CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Nashou66]

Mat, i can send you a Apple Bellow and I think I might have a complete or at least get a section of an original bellow but it would have already been from an old tube with the original glycol. I can also send a sample of the CRT coolant from the original and from the new apple Rubber Bellow. As I have both and both chambers, original and new( painted) have some sort of growth.

The best solution would be be to bring both complete chambers with C -elements and Tubes and Glycol right to you.

Its a 3 hour drive maybe a bit more to you I think.

Athanasios

[stridsvognen]

I don't think its possible to clean the new belows with isopropyl alcohol, and if thats all you use i'm sure there will be plenty of release oil left on the rubber. Alcohol have never been very effective to clean off oil.

Sounds like a good idea to make some real analyses of the glycol / OF .. Hope you find the source to the problem Matt.

[dturco]

[mc86]

I don't have a liquid coupled machine (yet), but I do have resources to play with this stuff and am curious! OK, the time I don't really have, but during summer I can slip this in the background and can make my lab assistants do a bit of the work with me. I got the dye transmittance curve done this week, for example.

Nashou, from the sounds of how hard you work, when the heck could you make time to do this!? That said, I'd be thrilled to play host to you if you can justify the time! Come for a day or stay the night, we love guests. I have but two preconditions: 1) No pointing out how bad my ECP setup looks and 2) I get to come see your blend in action sometime! The ones with growth/junk are most appealing, but clean/baseline stuff is helpful.

Dave, I think it is legal to mail the stuff. I'll actually be in Arlington on the 25th/26th, but won't have time to play. On that Sunday I get to meet Don (wallace), tho'. Anyway, put a few ounces/~50mL in the mail. I need mere microliters (a gnat's ass worth) for GC or LC, but a few mL for UV/VIS, RI, looking for cells, etc. Anyone else: PM me and send it along...

As per removing excess oils, I would probably rinse with hexane (unless I thought the release agent was silicone based) to start. Motor oil, for example, mixes with hexane almost as if it were food coloring in water! There wouldn't be any oil left when I got done...

Matt Cline
CHEM ENG DH B211
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

cheers,
Matt

[dturco]

Yes, Orison is legal to mail, that's how I got it.

[ronaldus]

Hi Me again,

I took my tube assemblies out of the chassis to be able to put my projector on the cealing and therefore i took off the lenses.

The blue tube that had the "snowflakes" was leaking (very little). I'll post a picture tomorrow. I remember that I had to redo the blue tube 3 times and i still didn't get the C element nicely mounted Every time the bellow was pushed out a little on one side (as if the rubber was too small in diameter to stay in place in the housing) when i tried to push in the C element.

Could this leaking let in water or something?

I guess I need a new bellow Nashou?

Regards,

Ron.

[CIR Engineering]

Interesting thread.

I used an Apple bellow with the Tech Spray CF about 18 months ago on a new green tube. I tore down this projector yesterday and there was no "fungus" in the chamber. I did not clean the bellow at all before I used it and I even reused the original filler screws and all other hardware. I did not paint the chamber either. The other two tubes were original and the red had fungus and the blue did not.

What about different formulations of silicone? For example, acetic acid is released by traditional silicone ("silicone 1) as it cures. "Silicone 2" however releases ammonia as it cures. I think originally all these would have been assembled with traditional silicone. Could ammonia or other released chemical from the silicone be causing the issue? Has anyone gotten "fungus" who has assembled without the use of silicone?

I just ran the ideas in this thread past my father. He is a PhD of polymer science and really knows a lot about everything chemistry related. He feels strongly that the most likely cause is the release compound from the bellows. He scoffed at the idea that the "fungus" is caused by aluminum oxidation or corrosion.

Kind regards,
craigr

[dturco]

I had the fungus on two sets of tubes and did not use any silicone on the bellows, but did use silicone [GE] on the potting on one set and the other set had the standard marquee potting material.

[Nashou66]

I'll send you one for free Ron if you just cover 1/2 the shipping. It should fit fine tho? Weird.

Craig, that is interesting. I do know that exposed Aluminum to the CRT coolant will cause a reaction, especially if the Aluminum is pitted.

I have now sold close to 225 bellows. Thats about 75 sets and have only had a small % that have grown the crystals.

Craig where the Bellows on Blains?

Athanasios

[CIR Engineering]

[ronaldus]

Hi Athanasios,

That's super kind of you!

I'll pay off course all the shipping but I'll send a picture tomorrow so that you can check first if it was not me making a mistake. Since my CRT adventure started with changing bellows and that's not the easiest part for a new-be. What is strange though is that the other two bellows worked out the first time.

I think I'll order one bellow more because my green tube needs cleaning.

One off topic question. I would like some pictures of my theatre and also about my home made motorized projector ceiling mount (Horz movement only) is there a special thread for that?

Cheers,

Ron.

[Nashou66]

[haireez]

Guys, I used to get fungus / crystal on all my tubes but after getting some advice, I decided to use propylene & glycerine (75/25%) combination. I did clean the chamber with Bleach & clean water first to kill the bacteria. Since February, my tubes has been perfect.

Here is the thread and good luck! : https://www.curtpalme.com/forum_archived/viewtopic.php@t=30414.html

[stridsvognen]

Sorry maybe i got something wrong here, but i was sure that it was not organic fungus, but a chemical reaction between metal and the liquid..?

[ronaldus]

Hi again,

As promised a few pictures of the leaking blue tube.

[CIR Engineering]

I don't think this is actually fungus either, but Matt made the point that it should be scientifically ruled out. I don't think it has been scientifically ruled out yet.

craigr

[ronaldus]

Hi everybody,

I have created a photo album of my HT so that you have some Idea of it

Cheers,

Ron.

[draganm]

[ronaldus]

Thanks Draganm,

I'll try to empty the tube tomorrow en try also to recuperate the bellow if possible.

I'll post pictures to see how it looks.

Regards,

Ron.

[dturco]

Also I have found that removing the swivel plates helps.. a lot.