What to do with an old CRT monitor?

[Brumby]

When you've grown up through the computer evolution, it's not always easy to scrap tech that is still fully functional - but it looks like that's exactly what I am faced with on a 19" colour monitor with VGA input.  It still works perfectly, but compared to LCD screens, it's big and heavy.

SO.... do I try:

Selling it?
Giving it away?
Just scrapping it?

[botcrusher]

Use the wire in the coils to make a gauss rifle?

There's Lots of reusable parts in a crt, one of my good friends fried his DMM by pointing an EMP made from crt parts at it.

[tszaboo]

You can make a huge bomb from it with some C4 and a swivel chair. The monitor will multiply the explosion, like John McClane style. And blow up in the garden, and share the video on youtube like russian dudes.

The only reason I write this because access to C4 is somewhat restricted

[Bud]

At least recover the ferrite ring from the CRT , can make a common mode RF choke to feed an antenna if you are a Ham, or for the mains line by wrapping the power extention cord through the core to make a few turns. The big diameter of the core makes it easy to make common mode chokes using thick wires or coax.

I'd also recommend salvaging the PCB, they have good power resistors/caps that can be reused.

[CatalinaWOW]

For nerdy fun you can break the sealing nipple off of the CRT and listen to it suck air for an amazingly long time.  The shadow mask is interesting material for fabrication of lampshades and other items.  All sorts of other salvage.  Of course you might die from the carcinogens and sharp edges.

[Brumby]

Any ideas for a 'Dave' treatment?

[rgawron]

You may salvage flyback transformer + its power transistor, make high voltage supply from it and use it to make Kirlian photography.

Here's one of the images I made - part of a leaf.



Might not be the most impressive version, but works

Kirlian photography is related to paranormal stuff, it was even placed in the intro of X-Files - bottom center image.



Ofc, such voltage is not safe - need to be handled with care.

[Gyro]

For nerdy fun you can break the sealing nipple off of the CRT and listen to it suck air for an amazingly long time.  The shadow mask is interesting material for fabrication of lampshades and other items.  All sorts of other salvage.  Of course you might die from the carcinogens and sharp edges.

Another way to slowly break the seal is to run a very fine drill through the metal EHT connector insert on side of the tube. I've done it (carefully) a couple of times with a sub 1mm hand drill and it does suck for a long time. I've often though it would be a useful way of partially evacuating something of small volume if you could get a seal onto it quickly enough.

[Delta]

Find someone into retro gaming, they'll happily take it off your hands!
80s and 90s computers just don't look the same on an LCD.

[Ian.M]

How urgently do you need it gone?   

Take a photo of it displaying a test card and advertise it sold as seen @$1, buyer collects, anywhere that you wont have to pay to sell it.  Also list the exact model number and the maximum resolution.

That gives tube monitor aficionados a chance to keep it out of the e-waste stream. 
We can discuss what parts to keep if you can't find a buyer.

[Brumby]

I haven't seen any evidence that we have 'tube monitor aficionados' in Australia - but no doubt there will be someone ... somewhere.  It's really coming down to the fact that it's not worth the time to chase around - and the local e-waste facility will take it for free.

Coompaq S910 model PE1132 19" Colour monitor
Dimensions (H x W x D): 50 x 45 x 45 cm
Weight 19.8 kg
Pixel clock speed 202.5 Mhz
Max resolution: 1600 x 1200

This is about as much time as I can justify on this....  Powering it up is only worth doing if someone is interested.  I really need to get rid of it sooner than later - but I want it gone in no more than a week.

[Brumby]

There are also 4 computer boxes (already scavenged a couple of things from them), an Espon CX5500 MFC that doesn't want to recognise genuine Epson ink cartridges, two 34cm portable colour TVs (analogue only) two VCRs and a DVD player headed for the scrap heap.  Scavenging from those last 3 yielded a dozen or so black self-tapping screws and one mains cord (I have to be fussy - I already have a fistful of these.)

All up - thousands of dollars to buy, but now it's just scrap.

[rrinker]

 None in my neighborhood, as I've has 2 sitting outside for a month now (need to haul them and the rest of the equipment to the recycler, and I'm waiting on family to come back with their truck.
 What I guess I should have done was list it in the local Freecycle - they have those all over the US, by area, and you can post things you are giving away, or are looking for, typically offerings are left outside so if anyone is interested they can come pick it up. Too late now, it's all been rained on multiple times and is probably all trashed now. 2 CRTs, two old computer chassis, a non-functional 1500VA UPS, an old portable TV I modified with a toggle to allow a video input (TV was conveniently made with 2 boards, tuner on one side, video driver on the other, connected with coax with RCA connectors on the boards. I spliced in a SPST toggle on the center pin (grounds all tied together) and added another RCA jack in the case - worked great), some old computer cards (old SoundBlaster and Ethernet cards, mostly, and a 32" plasma TV that needed a new power supply. Maybe some other stuff I can't think of. It was out there wide open sitting in the driveway next to my garage, nothing so much as budged. I was kind of hoping at least some of it would disappear in the night.

[rrinker]

There are also 4 computer boxes (already scavenged a couple of things from them), an Espon CX5500 MFC that doesn't want to recognise genuine Epson ink cartridges, two 34cm portable colour TVs (analogue only) two VCRs and a DVD player headed for the scrap heap.  Scavenging from those last 3 yielded a dozen or so black self-tapping screws and one mains cord (I have to be fussy - I already have a fistful of these.)

All up - thousands of dollars to buy, but now it's just scrap.

 You can get all sorts of motors out of those VCRs, printer. and DVD player. I have a box full of steppers from old printers. Oh yeah - should harvest the laser from the DVD player, too.

[RobertoLG]

I still have two LGs, both 15" one flat screen and the other rounded, I think i'll just take the rounded apart, take the board and trash the rest, the other I'm keeping as an emergency backup.

[Smokey]

Two words...


Fish... tank...

[Brumby]

... I was waiting for one of those suggestions.

Not really interested.  Sorry.

[GreyWoolfe]

I put stuff like that on the curb on recycling day.  It all disappears before the truck gets to the house.  Even a bad 60" rear projection TV disappeared in an hour and a half.

[rrinker]

 They don't take stuff like that around here, you have to take electronic stuff to this one site, that's only open for like 3 hours early on a Saturday morning, and 2 days during the week when I have to work. Or to numerous other places where you have to pay for them to take it off your hands.

 I showed my GF the fish tank and she's like ABSOLUTELY NOT. LOL.

Anyway if I had a fish tank either the cats or the dogs would get in it and dump it.

[Brumby]

,.... Or to numerous other places where you have to pay for them to take it off your hands.

We have some waste management facilities around Sydney that will accept computer products and TVs without charge.  Recycling costs have been covered by a levy on such products when they are brought into the country.

My VCRs and DVD player aren't covered - so I'd have to pay for them to be processed through an e-waste facility.  Occasionally a local council will have an e-waste drop off day where they'll take anything.

[station240]

The degause coil around the edge of the tube, is many meters of enamelled copper wire, all you need to do is remove the black insulating tape.
There is also a funny cylindrical inductor with an inbuilt magnet, these are almost always wound with Litz wire which is really hard to buy.
Naturally you also pillage the HV capacitors, SMPS transformer etc for re-use, and any copper/wire for scrap.

[Tim F]

the solution is obvious:

[NiHaoMike]

The circuit boards have a bunch of useful parts if you're into high voltage stuff.

An interesting way to reuse the case is to put a LCD monitor in it and build a PC in the remaining space. Should make a nice LAN party machine.

[MrSlack]

Transistors inside CRTs are always quite useful. High Vce medium fT and heatsink friendly.

[Halcyon]

If you can be bothered, maybe throw it up on Gumtree if it's in good nick for $10-$20? Depend on the model, some of those old CRT's go for quite a bit of money, especially the old Sony Trinitron's which were popular among graphics artists. Collectors of old computers love them to complete the "vintage computer" look.

Plugging a 386 or 486 into an LCD monitor just doesn't have the same effect.

Otherwise just ditch it. Most waste management places have e-waste collection for free.