hey, i'm crackin open an emac to swap out the optical drive and hard drive and just want to doublecheck to see if I can do this without discharging the CRT? since i've never done this before, and am aware of the deadly risks yet plan to do this anyways and read this article yet will still probably fry myself i was wondering if anyone could offer some homebrew advice for a noob. I'm doing it regardless of the risk so give me some good advice.

Avoid the cable going to the CRT to the power board. Also avoid the big black box on the power board. I would discharge it.

Heres a nifty idea. Get a old power cord and cut off the two main prongs and tape them off. Leave the ground 3rd prong on. Plug it into a outlet for 10 seconds. Just prey your outlet has a common ground so it will discharge. If the outlet doesn't have a common ground then it will not discharge.

I would say that the short answer is no, you dont need to discharge the crt.  All the work you'll be doing is on the other side of the analog display assembly, so you wont be near the anode aperture, or anode cap. The closest you'll get will be removing the main rear fan assembly. So, bearing that in mind, pay attention to what you do touch, make sure not to touch other things, and you should be all good.

however, should you want to discharge that puppy, got a long handled screwdriver, and some wire with alligator clips. clip one end to the screwdriver, and the other end to the heat sink on the computer's chassis. Use the screwdriver to pry up the anode cap, and rub its contacts thoroughly. then, do the same to the anode aperture. Be careful though, as you dont want to be wearing a wrist strap when doing this. likewise, if you let it sit, you may want to discharge again, since the charge can build back up.

You can remove the optical drive without discharging the CRT. Just don't touch the tube or the power board..

Cool. I'm not gonna discharge the CRT. I'll just power down and leave it unplugged for 24 hours. I also need to replace the HD but that's on the same part as the optical drive so it should be good. If the machine is unplugged for awhile shouldn't the charge dissipate?

Some circuits are set up to do that.... I think.  But I've got no idea whats going on inside the eMac.  The prob is that the consequences of being wrong are pretty severe.  I tried to discharge the CRT in my Mac Classic II with a discharge tool I borrowed from some friends and I'm sure I broke something in the process.  I was just gutting the case so it didn't really matter.  I like TCP's  prong clipping method.  I'd leave it unplugged for a couple days, and do the prong thing and avoid the sensitive areas ( and I'd wear a jock strap and cover my head in tinfoil too). SAFETY FIRST!

i didn't understand TCPs idea? wrap an old power cord around my tongue, stick a fork in a socket and put one foot in a bucket of water?

Last time I try to help you.

after only 24hrs the crt will still have loads of current sitting in it.  enough to kill or seriously mess you up at least.  a crt has to be unplugged for at least a couple months before it will totally lose its built up current.

its doesn't seem like you really know whats up (no offense) so you shouldn't go poking around inside.  you need to put this project on hold and do a bunch os research.

I thought that was hilarious.

Discharging a CRT is not hard. Google it