Snapped the neckboard of my monitor

[DaddyLongLegs]

Hey guys, hoping for a little help. On my second monitor (first one had scratches all over the glass) so I am a bit upset at the prospect of buying a 3rd monitor

I have a Wells Gardner 25", 15khz, and I snapped the neckboard because I'm an idiot and wasn't careful when working in my machine. I was able to get all the metal pins straight again, and placed back into the board. Works fine! However, the image is extremely blurry. I try to adjust with the sharpness dial but it goes back to blurry after a few minutes of being fixed. Weird huh?

Basically I can get the image nice crisp and sharp but it becomes a blurry mess after a few minutes. This is definitely related to me snapping the board off of the pins/neck part of the monitor because I didn't have this problem previously.

I will be distraught if I have to buy a THIRD monitor for this machine I haven't even gotten up and going yet. If someone could give me a pointer or two I'd really appreciate it...

[qrz]

the focus lead may be damaged or simply a poor connection .

reinspect the pin in the key area of the socket / make sure focus lead secure .


qrz

[DaddyLongLegs]

the focus lead may be damaged or simply a poor connection .

reinspect the pin in the key area of the socket / make sure focus lead secure .


qrz

Thanks. How do I know which is the focus lead? And by poor connection, you mean with the metal prong?

Edit: I pretty much figured out which prong is the culprit. It's the one by its lone self, and I am assuming that's the focus one. However I see no realistic way to fix this. Most of the prong is broken off in the glass tube, and I can sometimes get focus to work if I take the metal pin and it makes perfect contact, but if you barely tap the machine it knocks it out of place and it's blur city

Edit: To clarify, the neck board is in fine condition. What I broke is I snapped it off the clear glass piece, and one of the pins came with it.

[SirPeale]

Crap...that sucks.  You need a new tube.  Unless someone knows of a way to reattach that pin inside glass.

[DaddyLongLegs]

Crap...that sucks.  You need a new tube.  Unless someone knows of a way to reattach that pin inside glass.

Damn that really would suck if I need a new one. But here's something I found:

http://www.jomac.net.au/parts.htm

Scroll down to  8 Pin CRT. That's exactly what I broke. One of those pins. Where it says Yoke / Deflection Coil, that image, that's exactly the whole piece of what I broke the pin from. So maybe this is something I can just replace? Maybe it's a pretty standard part for CRTs?

[Kevin Mullins]

That is definitely something you can't just "replace".

You might be able to work the plastic piece off so that you can get further back on the broken pin and then take the broken pin and solder it back together and then slide the plastic piece back on.
Of course this is something I would try, your mileage may vary.
Otherwise you need a new tube.

[qrz]

bummer ,  its a useless tube if u don't try soldering a wire onto the stub .
bear in mind the envelope is glass - thermal shock and so forth .....

so, suggest roughening up the stub ( sandpaper /file )
them apply solder flux and hope it tins when the iron is applied .
if it takes , soldering more to it should be easier .

good luck

qrz

[Mauzy]

ASSUMING YOU SAFELY DISCHARGE THE TUBE AND SUCH,

what have you got to lose? it doesn't work as it is and its an idiotically hard problem to fix even for a pro, so give it a shot. if you fix it, youre a hero. if not, you'll learn to be extremely careful around the neck of a monitor in the future.


Thats how I always look at technical problems if something doesnt work. Never pass something like this as impossible, thats for sure.



My semi inspirational comments for the week 

[SirPeale]

Didn't even think about tinning the end.  It would have to be just the minute amount of solder on the end though, or you won't be able to get it back into the hole.

[DaddyLongLegs]

That is definitely something you can't just "replace".

You might be able to work the plastic piece off so that you can get further back on the broken pin and then take the broken pin and solder it back together and then slide the plastic piece back on.
Of course this is something I would try, your mileage may vary.
Otherwise you need a new tube.

I took the plastic piece off, but the rest is clear glass. It's weird, all the other pins have these nice holes for the pins to go through. The one of mine that broke off (the lone pin by itself that affects focus and such) is really weird, you can barely tell there's a hole. It's an incredibly skinny piece barely sticking out of the glass piece. I may be able to solder it but it's going to be incredibly hard

[Singapura]

So how did you do? Does it work?

[DaddyLongLegs]

So how did you do? Does it work?

Thanks for asking, but I've gotten nowhere. Hopefully this image I made better explains what happened:



I pushed the neckboard off the back of the monitor by accident. All pins are fine, except one, the pin that's away from the other ones. I push the broken pin into the neckboard and push the neckboard back onto where I snapped it off, but I have to hold it in place for the screen not to be a blurry mess. As soon as I let go it's blur city and the focus adjustment knob does nothing.

I tried shaving off some of the glass tube where the remainder of the pin is stuck in so I can get a better shot at it, but the result was my Dremel shooting hot glass in my face with no success.

It's awful because the monitor is in great shape, I'm just literally a half inch from success

[SirPeale]

I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a shot.

Tin the end of the pin that broke off, just a tiny bit.  You still have to get it back into the hole.

Then insert it into the hole, and hit it with your solder iron.  Hold it in place with a pair of needlenose pliers.  You may get just enough purchase to make it stick.

Then baby it for the rest of it's life.

[DaddyLongLegs]

I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a shot.

Tin the end of the pin that broke off, just a tiny bit.  You still have to get it back into the hole.

Then insert it into the hole, and hit it with your solder iron.  Hold it in place with a pair of needlenose pliers.  You may get just enough purchase to make it stick.

Then baby it for the rest of it's life.

The pin that's stuck in the glass part is a good centimeter or so in there. If I so much as put a dab of solder on the end of the pin, it ain't gonna fit in. I was hopping I can carve off some of the glass to make it fit, but considering I usually see that glass filled with a bright orange light, it kind of frightens me.

[Karetaker]

Can you solder a trace wire to it and solder it to the neck board? Solder to the broken pin with thin single strand wire, put the neck board on, and then solder it to the back of the board where it normally comes in perhaps? If it works you would just have to unsolder it if you ever want to pull the neck board off again. But, it's better than having to get another tube or monitor.

[qrz]

u def have a challenge here ......
just another thought , one MIGHT be able to CAREFULLY dribble conductive paint into the hole .
  then by placing a properly sized spring wire into the socket , it may contact the paint and restore
the connection when mated to the crt  .

 bear in mind this IS a HIGH VOLTAGE area .  anywhere from 6kv-12kv   excersise caution !

qrz

[Kevin Mullins]

Maybe a dab of flux down the hole ..... tin the broken piece of the pin just enough to almost form a tiny ball at the broke end .... then heat it with the soldering iron while inserting it into the hole. (similar to Peale's thought)

But definitely quit grinding on the glass, if you break the vacuum then it's toast for sure.

[SavannahLion]

one MIGHT be able to CAREFULLY dribble conductive paint into the hole

You're going to have to tell me the secret to that. I have never had much success with the so-called conductive paints. I can't get any sort of reading on my meter most of the time. I get better conductivity on my old lead-based metallic Testers modeling paints (GO LEAD!!!) than I ever did with the conductive paints. 

I think you're onto something with the spring wire though. What about solder paste? Fill the hole with some nice pb paste, fill the spring wire with same, jam into hole, heat and... voila?