Well, I didn't know that stuff inside of the CRT was phosphor, actually. Sh*t, hopefully I didn't pollute too much!
Believe it or not, it all went off easily with hot water, and I finished the job by putting the screen in the dishwasher.
No distortion at all, but still a few issues: the main thing is clarity/luminosity. It's a dark grey glas, which retains a lot of light. Then even at full luminosity, the LCD appears not very bright. The second issue I noticed is that the glass seems to be polarised or something, so the viewing angle is very short. You have to be straight in front of the screen to be able to see and read well enough. But maybe this is because my LCD's frame was a bit wider than the screen, so there is about eight milimeters of free space between the glas and the LCD at the center of screen, and much less in the borders. Try and find an 8.4'' LCD with the thinnest possible border, that could fit really "inside" the CRT glas.
As for the time it took, don't be in a hurry! It actually took me several hours… :'(
At first I had no idea how thick the glas was inside and I never had cut glas before, so I took no risk and cut far from the front, as you can see in my first pic. Then I had to start over the nearest I could from the front. So I've the job twice, and it took me about an hour and a half each time, with a standard Dremel diamond tool, and I had to stop often in the middle, because the glas got too hot and melted in some places, and I was afraid it would break. Now, it was the first time, and maybe next time, I would dare to apply more pressure and do it quicker!
Believe it or not, it all went off easily with hot water, and I finished the job by putting the screen in the dishwasher.
No distortion at all, but still a few issues: the main thing is clarity/luminosity. It's a dark grey glas, which retains a lot of light. Then even at full luminosity, the LCD appears not very bright. The second issue I noticed is that the glass seems to be polarised or something, so the viewing angle is very short. You have to be straight in front of the screen to be able to see and read well enough. But maybe this is because my LCD's frame was a bit wider than the screen, so there is about eight milimeters of free space between the glas and the LCD at the center of screen, and much less in the borders. Try and find an 8.4'' LCD with the thinnest possible border, that could fit really "inside" the CRT glas.
As for the time it took, don't be in a hurry! It actually took me several hours… :'(
At first I had no idea how thick the glas was inside and I never had cut glas before, so I took no risk and cut far from the front, as you can see in my first pic. Then I had to start over the nearest I could from the front. So I've the job twice, and it took me about an hour and a half each time, with a standard Dremel diamond tool, and I had to stop often in the middle, because the glas got too hot and melted in some places, and I was afraid it would break. Now, it was the first time, and maybe next time, I would dare to apply more pressure and do it quicker!