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Removing Scratches from CRTs

A friend brought me a load of old TVs and stuff he'd rounded up from city trash day, and amongst them was a set I hadn't heard of a before - a Loewe Calida. I thought it was an old studio monitor or something, but looking around on the internet I see it is actually a premium - and pricey - television set. Trouble is, it has a big ugly scratch along the top - very shallow but still enough to hurt the image. Is there any way to remove, or at least hide/mask, scratches on CRT faces? I have a number of nice sets in my stock that have minor scratches and chips on the faces - nothing large, just enough to reduce the sets value to the point where it isn't worth repairing. The Loewe is actually dead, I just wanted to see if I could repair the CRT before trying to get the set going. Not a chance of replacing it - it's some weird Philips "Black Matrix" which would be impossible to obtain. Thanks for any advice.

Reply to
Chris F.
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Chris--

Only a guess--how about an auto window repair kit--they do pretty well on stone and pebble damage to windshields.

Tut

Reply to
cnctut

Reply to
Art

I've used those. I suspect a version might work best.

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N
Reply to
NSM

And, if there is an antireflective or textured coating, will probably make it look much worse.

No one has mentioned the safety issues. How deep are the scratches? If they are really bad or extend over a large area, there may be increased risk of implosion.

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Reply to
Sam Goldwasser

"I suspect a vacuum version might work best".

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N
Reply to
NSM

The scratch on the Loewe is very shallow, not even deep enough to catch a fingernail. Not a safety hazard considering that most CRT glass is about

1/2" thick at the face. After some fiddl>

face

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excessive

is

Reply to
Chris F.

Might try putting a bit of traditional toothpaste on a soft clean cotton cloth and rub over the scratch. If this has no effect, then that's about all you can do other than replace the CRT or live with it.

Reply to
mydigcam

They make all types of buffing compounds for glass and plastic. The question is, is the scratch deep? If so even if you buff down to smooth glass you'll get distortion at the buff area. They also make a filler for windshield repair that might work.

Reply to
none

As per recommendations from others try buffing with toothpaste or a metal polish like Brasso to get rid of as much of the visible scratch as possible. Then use an acrylic floor polish sold as Future Wax (or Future something, WalMart) to touch up the scratch . The acrylic will modify the optical properties, much like damping it with water will make the scratch invisible.

Reply to
PaPaPeng

There's a scratch repair kit for eyeglasses that might work better.

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N
Reply to
NSM

DON'T use Brasso, and I doubt toothpaste will do much good. USE a buffing compound made for glass or plastic. I use one called NicSand. It's a buffing compound for plexiglass, lexan and glass. I use the fine grit( 10,000 grit). It's an Aluminum oxide sanding gel, perfect for plastic or glass. It does come in coarser grades as well. There are other brands on the market also. Check in your yellow pages for Cadillac plastics or some other commercial plastics dealer, they should have the compounds you need. Also try any commercial glass supplier or place that makes stained glass windows.(They use buffing compounds to restore antique glass to a glossy finish, they should be willing to sell you a small amount of the right stuff.) As for the scratch repair kits, they can be had at your local Wal-Mart or Pep Boys. It's just a clear acrylic or epoxy glaze that fills the scratch in and restores uniform surface refraction.

Reply to
none

What is the model of this Philips tube? If it happens to be made in France or Germany, and if the letters ESF are in the model number, it may not last very long anyway, depending on how much use it already had. These tubes are well known for various short circuits developping in the gun assembly...

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Met vriendelijke groet,

   Maarten Bakker.
Reply to
maarten

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