Tube Question

[a soBer Newt]

So as a kid I was obsessed with collecting vacuum tubes.  Now i have this huge box full of mainly TV related tubes.  I was wondering what specifically i should be looking for on the data sheets to determine if i can run them at lower plate voltages: under say 20 volts?  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.   

[petemoore]

So as a kid I was obsessed with collecting vacuum tubes.  Now i have this huge box full of mainly TV related tubes.  I was wondering what specifically i should be looking for on the data sheets to determine if i can run them at lower plate voltages: under say 20 volts?  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
  If the TV's had a two prong power supply plug...low numbers where the DSheet says max plate voltage are probably not going to be found, but that's what to look for, smaller Max voltages like ~ less than 100v.
  Perhaps a 60's TV designed for automobile = 12v would have something.
  Otherwise old radios from cars, Caddilac for instance.
  The Store here has NOS submini's for sale.

[GibsonGM]

Yeah, it's hard to find much use for those old TV tubes.   Too bad, I have a HUGE box full of them!!  But they were sprinkled with radio tubes like 50C5's, too, so some were useful )  Maybe try to trade someone online who needs old TV tubes?

[Renegadrian]

Who can say, maybe you just have to try them, some may work in a stompbox! You can be a pioneer of a new research!!!
(or maybe not, italian amp maker used an old TV tube inside one of his amps!) - but hey you can share it afterwards!

http://www.nj7p.org/Tube4.php?index=1
Take a look at the tubes details as a starting point, and try!


EDIT
PCF82 is the tube used by Brunetti. It seems it can be used with good results after some fiddling. Or at least Marco Brunetti did just that!

[amptramp]

I reworked a friend's Traynor amp to eliminate the EL34 outputs which are $37 apiece here and use horizontal sweep tubes.  It has 6BQ6's installed and there is enough room for 6DQ6's.  I had to design a new screen supply since sweep tubes operate at low screen voltages, but it worked.  I got a bushel basket of sweep tubes once for $4.  And the nice thing is, the added plate caps look really butch.

[petemoore]

  The solid state plasmaball screens seem to be the current rage.
  Folks with old caps and tubes driving old cathode rays are getting fewer and farther between, those looking to rebuild old C-R TV's even farther.
  You are not alone as the only one with large box/bags of old CRT support bottles.
  I'm trying to figure out a good way to guess wrong so as to be corrected to the point where I understand how CRT support driver/RF amplifiers work at video. With that a better understanding of why they're not suitable for audio might emerge. 
  Here goes my worst best guess:
  It has something to do with the windings at the back of the CRT, and the impedance matching here.
  Because video and carrier waves are so much higher frequency, they don't do audio range, which is much lower.
  I can't outzen these tubes, and haven't yet thrown them out as totally useless, yet if someone were to ask me that's what I'd tell them.