PC Monitors in Cocktails?

[AnotherHowie]

I'm in the planning stages of building myself a Cocktail (probably a 3-position one) emulation cab, and at the moment I intend to use a PC monitor (specifically a Sony 19" Trinitron, once I find one). I have seen some brief mentions of problems with turning monitors on their backs - fire risks, for example - but no real explanation.

Is this a case where it's a fundamental design issue, particular monitors don't have things tied down, cooling, some strange piece of physics like southern-hemisphere monitors, or what? Is this just a bad idea?     

My old Sony screen had a great picture and a relatively short tube, so it seems that physically, it's a good fit...

[grantspain]

i worked for a company in the u.k that bought a few mame cocktail cabs,the monitor was a standard 15 inch cased pc vga monitor just mounted in a wooden frame to prevent it falling or turning
i would think that as long as you have a good few inches clearance at the base and have good ventilation then it should be no problem at all
if you decided you wanted to decase the monitor then you would have design and build a more robust frame for the monitor to bolt to
the only thing i am aware of that causes problem to monitors when they are mounted on their backs is after some time(maybe 5 years or more) you can get problems with dirt dropping into the guns of the tube BUT this is rare and it should not put you off

[FrizzleFried]

My Atari cocktail has a 15" Viewsonic, decased,  inside...but it's only on when I am there...and only a few hours at a time...nothing near 24/7.

[AnotherHowie]

Thanks for your experience folks. I've found myself a free monitor too, so it's the answer I wanted to hear :-)