Upcycle a 70s TV Into a Monitor

In this project I replaced the high-voltage CRT innards of a 40-year-old television with a modern(ish) flat panel monitor, keeping the original look.

I can't resist these older style TVs, they have a classic retro look and always remind me of tuning channels as a child, trying to get a watchable picture on one of the three available channels!

I was more interested in the case than the guts, so the old CRT tube and dusty circuits went to the tip.

For the panel I bought a 14" LCD monitor for £4 from a sale - these are quite widely available second hand, especially if they have an older beige coloured case. The panel and circuits were removed from the outer case, which was discarded.

The TV case dismantled really cleanly, with the front face separating from the main body - being shallow it made fitting the new panel much easier.

The flat panel was an almost exact fit for the hole left by the CRT, with just a small gap at the top and a bit left over at the side.

With the knobs and back panel fitted the TV was ready to take its place on the workbench, connected to the media centre PC as a second monitor. It's in daily use and just sits there happily doing its job, looking pretty and providing an extra screen to work on while content is playing on the main TV.

Normally I'd have tried to re-use the control buttons to perform some kind of function, but as it turns on with the PC and doesn't do much else I kept it simple - this time!