Do not disassemble a CRT on a whim. Even if you’re being careful, it can go wrong. There’s strong magnets, glass under pressure, capacitors that can hold a deadly charge for a long time, and toxic chemicals.
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
553 points (98.8% liked)
Funny
12199 readers
842 users here now
General rules:
- Be kind.
- All posts must make an attempt to be funny.
- Obey the general sh.itjust.works instance rules.
- No politics or political figures. There are plenty of other politics communities to choose from.
- Don't post anything grotesque or potentially illegal. Examples include pornography, gore, animal cruelty, inappropriate jokes involving kids, etc.
Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The cathode tube itself can hold thousands of volts for a damn long time.
OP I hope you knew how to discharge all that shit and how to dispose of that thing
OP survived the plague... I doubt some electricity will kill them.
Don't listen to this guy, he's just trying to hoard all the best copper scrap for himself!
Strong magnets? That's not something I've ever come across having worked on several CRTs
They are part of the deflection yoke. If you saw that chunky core wrapped in magnet wire on the skinny end of the tube that's what that was. They aren't always permanent magnets, most of the later model TVs used electromagnets, but it's how the electron beam is moved across the screen. All of them will have very strong magnets somewhere by design.
Shout out to Philo T Farnsworth!
He grew up in Idaho and the small town he hailed from had a sign calling themselves the ‘Birthplace of TV’. That sign was frequently vandalized to read ‘Birthplace of VD’.
Both statements have some validity.
Ok, I thought you meant permanent magnets. Of course I know about the deflection coils. There are also some small permanent magnets for the convergence
load more comments
(5 replies)
They may not get your face, but that thing is pretty recognizable. Maybe do a mass produced guy fawkes mask instead?
The key is to breathe in the microplastics deeply.
This thing is so old, they are macro plastics.
Y’all on microplastics, I’ve been on that macroplastic grind since I was three. I eat a Lego every day with breakfast. My body may die, but it’ll be preserved like a majestic twinky.
Don't those old monitors have high voltage components that you can use to make a DIY tazer, if not kill yourself in process.
Yes. The capacitors can carry a high charge for a long time. Much longer than you'd think. Also there is a pressurized glass tube with very strong magnets which could lead to sever pinching or breaking the pressure tube.
It's definitely not something people should do without knowing what they're doing.
Not just the capacitors, the tube itself is a capacitor that handles multiple kilovolts, so you can easily hit the wrong side of the flyback transformer or poke the wrong part of the tube and get fried.
Not just an "Ouch, don't do that again", more of a heart just stops.
CRT taser sounds like a very poor idea
Yes, but hear me out.
You can REALLY fuck shit up with 20kV.
People around lemmy think Marx (generators) are cool, but I am a Cockcroft-Walton man myself.
And a fantastic ska band
Fun fact: Anything with a big capacitor/s can be use to make a DIY taser, sometimes it's as easy as removing the case to expose the circuit board and pressing that against your enemies.
Brings me back to when everyone in my highschool got really into DIY tasers. Some of us still carry the burn scars.
Me and my friends figured out you could buy big CRT televisions for about $12 from thrifts once flat screens were a majority. We used to smash them with baseball bats in the woods. Did this over and over because it was cheap thrill. Never realized how dangerous this potentially could have been.
We had a guy in our city rob a bank, wearing a hoodie, but it exposed a bit of his face, which showed him to be Caucasian.
Later they realized that he had used a stretchy fabric hood with a face printed on it. They sell them on the Internet, often with celebrity faces. When pulled over the head, it clings to your face, and looks a lot like a real face, if you don't get a close look. It fooled the little local cops and news for a minute. It might work well to fool facial rec, especially when all the protesters are described as looking like Kobe Bryant.
The big brain play is to get a stretchy fabric hood with your actual face on it because why would anyone do that? If they question you, say that you're being framed.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Ok but what about Gait recog ?
Put a stone in your shoe, then when you see a camera, use the stone to smash it.
Put a pebble in your shoe
That poor CRT monitor deserved better than that.
Nobody tell Adrian
Trying to decide what’s worse: trying to breathe or the feel of adhesive and sharp bits of plastic against my face.
It looks well ventilated.
seems like there were no adhesives. It's rather masterfully stitched together
You'll still need to get around gait recognition.
A few shots of spirit can fix that.
A rock in one shoe and a buttplug askew…
Until ai recalibrates & notes that as your disheveled state.
Jokes on them. I’m heading to work!
Porksnort goes to work every day in a disheveled state. Noted on your social credit score.
I find this cute! ♥️
I mean, sorta, except then you'll be the dude with the white plague doctor mask, so....
Hmm. Yeah I can see how someone could look at the back of a CRT and envision the sloping down of a forehead into a long beak.
Hide you face but it's not "grey man"
view more: next ›