Is it possible to ship a B&W Wells Gardner 22V1000 safely?

FuturePrimitive

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Is it possible to ship a B&W Wells Gardner 22V1000 safely?

I'm seriously considering picking this Wells Gardner 22V1000 monitor up:

http://evansville.craigslist.org/vgm/2943604427.html

Does anyone have recommendations on how to ship it safely from KY to CO? I have one of these in my Moon Lander, but I would like to have a spare for reference and as a backup in case of an accident.

I guess I could ship just the chassis, but I'm not sure how difficult it would be to find a donor tube. I've heard that it's risky to ship these tubes unless you use a specific method for packing them. Is it possible to ship the whole thing if done correctly? I could really use this monitor to preserve this unique game.

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!
 
I've never shipped a tube, if I did I'd probably get an old TV off the side of the road and install it into it's case to protect it. Obviously it's unlikely that the seller will be willing to do that, so hopefully someone comes up with a better idea.
 
I've never shipped a tube, if I did I'd probably get an old TV off the side of the road and install it into it's case to protect it. Obviously it's unlikely that the seller will be willing to do that, so hopefully someone comes up with a better idea.

I'd never thought of that! It might be a hassle to find a 23" TV case. Depending on its size, it's possible to find a 22" or 24". I have a 24" Sony Trinitron CRT that would probably do well for it. Maybe he could find one local, but as you said, it's unlikely that the seller would be willing to install it.

I talked to the seller for a good while discussing possibilities for shipment. He said he's willing to do it, since it would be going to a good home. However, he agrees that the tube shipment would be risky without some sort of packaging solution.

Thanks for the input on this! I was considering some sort of encasing for it, but couldn't think of something as obvious as a TV case!

Are there any other shipping options to make sure that damage can be prevented? Like the neck breaking or tube imploding?

I hope to gather up some ideas in the next couple of days and pitch them to the seller. Even he's curious to see if I can come up with something. The guy has owned a crazy amount of arcade parts!
 
This is a black and white monitor, and you're going to have a hard time finding a TV set that the tube will bolt into. But, with some modifications, you might be able to get it to almost fit in something.

That being said, you could also build a simple wooden frame or crate around the monitor to protect it. That's probably what I would do. A wooden box that you can bolt the monitor into that wouldn't give around the neck - that's the key. You need to be sure nothing hits the neck of the tube. The face is actually quite strong. You also need to be sure that there will be nothing loose inside the box that could hit or break the neck.

I don't think the yoke on this monitor is heavy, but that's another concern on other kinds of monitors. Dropping it will cause the weight of the yoke to shear off the neck of the picture tube.

Putting the tube face down in the box (obviously on something soft) will help to prevent this. It's also a bit more stable like that. You just have to be sure that whatever you pack the monitor in is strong enough to support whatever weight might get stacked onto the box.

It's doable. You just have to think of all the angles and possible circumstances.

-Ian
 
This is a black and white monitor, and you're going to have a hard time finding a TV set that the tube will bolt into. But, with some modifications, you might be able to get it to almost fit in something.

That being said, you could also build a simple wooden frame or crate around the monitor to protect it. That's probably what I would do. A wooden box that you can bolt the monitor into that wouldn't give around the neck - that's the key. You need to be sure nothing hits the neck of the tube. The face is actually quite strong. You also need to be sure that there will be nothing loose inside the box that could hit or break the neck.

I don't think the yoke on this monitor is heavy, but that's another concern on other kinds of monitors. Dropping it will cause the weight of the yoke to shear off the neck of the picture tube.

Putting the tube face down in the box (obviously on something soft) will help to prevent this. It's also a bit more stable like that. You just have to be sure that whatever you pack the monitor in is strong enough to support whatever weight might get stacked onto the box.

It's doable. You just have to think of all the angles and possible circumstances.

-Ian

+1 for this, I've received just one monitor that was shipped, and this was how it was done, bolted into a wooden cube made of 2x4's, sheet of plywood over the side that the neck points at. Bet it added a ton to the shipping weight, but it worked really well.
 
It's true that the B&W chassis would have trouble fitting in a normal TV case, although that idea would work great for more modern arcade monitors!

This crate idea is just what I was looking for! I'll make sure to run this plan by him and see what he thinks.

This is exactly why I love the KLOV forums... There is a vast amount of knowledge pooled together here. This community can be vital to preserving these games. Now I know two ways to transport a complete monitor!

Big thanks to Hewitson, RetroHacker, and ReWrite for the advice! I'm really excited about this and hope the shipment works out. I'll post an update soon if the shipment is successful. Wish me luck guys!

Thanks again!
 
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