Rejuve... I love you...

Scucci

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While I was up at the arcade, Jay Gallagher stopped by to work on a few of his machines... ... he brought a rejuvenator with him.

After watching him clean his 4600 on Frogger... I had to ask him if we could do a session on my Tron. It's a 4900 with a blue gun I KNEW was messed up, but I didn't know how much. Turns out all the guns were rough, but the blue went off like a lightning storm in the tube, took something like 30 cooks to get it to were the meters looked right. The green was also a bit messy, but nothing like the blue was.

We fire the machine back up and I quickly adjusted the color levels... ... holy... shit. The monitor looks brand fucking new. This is the original monitor for the machine... and it looks like it just came from the factory. Granted, I need to do focus a little more, but without taking the shroud out, we dialed it in as best we could.

I've never been able to get the grids on the bugs, traces on the tanks, and blocks on the cycles to show without turning the color up so far that some of the other colors messed up (grey became VERY blueish, etc etc).

So, I've decided that before I get any more games (hopefully) I'll get one of these and redo every tube I have any doubts about.

World of difference... I literally can't believe how good it looks now. I'm actually giddy about it.
 
yeah, got my K7500 zapped today. :001_ssuprised:

like you said, it looks like BRAND FUCKING NEW. I have to re-cap it though, again.

someone asked last night or maybe a couple nights ago if a rejuvenator was worth having. I'd say, especially if you got a lot of older monitors, that it's well worth the price of admission after the first use. the rest of my monitors are pretty healthy (the U5000s excluded, cause they're just junk anyway) so I have no use for one. I guess we could always just leech off other people with them if need be. :p
 
Have you started saying, "How did I ever get along without this?" yet?

I spent a solid 10 mins just standing there saying "holy shit... wow... ... wow."

Yeah, considering the time I spend adjusting my worn out monitors to get the colors and brightness right...I can honestly say I have no idea how I've managed to get along without one.

I THINK I have some before pictures... I'll have to get some good afters (just had my phone with me).... but it's night and day.
 
There... no good "before" pictures... but the after picture speaks for itself.

Atleast it does for me... I know what they befores looked like in person... uggg...
 

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The rejuvinator is a great tool - I love mine. But, be warned that it's not always a permanent fix. Sometimes it works great and cleans the guns and the tube lasts a good long while... other times, it's back to crappy within a couple weeks. The Zenith tubes in the 25" Wells Gardner monitors seem to be especially prone to this. The older 19" tubes I've had great luck with. But, even with the rejuvinator, there will be tubes you can't save.

That in mind, I've been really impressed with what I *was* able to save. I have a junky 4900 - came out of a bad bootleg Pac conversion. It has burn from at least three different games. All three guns were really, really weak, especially green, - and in the "Pac", it looked awful. After capping the chassis, it still looked terrible - only not warpy. Spent a good long time zapping it with the rejuvinator and got the guns to come back - only to about half though. Some adjusting and the picture was remarkably usable.

Another good trick with the rejuvinator - before you "zap" a tired tube, dial the heater voltage up to 8 volts for fifteen minutes or so, and let it sit there. Then dial it back down to normal and check again. Sometimes if a tube has been sitting for a long time, it needs to "wake up" and running the filament a bit hot (sometimes overnight) will clean it enough to work again. This is mostly true of very old tubes though - I also collect old TV sets, so it's not unheard of to find a tube that hasn't been used in 30 years. Cooking it like this makes a huge difference sometimes. Arcade tubes, since they aren't that old, don't often suffer from this - but I once had a monitor (4900, iirc) that was real slow to warm up - ran the heater at 8v for a couple hours and it came back.

-Ian
 
Another tip: If possible, rejuvenate with the tube front facing down and the neck upward... as you're rejuving, give the neck a firm (but not too firm... you don't want to break it) tap or two. This tends to knock of the shit that's settled in the neck down to the bottom of the tube.
 
the two tv guys I have talked to actually don't recommend them as a permanent fix. The praises here really don't mean much without a couple months of use to see if the fix is permanent. Personally I have focused my energy on just doing tube swaps. I figure that way the problem is fixed forever. I realize its alot easier to plug a rejuver on the end of a tube, but if you understand whats inside the neck and how you are fixing it, its not really the perfect 'collector' solution. I would compare it to taking a bald tire and cutting new tread in with a knife.
 
the two tv guys I have talked to actually don't recommend them as a permanent fix. The praises here really don't mean much without a couple months of use to see if the fix is permanent. Personally I have focused my energy on just doing tube swaps. I figure that way the problem is fixed forever. I realize its alot easier to plug a rejuver on the end of a tube, but if you understand whats inside the neck and how you are fixing it, its not really the perfect 'collector' solution. I would compare it to taking a bald tire and cutting new tread in with a knife.

Yeah, they're trying to sell you something. Rejuv's aren't guaranteed, but of the 4 I've done, 2 worked, 2 didn't... and the 2 that worked are still working after about a year or so.
 
Another tip: If possible, rejuvenate with the tube front facing down and the neck upward... as you're rejuving, give the neck a firm (but not too firm... you don't want to break it) tap or two. This tends to knock of the shit that's settled in the neck down to the bottom of the tube.


Put the tube on a blanket or pillow. The tube will scratch itself under it's own weight.
 
What does one of those devices run and is there a recommended model?


Discussed many times. Cheap ones on ebay.

B & K models 467 through 490-B. The model 466 if it has been converted/updated to use modern "CR" series adapters.

Sencore CR70 and CR7000. Very expensive but the best of the best. These are the Rolls-Royce of rejuvenators.
 
There are a couple of HEATHKIT rejuvs on ebay right now... will those work or are they garbage?

Also... what is a "good" price for the B&K models and the Sencore models? I currently borrow a Sencore from a friend, but it's a pain in the ass borrowing it as he lives about 30 minutes away.
 
There are a couple of HEATHKIT rejuvs on ebay right now... will those work or are they garbage?

Also... what is a "good" price for the B&K models and the Sencore models? I currently borrow a Sencore from a friend, but it's a pain in the ass borrowing it as he lives about 30 minutes away.

I don't about the Heathkit... I'm not sure about the rejuves, but I know their o-scopes come as, well... Kits. So, it's all about how well the person who got it put it together... I just don't trust that level of QA sometimes. lol

But, yeah... I was looking at those too... lol
 
Yeah, they're trying to sell you something. Rejuv's aren't guaranteed, but of the 4 I've done, 2 worked, 2 didn't... and the 2 that worked are still working after about a year or so.

nope, one is a close friend who wasn't selling me anything and another was a local tv guy at my town that I went to visit with (I hadn't seen him in years) who also wasn't selling me anything.
 
Heathkit is absolutely very good quality because you build-it-yourself. However, Heathkit (Heath Company of Benton Harbor) has been out of the business for twenty years. They are an educational company now selling electronics courses. They do still stock repair parts for their old products.

HEATHKIT manuals are still under copyright and the copyrights were assigned to this company:

http://sc2.vom.com/d8/index.fwx?C=MANUALS

They are your source for officially authorized and licensed reproduction Heathkit manuals much like Pinball Resource is the source of Gottlieb manuals.

I have never used a Heathkit rejuvenator so I don't know if it can be used with our picture tubes or if any adapters are available.

B & K rejuvenators can go $50 to $300 on ebay. The last model B & K made, the 490-B (which uses "CA" adapters and not the CR series) sold new for $1,500 as of two years ago. B & K no longer make rejuvenators.

Sencore test equipment has always been expensive. The CR70 and CR7000 are very expensive. The CR7000 has a list price of $2,000. Naturally these often go for quite a bit on ebay even as "used" equipment.
 
Just one question. I've heard that rejuving tubes takes some life out of them. Is this true? If so are we talking about reducing the life of the tube by years, months, days, hours? Just curious as I'm pretty sure I have access to a rejuver but have not tried yet due to concern of killing a tube.
 
There is always a risk anytime you rejuvenate a tube. It depends on several factors:

Quality/capabilities of the particular model rejuvenator.

Skill of the operator.

The internal condition of a particular picture tube.

Over the years I've found that a rejuvenator can save 8 out of 10 picture tubes. Remember a rejuvenator is also a tester. It can check the internal condition of a tube. Some models have a "life" test to give you an idea of how much life is left on a particular tube.
 
Just one question. I've heard that rejuving tubes takes some life out of them. Is this true? If so are we talking about reducing the life of the tube by years, months, days, hours? Just curious as I'm pretty sure I have access to a rejuver but have not tried yet due to concern of killing a tube.

This is partially true. Essentially what the rejuvinator is doing is stripping the outer (depleted) layer of crud off the cathode so that more usable surface is exposed, and thus more electrons can be emitted. It is possible to strip all the material off the cathode, thus completely ruining it. So, you can only "zap" it a couple times. But, if the gun is weak, it's not producing a usable or good picture anyway - so it's kinda hard to go wrong. It was already unusable, so killing it completely isn't much different.

If you hit a weak tube with the rejuvinator and bring it back - you're effectively extending it's life, not shortening it. If you hadn't rejuvinated it, you wouldn't have really been able to use it anyway - you have very little to lose.

The most important function of the tube rejuvinator (for me, anyway) is using it to test a tube. It can show you how much emission the guns have, and you can gauge from that if the tube needs a rejuve or not. If the guns are still strong - rejuvinating them will only shorten their lifespan, since very little can be gained. If they are weak, and a zap brings them back, then you've just taken an unusable tube and made it usable for longer.

As for a lasting effect... it depends on the tube and the situation, and why the cathode was contaminated in the first place. Sometimes it's a good fix that lasts for years - other times it doesn't last and you're right back where you started. You can also do a "life test" with the rejuvinator to get a feel for how strong the guns are - by reducing the heater voltage (or switching it off completely) and seeing how long it takes for emissions to drop. If the needle drops immediately, then it's on it's last legs - and if it takes several seconds, you're usually good for a while.

It's also possible (through misadjusting knobs) to burn out the heater on the tube with a rejuvinator, by driving it with too high a voltage. You can also overheat the heater and cause it to sag and short to the cathode - and may not be able to clear the resulting short. So ensure that you know what all the switches and knobs do, and how to operate the device. It's very possible to destroy the tube through misuse.

Once you have the rejuvinator, using it on a weak tube costs nothing to try, and you have little to lose - because even if you kill the tube completely - all you've lost is a weak tube.

-Ian
 
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