
Hand Made Vacuum Tubes by Claude Paillard (2012) [video] - js2
http://vimeo.com/47812871
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dejv
We had huge vacuum tube industry here at Czech Republic (Tesla tubes) most of
it is now bankrupt, but I know couple of people who bought old equipment and
still makes the high end audio tubes at small workshops.

I tried to find tour of my high school teacher company (the school itself was
owned by Tesla company), but I am not unable to find those, but there is
another neat workshop for Nixie tubes:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRYcvzbaRGE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRYcvzbaRGE)

~~~
PeanutNore
A lot of the Tesla equipment is still in use by JJ Electronic in Slovakia who
are still making a lot of the popular tube types found in musical instrument
amplifiers.

~~~
dejv
Oh yeah, when they disolved the Tesla tube company their equipment ended up in
hands of many people that designed and manufactured audio equipment: back in
comunist era it was almost impossible to get decent music/hifi gear so a lot
of people went on designing and building their own gear and then went on
creating small boutique companies after revolution.

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exabrial
Side note, a question often asked is why do guitarists players insist on tube
amps? The answer from a lot of unscientific explanations is "warm tone" and
"great timber" which is pretty unsatisfying. After going down the rabbit hole
of designing and building my own HVDC guitar amp, I can assure you it's much
more complicated! They do "sound better", but it's the way vacuum tubes
modifying the signal is imperfect. The extremely simplified explanation is
this: Any modification of the source signal during amplification is called
distortion. It turns out some types of distortion sounds "pleasing" to the
human ear. This is because the distortion can produce harmonic artifacts
musically related to the fundamental note. This is what violin and sax players
called "overtones" and gives those instruments their signature sound.
Guitarists can use a tube amps cranked into distortion (either from the pick
attack or from having it set too loud) to create overtones, aka the sound of
rock and roll.

~~~
yellowapple
It was my impression that vacuum tubes also tend to be more readily able to
handle high voltages than transistors (whether absolutely or for a given
price), which might also be a factor; the tube amp might just be able to pump
out sound at a higher volume, which tends to be a big deal for live
performances (especially outdoor performances with large crowds).

~~~
exabrial
Not really :/ my tube guitar amp is 5w and has an EL84 output tube. The tube
alone is $5-$20 and there's the transformer which can be $100 or more. A
single MOSFET can do the same job for less than $1 and similar wattages
without the transformer.

You can get MOSFETs that'll switch 500v for under $2 as well. Check out the
irf820, I issued it to drive an fx loop in my amp design.

This changes at extreme power levels. There are few semiconductors that'll
transmit in the thousands of watts. Tubes still are used in transmission
technology for this reason.

~~~
yellowapple
The "extreme power levels" are what I was getting at, though I might've been
mixing up voltage and wattage.

~~~
exabrial
Ah, makes sense. Actually audio engineering is a few years ahead of software
engineering as far as architectures go. The similarities are uncanny.

For a concert, its better to have 20-40 amplifiers rather than one big single
point of failure (microservices vs mainframe). It's better to lose a few small
parts than one big one. When it comes to distribution of source signals, the
architectures live engineers are using with aes50/Midas or Dante are pretty
danged cool. They just assume component failure is assured.

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a_third_bowl
The background music is a loop of Teddy Wilson and His Trio playing "The Man I
Love", on the LP "Mr. Wilson and Mr. Gershwin".

~~~
a_third_bowl
Wrote these notes on what I understood the video was showing. This man is
hand-making vacuum tubes of an early-1920's design with some design
simplifications.

Part 1

The video begins with the final product of his labors. This vacuum tube is a
triode - it as three elements (or what he terms electrodes): a filament, a
grid, and a plate. The elements are inside a glass envelope, which was sealed
after evacuation on the top, leaving the little swirl of glass. The wires for
the elements (or electrodes) are soldered into the pins of this blue plastic
base he has. To me, it looks like the WD-11 vacuum tube of the early 20's, but
I think he patterned it on something else.

0:12: Cutting the metal that will become the plate. Heh, odd choice of tool,
but whatever works!

0:47: Bending little tabs on the end of the plate material. Later on he is
going to wrap this metal on a mandrel into a cylinder, spot weld it closed,
then spot weld a little wire to it (both supports it and conducts the
electrical current from it). This forms the plate electrode. In this design
the filament in mounted vertically in the center of the tube, and all of the
elements are mounted concentrically to it, so its usually the outer surface of
the plate you see when you look at tubes like this. This design uses the
filament as the cathode.

1:58: Making the grid element. This is the element that you vary the voltage
on to change the current flowing from filament and plate. He is using a basic
helical design, thus the winding of the wire around a small mandrel. The grid
is spaced widely to not impede so many of the electrons in the path from the
filament to plate - but closely enough that he can still get enough control of
that flow when he puts a voltage on the grid. The little loops on the ends of
the grid are a nice touch - I don't think I've ever seen that on a real
production vacuum tube. The grid wire is much thicker that would otherwise be
used in a production tube - BUT, if you do make it with fat wire, it is self
supporting and that saves a lot of work in adding in additional supports.

2:19: Making the filament element. It is very much like a incandescent light
bulb filament but without the coiled-coil design you see in a typical bulb. He
is straightening the filament wire before welding it to the supports. Early
tubes used the filament as the cathode and the plate as the anode. Some of
these used straight tungsten wire, which you would have to get quite hot to
'boil' off the electrons. Then they figured out that dipping the filaments in
metal oxides reduced the temperature you had to heat the filament to. I don't
think he did such coating here.

2:59: Now we are cooking with gas...he is beginning the glasswork to construct
the envelope. Glass workers can correct me, but I believe he pre-warms the
glass, the hits it to melt it enough to allow the tool to flare the end of the
tube, then uses the carburizing flame to bring it back down to temperature
slowly to prevent it cracking from shock?

4:23: Neat tool for 'cutting' glass tubing. He scores it first, then uses this
loop heater to cause the glass to crack through, releasing the part. From here
we see some special tooling for turning the flared tube into the base of the
envelope, and squishing the end in preparation for the installation of the
electrical leads that will pass through it.

6:19: He is assembling the leads for the elements. The wire he welds all of
them to is just for support during the later steps. I wonder if the dark areas
of the wire are part of a treatment he did to make a good metal-glass seal.
Good sealing here is essential - if a microscopic gap opens up when the metal
and glass heat up during usage, gas will get into the tube, change its
characteristics and given enough of it - ruin the tube entirely.

6:49: Leads are sealed in glass envelope base. Placed into a little oven to
anneal/cool slowly.

7:36: Making the body of the envelope. No special seals here, but some nice
glasswork in making the rounded end and attaching the evacuation tube.

9:50 - A whole pile of glass tubes. Job well done.

Part 2

He is welding on the electrodes - first the filament, then the grid is slipped
over that, then the plate cylinder, then the support/return for the filament.

0:37: It appears that he is doing a cleaning and surface preparation process
here. Oils, organics, fluff, all cleaned away. Everything has to be clean as
we move toward sealing and evacuating the vacuum tube.

0:44 - The base and body are joined.

1:20 - The evacuation. not only is he evacuating the tube, he is heating the
tube to drive off moisture, gases stuck on the surfaces within the tube. You
can really see this at 2:05, where he uses what looks like an RF induction
coil to heat the internal elements. The digital display must be the output
from some high vacuum gauge. Later on in the video you see some special pumps
he has built, but it isn't clear what he used for this tube process. I think
the sound in the background is the pumps at work. Perhaps a combo of a
roughing pump and mercury pump?

2:15 - Lights up the filament for the first time, all in the effort to get
everything besides the elements out of the envelope. Also a check that it
keeps heating for an extended period of time and doesn't just fizzle.

2:26 - The sealing operation; a set of flames melts the little tube at the top
of the envelope, locking in the vaccum and flavor.

2:58 - This part impressed me the most - he molded his own tube bases. He
would have had to selected a material that can hold up to heat well, as the
heat from the filaments will conduct right down to the base pins, melt and
eventually degrade the plastic surrounding the filament pins.

3:20 - Testing the tubes, using a custom rig to plot curves much like you'd
see in tube data sheets.

4:19 - All right, time to use the tubes! first, he has it in a little
regenerative receiver, then a CW (for Morse Code) transmitter, then what seems
to be a VHF transmitter using a bit of old 450 Ohm transmission line as the
tank circuit.

5:01 - Finally the man himself, Claude Paillard, and some of his other work.
Love the jacket at the mill.

I wrote to him about how awesome his tube project is and to find out what the
heck that music playing in the background was, and he wrote back:

"About the triodes...they have numerous 'children'...in the 2004-2005 8 or 10
were on a very low power transmitter (around 100 milliwatts) with a quartz on
3580 khz...with a lot of 'local' QSO in France. One of these is in the A.W.A
museum in Bloomfield N.Y... Around 2009 we go to one watt of RF always Xtal
driven, on 3560 kHz...the one on the picture has made more than 300 QSO all
over Europe...The last is with a pair of triodes running 5 watts output on
80-40-30-20 meters, with VFO of course...and worldwide received With a careful
look, you can identify the 'box' as an old surplus 'BC375 Tuning Unit'

There also others use, but the main project was to return to 'good old time'
of our fathers in Ham radio"

Check out his website at
[http://paillard.claude.free.fr/](http://paillard.claude.free.fr/)

~~~
gregschlom
These notes are exactly what I was looking for, thanks for writing them.

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zxcvgm
if you liked watching this, then maybe you'd also like these videos, which i
watched some time ago:

making a miniature vacuum tube triode
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRI0ZLTP6_0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRI0ZLTP6_0)

The Art of Making a Nixie Tube
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA)

~~~
zokier
The nixie tube one is interesting because the guy was attempting to reboot
_commercial_ tube making. I wonder how he fared, is he still in business?
Doesn't seem to have posted any new videos.

~~~
Animats
Yes, he is.[1] $145 for each Nixie tube.

[1] [http://www.daliborfarny.com](http://www.daliborfarny.com)

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cyberferret
Very cool video. Vacuum tubes are still highly sought after by high end audio
enthusiasts, as well as guitar players who still cherish tube amplifiers.

Scarcity is a problem. No wonder most Western countries rarely have even small
boutique production labs these days - the materials and processes involved are
(were) highly carcinogenic, and creates a lot of toxic waste pollutants. I
keenly follow Dalibor Farny (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) - he seems to
have devised a better way to make Nixie tubes (though not tubes like 12AX7s
etc. that amplifiers use).

But one wonders, with the current excellence of amp modellers such as the
Fractal Axe-FX and the Kemper Profiler etc. whether soon the digital emulation
of that analog tube sound will be enough to finally put the last of the tube
makers out to pasture?

~~~
hashkb
Experienced guitarists (well, I, anyway) can easily an instantly spot the
difference between a modeller and a real tube amp. I also haven't found tubes
too difficult to find; whether NOS or produced recently.

Audiophiles... I don't understand why you want tube amps. They are good for
guitar players because of their imperfections (e.g. overdrive, "warmth", etc)
which is the last thing I want when I'm listening to a quality recording.

~~~
jackhack
>Experienced guitarists (well, I, anyway) can easily an instantly spot the
difference between a modeller and a real tube amp.

It might be _possible_ , but it surely isn't easy nor obvious. "Instantly," as
you claim? Sorry, but I'd bet a sizeable stack of money that's not the case.
Perhaps if you're talking about a 20-year-old 1st generation Line 6 Pod or
Yamaha Fx500, then okay, I can see that. But modern modeling amps are
exceedingly good at reproducing the nuances of a valve amp. The Kempler is
remarkable -- I would go as far as to say astounding -- in its ability to
reproduce the breakup, compression, warmth etc. of an amp at all volume
levels. If you heard one in person you'd be a believer. At the other end of
the spectrum, even a $150 Fender Mustang amps does a respectable job of
sounding faithful [disclaimer - the factory settings are pure rubbish and
almost embarrassingly poor, but tweak the settings in the computer editor and
a whole wealth of sounds are available, some of them are brilliant).

And why would someone want a valve amp for playback of recordings? The same
reason you claim to hear the "warmth" of a valve guitar amp. The same reason
guitarists use an EP3 (echoplex tape delay) with the tape out -- that preamp
circuit compresses, clips, and enhances the waveform in a way that is very
pleasing to the ear. Some notes increase in clarity and bloom in a pleasant
way.

A valve amp doesn't imply distortion. Leo Fender was a radio tech before
forming his amplifier/instrument company. He knew the value of having lots of
headroom.

~~~
jdietrich
>If you heard one in person you'd be a believer.

The key is blind testing. Everyone _thinks_ that they can tell the difference
between a Kemper and a valve amp.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INJ_H5PiuTE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INJ_H5PiuTE)

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adrianN
Make 20000 of these and you can start building your own version of ENIAC!

~~~
agumonkey
diy mass production plant :)

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ajnin
Here's the original page where the video was posted, with some context
information, in French :
[http://paillard.claude.free.fr/](http://paillard.claude.free.fr/)

If you're interested in this sort of thing, I found other similar videos by
another unique individual, here :
[https://www.youtube.com/user/glasslinger/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/glasslinger/videos)

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anonu
This is a beautiful video. I have a general concept of what's going on - maybe
someone with more knowledge can correct me: the video shows the guy building a
tetrode, which is a way to either control voltage or current depending on how
its used. In the testing portion of the video he shows the current response as
he varies the voltage through the tube... (?)

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k0mgd0
Fascinating video

CW Was CQ DE _ . _ . _ _ . _ _ .. .

(Seek You from) normally a call sign would follow K0MGD

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ngvrnd
The amount of skill involved in this is mind boggling.

~~~
raintrees
I watched at first thinking DIY? and then saw all of the custom equipment
involved - Not for me.

It does make me reconsider the value of several boxes of older vacuum tubes I
have upstairs in storage, thanks to my father-in-law - I would probably best
be served by going through first them before discarding...

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viperscape
just recently saw this, where you see two custom 275 lbs monoblock tube amp--
I thought it was extreme but cool:
[http://www.stereomojo.com/Small%20Speaker%20Shootout%202007/...](http://www.stereomojo.com/Small%20Speaker%20Shootout%202007/SmallSpeakerShootout2007Part1.htm)

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ape4
Vacuum Tubes are amazing - they switch around subatomic particles called
electrons. But they are simultaneously low tech.

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jakeogh
That's a beautiful vacuum(?) pump @15:10. Anyone know more about it?

~~~
Gibbon1
I'm unsure, I think it's custom or something vintage (both).

No one uses mercury any more as a working fluid in the pump. you use vacuum
rated oil instead. And he's definitely using mercury. Also looks like a two
stage piston pump. And mostly people use liquid ring vacuum pumps as roughing
pumps.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21lk8Du85bE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21lk8Du85bE)

Difficulty the roughing pump only gets you to a few microns at best. Good
enough for neon work. But tubes require a hard vacuum. Need a diffusion pump
(hot oil vapor) or turbo molecular pump (ultra high speed 'fan') after the
roughing pump.

I don't think he's using a diffusion pump or turbo molecular pump.

