Has anyone ever done a new aquadag ?

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I was wondering if anyone has ever done a complete new aquadag on a tube, or maybe just fixed a part of it ?

When I moved the monitor from my Hard Drivin' from my gameroom into my house the wind actually simply blew away a small part of it !

The entire tube was really dusty, Already cleaned the area around the anode hole but left the rest in fear to hurt the dag.

I already found graphit laquer in spray can available here which is intended for (re)creating the dag so that wont be a problem, but Id like to know if someone has succeeded and maybe if there are any tips.

Since this is a med-res tube I have to be extra careful....
 
This is actually a somewhat common problem in the vintage television world. Old aquadag was a lot more fragile, and it's not uncommon to find 40's or 50's era set with the aquadag completely flaked off the tube. Long ago someone found something called "Lubriplate" which is an industrial graphite spray paint intended for coating moving surfaces to reduce friction, but it's a graphite compound and conductive, and works for replacement aquadag.

If it's a small bit missing, say, an inch or two, it really doesn't affect much of anything. As long as the bulk of the coating is there you're fine. Remember, the purpose of the coating is to act as one of the plates of a large capacitor - the glass of the tube is the insulator, and a coating on the inside of the tube is the other plate. The surface area is high enough that a few square inches missing makes no difference.

But, to fix it, if you only have a section missing, you can just clean the area and repaint that one bit, but if it's all flaking off, clean it all away and repaint to ensure it adheres well. Mask off the areas you don't want painted - you need to keep the clearance around the anode connection to prevent arcing. Try to mimic the pattern that was originally painted on. And remember that it's the conductive properties you're going for, not cosmetic appearance.

I've never had to repaint a modern tube. I've had some with chunks of coating missing, but nothing bad enough to warrant going to all the trouble.

-Ian
 
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