Cheating Death...sort of.

There seem to be two different schools of thought when it comes to discharging a CRT TV. The first (and unfortunately the less popular) is the "it's really not that bad if you're careful" school. The second, and more abundant, is the "this will probably kill you/there is no hope" school. I would like to say I was trying to adhere to the former, but its hard to deny the ubiquity of the latter when looking at the high voltage-conducting copper and steel innards of a piece of electronic equipment that was manufactured a decade ago.

But I digress.

Blame the cold, blame the fact that we did zero work on Saturday, but sometime Sunday afternoon we decided to tackle the TV portion of the project which involved removing the TV from the case and discharging it--removing the remaining voltage stored in the cathode ray tube so it is safe to handle (the shock from a still-charged tube can kill you). There are plenty of resources out there on how and why (to prevent your ceasing to be) to discharge a TV. We read most of them and were sufficiently scared, to say the least. While being fairly knowledgeable about computers and gadgets in general, the two of us have a combined electronics (read: volts, watts, amps, circuit boards and copper wire) knowledge of a whopping zero. That being said, if you are trying to do this yourself, do not use this post as a guide. We are not professionals, we are hobbyists. There are people with similar sites that do not post how to discharge a TV for liability reasons, but the information is out there, and you won't have much of a case if you try to sue us. Also, we had a different experience from others discharging a TV, and this is just to add to the knowledge base about the topic.

Here is what we did:

1.) Removed the back casing (our JVC had 6 screws).



2.) Performed the discharge (pardon the language, I was scared).


CRT Discharge 1 from Dan Price on Vimeo.

As you can see, our TV was no longer holding a charge. It had been unplugged for a few weeks, and in some TVs (not all) this is enough to drain the remaining voltage in the tube. Some TVs can hold electricity for years, even if unplugged. I was much more comfortable moving the TV around once we had done this step.


3.) We did it again (and again) to be sure.


CRT Discharge 2 from Dan Price on Vimeo.


4.) Removed the front casing (4 bolts, unplugged front control board).



5.) Attacked the front casing with the reciprocating saw. (Note: this is the best and worst tool ever invented. It will cut the crap out of stuff, just not very gracefully. This is not a precision tool. This is a "I don't really care what this looks like" tool. And since this will all be covered by the bezel...we don't really care what this looks like.) The point of this is so the bezel will fit flush to the glass.





6.) Put everything back together (with the help of some gaff tape).


We decided to keep the TV in its case for a few reasons: First, because we could. It fits perfectly inside of the cabinet (within 1/8 of an inch). Second, because it is safer. The TV will regain its charge once it is plugged in, and we don't want the insides exposed if we have to go in the back and do some work. Third, it eliminates the need for us to build a frame for the TV so it will stand up. We will place the TV on the shelf (once it is installed) and hold it in place with some 2x2 braces.

That's it! Monitor work = done (the scary stuff at least). It is a big weight off of our shoulders.