Dick Ropiequet, one of Tektronix first engineers and head of the Future Products Group, started an extensive program in the early 1960’s to build electron guns for CRTs with a plating process. The conventional scheme for making guns involved precisely fusing precision steel parts to molten glass rods. This process required very expensive tooling and was very labor intensive. Dick envisioned an approach where a precision mold would be used to cast a conductive wax mandrel with masking to control where plating would take place. After plating up the gun assembly with silver metal, the mandrel was to be removed by heat and solvents. The process evolved to the point where full gun assemblies with deflection plates (less cathodes) were created and fully functional CRTs were built. This tube is a very early sample.

Bob Anderson, the inventor of Tektronix first direct-view storage CRT, worked on this project prior to his focus on the direct-view storage tube (DVST) and contributed some electroformed guns that were built. The silver has corroded in the nearly 60 years since they were built.

After the test build the CRT Group determined the process was not cost effective and the project ended.