what metals are in a crt gun

I scrap alot of crt's. I always leave the tube under vacuum replace the cover and take it to my state(de.) recycling center. However i know few scrappers that just break the yokes off grab the copper and discard the metal and glass from the gun.
My? is what metal is the gun made of? Iam thinking tungsten.

I put some to the grinder last night. Sparked like stainless steel does. I'm not 100% certain it is SS, but it's definitely not aluminum.

--Geoff

Yeah that's the problem. Scrappers that don't care or think about the environmental repercussions of their methods. I i live in a state that provides a place to dispose of them properly.

Seem a shame to waste the metal. But i think I'll heed you're advice and leave them alone.
Thanx. Didn't really consider the lead issue.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

The phosphor powder floating around is no picnic either.

I "aired out" a couple today, popped a tiny hole into the suction cup holder, because the tubes aren't going in with their cases(one was wood, one was metal) and I'll have to put them in boxes. Will the tiny hole allow that stuff to escape in sufficient quantity to harm anything? I've seen it stated they're safer to handle without the vacuum.

Generally made by cesium metal

Could you elaborate in a little more detail about cesium being a metal used in CRT's. I do know that cesium is used in various electrical devices, including vacuum tubes and PMT's. It has a very low melting point, 83.1 F (little more than room temp.), The softest of all metals and very unstable. A unstable ALKALINE liquid metal in a consumer product like a TV?

I believe it is highly unlikely that any CRT's contain Cesium. One of the properties of this unstable element is that when struck with almost any hard object, it will send out a hefty stream of sparks. One of the big uses for Cesium is in the manufacture of man made flints and fire starters, not the best inside a consumer product like TV's unless alloyed in tiny amounts with other metals.

The lead inside a CRT tube is vapour deposited onto the inside of the screen to shield the viewers eyes from radiation. The crt gun fires electrons at the screen (well straight towards the viewers face), and the lead film stops them at the screen face and prevents them from blinding the viewer. Without that lead barrier we would all be blind now from watching TV. There are other oxides used to prevent radiation leakage like Cadmium, Barium, Strontium as well, but again, these are not loose and are vapour deposited to the interior surfaces. The phosphors used to colour the picture are generally zinc based and fixed quite well to the inner face (baked on with UV light).

CRT's are under vacuum, so piercing a small hole at the flyback lead point will just equalise the internal vacuum with atmosphere. There is very little inside a CRT that will react with air and cause problems (they are already oxides), its when they are crushed or broken up and exposed to acidic or alkaline conditions (like in a landfill) that the toxic elements tend to leach out into the environment. That said, the dust from crushing them up will free all these toxins and is very very bad for all, please dont.

Hehehe the only poisonous gas inside the vacuum of a crt would be when you are watching a WW1 trench warfare documentary on the TV you are about to scrap

Another thing to keep in mind is that CRT's are designed to contain the vacuum, they are actually more stable and safer to handle with this negative pressure intact. There is only a small amount of vacuum inside them, and snapping the gun off the end tends to weaken the integrity of the whole tube by creating fracture zones from the sharp edges left behind.

Think about it this way. Take 2 glass bottles, snap the neck off one of them. Now drop both onto a hard floor from waist height, there is a much greater chance that the unbroken bottle will survive the shock and stay intact. But the pre broken bottle will almost always end up in many pieces around your feet. This happens because of the sharp edges left behind from the initial break, which leaves concentrated stress points, that the cracks can easily migrate from and along.

No one needs a cut from glass that has freshly exposed edges of the metallic oxides on it.

There's a lot "going on" inside a working CRT. The metal Cesium is not! Though it is used in other vacuum tubes.