CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Satchmo]

Yes, dumb question, sorry. Totally new to this

My university is auctioning off some sony 1292Q and 1272Q projectors (3 of each), and it looks like I could get them for very cheap. I want to be able to take a look at the tubes to get some idea of wear (as much as my untrained eye will be able to tell). How do I get the cover/lenses off so I can get in there to look at the tubes? Anything else I should look for? (I probably won't be allowed to completely disassemble the thing, but who knows.)

I guessing I'll be able to buy them for around $75 bucks, if not less (nobody bought them 2 weeks ago when the minimum bid was $150, this week there is no minimum bid.) Do you think it would be worth picking up a spare one for parts at that price?

Thanks for helping this newb out.

[Nashou66]

Id get them all!!!, First off the 1292 you can sell just the focus coils with the harnesses for about 400-500 for the set(3 each). the 1272's are good for the 75 each I guess and i'd ask for all three for 200.

Athaansios

[jkruger]

You can shine a flashlite into the lens and see whether they have bad burns or not, but it sounds like you should buy them all.

[perisoft]

Seriously, multiple 1292s for a few hundred... if you can swing it, buy 'em. I'd sleep in my mailbox for a week for one of those.

[jkruger]

If you have the space and the intuition to work on them, definitely buy them all. The parts alone are worth more than you think.

[ecrabb]

Guys... Telling a newbie to buy no less than SIX CRT projectors?!?!?!? That's just CRUEL!!! You're talking about half a TON of CRT projectors that would take 2 guys, 3 SUV's (or two pickup trucks) to even transport. Then there's the storage. The poor sap would have no idea what he'd be getting himself into.

But, Satchmo... Yeah... definitely buy them if you can get them cheap. Yes, we have a problem...

Satchmo, what you might want to do is post your general location (say, maybe the state), and see if there's one of us CRT nuts nearby that would be interested in giving you a hand and taking on a project like this with you. Moving, storing, and most of all repairing or even parting out six projectors all by yourself is a LOT of work. But rescuing the projectors (or at least the parts) from the recycler is worth the work. There's a good-sized community of nuts for these machines that would love to have the machines or the parts.

Read up, though before you start tearing into these things. The 1292 especially is easy to damage if you don't know what you're doing. If you remove the wrong screws in the course of trying to remove the lenses, you can dump glycol into the projector and likely destroy it.

The 1272's... Pretty durable. Not much to screw up on them.

SC

[jkruger]

Aw c'mon SC, if he's gonna get in, lets get him in big..... Satchmo, He's right, six pjs would one hell of a project. Where are they? You might find some guys that would buy some of them with you if they were close. At the very least buy the 1272's, one to keep, one to sell and one for parts.

[speedyandre]

The 1292's front cover is easy to open, remove the two bolts on top and then pick the front cover off.
On top of the 1272 is the key pad, remove it's cover if it's there and then you see 2 black bolts.
When removed you can shift the dark plastic cover backwards and then lift it.
On the front you now can see 2 tabs of the front cover, push them down gently and pull the front cover off.
If you want to check the tubes you can remove the lenses (4 bolts each).

The 1292 has coloured c-elements, don't remove them because there is fluid (glycol) behind them!
If you have enough room to stall all the crt's you're lucky, the 1292 is huge
When moving the crt's don't let them fall, you could damage the tubes (glass!), lenses and other heavy parts.

Can you learn me how to bump into 6 Sony crt's, I would love to and then hire a big van to move them home

André

[Brooklyn]

I'd pick up the 1292's if possible. Even with heavy wear you should be able to sell of some parts. Only get the 1272s if you have the room/motivation. If the 1272s have any significant wear I'd wouldn't get them at all personally.

You have to make sure they will even let you pull the lenses. If not just bring a flashlight to look into the lenses. Usually looking into a corner of a CRT with a good eye will reveal any wear.

[Satchmo]

Well, I ended up buying just two 1292's for around 150 total. I was mistaken earlier, there were two 1292's and four 1272's. I just don't have the space for all of these (I knew CRT projectors were going to be big, I did not think they were going to be THAT big!)

I hope you don't hate me too much when you hear that all of the 72's went for under thirty dollars...


I've only fiddled around with the projector for a few minutes, but it looks to me like the blue tube on this one is bad. At least on the alignment pattern, the blue output is much dimmer. Hopefully I'll have better luck with the other one, I'll be kicking myself if both have bad blues, and I let the 72's go for so cheap...

Is a remote required to set these up?

[ecrabb]

$150 for two 1292's is a steal - almost regardless of condition. Amazing. If the blue is fried enough that you don't want to use it as an HT projector, you'll EASILY be able to get you money back out of them and can buy a machine that's in good condition for yourself. In that case, as Athanasios mentioned, the focus coils and harnesses are valuable... But, many other parts off the machine are also salable.

No remote required. The built-in control and remote are identical, save for the IR/remote capability. It's just a pain hovering over (or under the control panel) and making adjustments. You should be able to find an RM-PJ1292 pretty reasonably on fleabay. The remotes for the 12xx series will also work, but you'll be missing the MG (magnetic) focus button. No big deal, there because you can just use the built-in control for that.

http://www.curtpalme.com/Sony1292_Downloads.shtm

Take some time and read up on the machine. Read the manual, do some searches and read posts here, and familiarize yourself with the machine. Once you're comfortable with it, then and only then, start tearing into it. Then, we want some PHOTOS!!!

Make ABSOLUTELY sure you've read a few posts and looked at a couple of photos so you know why screws to remove to correctly remove the lenses.

Where are you, BTW?

Congrats on the SCORE and welcome to the forum!

SC

[Curt Palme]

[Curt Palme]

[speedyandre]

Even bumping into 2 1292's for $150 would make me VERY happy
Start with looking at the lenses, if these are HD-10f's then I may be interested (if you don't mind to send them overseas).
A powersupply unit (mounted under the lenses) would be nice too, these parts are quite hard to find in europe
I'm looking for some other things like the metal part that holds the 2 big boards up and the remote sensor print on the back is useful too
(all above would make a very heavy package to send overseas )

André

[Satchmo]

I did some more fooling around today. I've still got it in the garage (and the other in the back of my trunk.) I'm not so sure if the blue is gone or not, I think I need some expert opinions .

I did some quick and dirty focusing, and took these pictures to show the difference in brightness. (The projector is brighter than these pictures make it seem, my camera is just garbage)

http://img137.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01163kt6.jpg

http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01170uq0.jpg

http://img390.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01171pw7.jpg

http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01172zs1.jpg

and all three at once..

http://img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01173om1.jpg

The blue definitely seems dimmer to me, but I have no idea if that's just an inherent tendency or not.



I read through the manual and couldn't find anything about removing the lenses. I'd normally be the type to just pick a set and go for it, but I'm quite afraid of the glycol apocalypse I've been warned about. I see three sets of four screws:
-One set directly above, below, left, and right of the center of the lense.
-One set, each screw between those of the above set.
-One set, on these spring thingies...

http://img131.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01180fv9.jpg



Also, can I check the hours logged on the projector?

-speedyandre: they are indeed HD-10f's, won't know if I'll be selling off parts for awhile though! You'll be the first to know if I do though
-escrabb: I'm in Tucson, AZ

[Satchmo]

[speedyandre]

Blue looks dimmer most of the time and certainly if the crt has been working overtime.
With my 1292 I can look into the blue lens without hurting my eyes, it's that dim here
The red and green look like lasers compared to the blue tube
Each lens has 4 black bolts and it's no problem to pick off the lenses.
The c-elements have their own bolts (top, bottom, sides) so they won't get loose when you take off the lens.
My warning was to be sure that you don't remove the wrong bolts.
I'll look for a pic where you can see which 4 bolts are fixing the lens.

André

[ecrabb]

Best way to see how good the blue tube is and if there is any uneven wear or burn is to use a white field. Press the "test" key and cycle through patterns until you get to the all-white. Of course, without a screen or at least a white wall, it'll be hard to evaluate, anyway.

If you're half-way mechanically inclined, you can look at the lenses and tell which screws to take out - the screws that are engaging the lens flange. They should be at 45, 135, 225, 315. The other screws (at 0, 90, 180, 270) completely miss the lens flange completely and instead engage the C-element. That latter are the screws you don't want to take out. Basically, it's pretty obvious once you know what you're looking at. What gets guys into trouble is they just start taking screws out without even paying attention to what they're screwed into. Be careful with those lenses - they're very heavy. Remove the bottom screws first, then move up to the top. Be very careful to avoid scratching the rear element.

Sweet. Hours aren't bad, and those look like some nice HD-10F's. You got a damn steal for that money. I'm jealous. A 1292 in good condition is a hell of a projector. Can't wait to see pics of the tubes after you get the lenses off.

Tucson - cool. My folks have a little place in SaddleBrooke. I actually wouldn't mind living there - I love the dry air - but I can't convince the wife to live in the desert... yet. Colorado front range might be the compromise in a few years.

SC

[Satchmo]

Just to be clear here, am I removing the screws as shown in this pic
http://www.curtpalme.com/images/G90_C_Element_Change_Step07.jpg
Or the screws even further out on the corner of the large black...thing.

[ecrabb]

Exactly. Another dead giveaway are the lens sense leads... Those ground to the chassis on the lens mounting screw and tell the projector if the lenses are removed.

You can also tell the four lens mounting screws because they have the big fat flanges/washers on them - because they're holding a 10-pound lens on the projector.

SC

[Satchmo]