be a nasty belt. The tube can implode also so that is another problem. The best way around these problems is to leave the tv unplugged for a good amount of time, ie a month. You can discharge the tv yourself with a long screwdriver under the cap, but it best left to a professional to do. Another problem i came across was the tube is one piece so if you want to retain the front glass to give it the real tv look you have to cut it apart. I lay it down on the ground and knocked the top off the back with a long stick so it could de-vacuum properly, hoping for no implosion. I then broke out most of the glass and ground it down and sanded the edges. Next time i will try a heavy duty glass cutter to get a cleaner look. I have included some pics of the nearly complete tv, less the tank and light that i need to purchase. Its pretty ruff looking but i needed a trial one to see if it was too hard to do myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver21 Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 one thing ive been conserned with these is wether or not the frount of the CRT has any chemicals on the glass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquanaut Posted December 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 It wouldn't matter with my one as the TV glass and the tank are seperate units. There was silver and grey film, like a thin paint i rubbed off the inside of the tv tube. It rubbed off very easily with a wet cloth, i haven't growen any extra arms or legs yet so i think it is safe! It could be lead based or something like that being old so maybe gloves should be worn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 From memory the glass is lined with phosphor or something like that.. If you are using that and then another layer of glass it would be very hard to view the tank behind that glass with any glare or anything and may end up looking quite shabby, I guess it would have to be done to find out first.. Capacitance of tube should also dissipate quite quickly, wouldn't hurt to poke under the button with a multimeter first to make sure though. I made one of these years ago but it didn't look cool because I just used a normal custom made tank in the frame and the framing for the screen was rounded, your plan would get around this so I will be interested to see how it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
si_sphinx Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 Ive always wanted to do this, its going to be very interesting to see the finished tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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