Working on CRTs can be very dangerous. Please be very careful.
Any old school arcades in your area? They should know who works on CRTs.
this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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There are, I'll have to ask around to see if anyone can help with this kind of project.
I will be very careful. If I don't feel confident I won't even try it and I'll just use composite.
Disclaimer: I'm about as inexperienced as you are (and ended up giving up on CRTs for the time being, but mostly for lack of space tbh).
With that out of the way, my research from a couple years ago netted a couple of results, which might or might not be relevant to you (and I'm guessing you could have already found those), depending on where on the globe you are located.
- This person in the Bay Area, who also happens to manage the super useful CRT Database website.
- This person in the Lower Mainland.
If those two are not relevant to you, you might want to check your local CL / Kijiji / FB Marketplace / local equivalent(s) for potential listings.
Otherwise you could certainly YOLO it with the Trinitron since it's well documented, assuming you feel confident enough around high voltage and are equipped with the necessary tools to discharge the tube, etc. From what I've seen it's not as bad as it seems, as long as you you're careful and follow the right steps/tutorials.
Do you have any spare PCB / whatever lying around you could use to practice soldering with? Components on CRT PCBs are indeed not so small, so I don't know what sort of prior experience you have with soldering, but bigger components = easier to solder (as long as you use a bigger tip on your soldering iron, and feel free to use flux / add fresh solder).
I do have some old components laying around I could mess around with to build soldering skills. It's all PC hardware though, so likely much smaller than the TV components. Though I do have an alarm clock from the 80s that barely works. That might be closer as far as size of components. Might have to crack that open.
Check out Sparkfun soldering tutorial.
The true game changer is this: use a brass sponge. Any cheapo one will do. Cleaning the tip often with a brass sponge will keep your iron tip nice and shiny and able to transfer heat much more effectively making soldering 10x easier.
Water sponges are terrible. Just no.
The iron doesn't matter as much as the brass sponge. I have soldered SMT stuff with a dollar store iron just to prove the point. Although a temp controlled iron with the right tip makes things easier.
Also please don't die from high voltages (I see you've read the safety stuff, good!)
Ooh, nice resource, thank you. I do have a brass sponge on hand. It was also recommended to me by a friend.