A while back I picked up a beautiful MX-10160C for a very nice price. Performance wise it was excellent and cosmetically it was practically perfect, except for one thing. It had a fairly bright emission point.



The emission point wasn't horrible, but it was bright enough to be distracting under darker lighting conditions so I took a dot of RTV silicone and covered up the EP on the output side of the tube:




Covering it up basically solved the problem from a useability standpoint, but I was worried that it could possibly grow in size and become an issue in the future. I posted this thread a while back and Almighty Tallest posted a link to Scientia Innovative Solutions and mentioned that emission points can sometimes be fixed through something called laser ablation. Well, a few months later I finally got around to contacting Scientia and spoke with Timothy about getting a laser rework done on the tube. Timothy, who was very friendly, helpful and easy to deal with, had me package up my tube and send it in for evaluation and the laser rework.

I just got the tube back today and it looks amazing. The emission point is gone and there are no blems, burn marks, or any other indications that the EP was even there in the first place. I am very impressed and happy with the results. Here is a picture of the tube after the laser rework:

wow, very cool. what was the cost of the repair?

I think it was a little under $200

THANK YOU!

G.

Pretty cool ! Read many papers of folks doing this to melt the ion barrier film and seal up a emission point. I always knew of this but never seen anyone here actually have someone do it. The results are purely outstanding and the cost is not terrible either. Nice post.

I sent a tube  in the other day with a much larger emission point. I will post pictures when it comes back.
Dave

Does emission point mean the black spot?

No, the black spot was caused by him covering up the very bright white spot which was the emission point. Black spots can't be fixed but in this case the black spot was man made and removable. He covered the emission point with silicone which caused the black spot but hid the annoying emission point. Once the repair was made he just removed the silicone.

Very cool to see the results, so it worked in this case, and didn't cost too much considering how nice the tube is otherwise.

Very, very cool, we should have a necrotube thread, seeing all these tubes being raised from the dead

Someone should buy this tube and have that done. That was my tube and aside from the emission point, it was an outstanding mx-10160 aviator tube. For $1200 total, that'd be one hell of a deal on a gen 3 setup with a tube that isn't all blemmed up.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_7_172/1412943_Mongoose_Unit_Added__AB_Micro__Mongoose_Housings__Envis_Unit__N_Vision_Dovetail_Adapter__Price_Cut.html

Emission points commonly occur where the aluminized surface of the screen begins to flake, and the resultant effect on the electrostatic field causes electrons to be emitted from the bottom of the MCP and causes the screen around the damage to light up.

To solve it, they fire a laser down the optic twister and re-melt the aluminium so as to smooth it out - so the electrostatic field returns to normal and the bright spot goes away...


That's a good example of how it works though - I haven't seen the outcome and nice to hear it can be done so cost effectively - Thanks for sharing -


David

Rich, I thought you were dead.

Good info to have. Thank you for sharing.

can Emission points cause damage to a tube if not fixed or is it a sign that a tube is failing or is it just a bad spot that happens every so offten

They are not good for a tube. They sometimes never get worse but sometimes the Ion Barrier flaking can continue and eventually harm the tube. Small ones they never get worse are usually of little concern. If they grow in size I would look into fixing it. This is a problem sometimes with filmed tubes. I once had a terrible tube that must of had 50 to 60 small emission points. No idea what caused it but I sold the tube as a beater cheap.

Guy was happy with it even though I told him of the potential problems down the road.

I would've put some of that fart dust on it and been done.