
The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video] - jvermillard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL4ElboiuA
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jazzychad
This is really cool. I've been enamored with Nixie tubes since I was a kid,
and I finally got my hands on some surplus CCCP tubes and started a project
with them. I'm keeping somewhat of a diary of my progress with photos and
videos in this collection of tweets about the process:
[https://twitter.com/jazzychad/timelines/773442085278085121](https://twitter.com/jazzychad/timelines/773442085278085121)

~~~
digi_owl
Heh, reminds me of when i first found out that the spare tubed a musician
friend of mine kept around for his amp was CCCP stamped. Given that we are
both old enough that we grew up during the tail end of the cold war, that
seemed somewhat like consorting with the enemy at first glance. These days i
wonder how much of the cold war, particularly after Stalin's death, was a
massive US propaganda creation.

~~~
pjc50
> how much of the cold war, particularly after Stalin's death, was a massive
> US propaganda creation.

I think we can do a sort of differential analysis of the propaganda by looking
at the coverage of events then and now. Back then, the USSR was repressing
dissidents and engaging in proxy wars with the US; and became the universal
bugbear, reviled in film and popular culture.

Nowadays, Russia is repressing dissidents and engaging in proxy wars with the
US, including shooting down a civilian airliner; but the propaganda intensity
is much lower. Is that because Russia is nominally capitalist and run by
oligarchs who park their money in the West?

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dogma1138
Both the east and the west have supported dictators and "crushed dissidents",
and if you do a headcount the results are likely to surprise you.

As for your comment about MH317, I guess we all forgot about Iran Air Flight
655 where a US AEGIS guided missile destroyer which was arguably back then
(and even now to some extent) the best radar system in the world shot down an
Iranian civilian flight while violating Iranian territorial waters at the
time. MH317 was a pretty bad and tragic incident but frankly IA 655 was
arguably worse.

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setori88
That induction heating step is critical. Ensure you heat metal whilst the
vacuum system is still pumping otherwise if you heat the metal after the tube
is sealed the metal will out gas giving you bad vacuum, completely destroying
your Nixie tube. It's a pleasure to see such refined work, many many
frustrating mistakes were made to reach this level of refinement.

~~~
rzzzt
Isn't that why the getter is added?

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grkvlt
What _is_ a 'getter' though? And what does it actually _do_?

 _EDIT - Wikipedia [1] says it 's a strip of (barium?) metal that is
evaporated to react with any remaining gas/moisture particles in the tube and
deposit them on the surface safely. It causes the shiny metallic film seen at
the top of some tubes, I think?_

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getter)

~~~
rzzzt
You are right, another article touches on this topic:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube#Vacuum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube#Vacuum)

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grandalf
It's incredible to see all the different sorts of craftsmanship needed to make
tubes. It would be fascinating to turn this video into a longer exploration of
the evolution of each of the techniques used.

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Animats
Artisanal vacuum tubes are a thing.[1] There's some interest in this from the
vinyl record and overpriced tube amp crowd. There are even people who rebuild
old CRTs for early TVs.[2] It's a lot of work.

[1] [http://hackaday.com/2014/11/21/artisanal-vacuum-tubes-
hackad...](http://hackaday.com/2014/11/21/artisanal-vacuum-tubes-hackaday-
shows-you-how/) [2]
[http://www.earlytelevision.org/crt_rebuild.html](http://www.earlytelevision.org/crt_rebuild.html)

~~~
GirlsCanCode
There's no vacuum in a Nixie Tube!

That being said, it would be nice if classic tubes of yesteryear can be remade
efficiently. Especially for antique radio enthusiasts.

~~~
fake-name
Uh, what?

Production involves pumping down to high vacuum, heating to degas, and then
refilling with neon/argon at low pressure. Granted the production tube isn't
at _high_ vacuum, but it's not equivalent to ambient.

~~~
erikpukinskis
When they fill it with gas, wouldn't you say it is no longer a vacuum?

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analognoise
I wish there was a parts list for this! One of the problems that took so much
effort in tube lifetimes were the coatings used. I'm wondering what types of
coatings he's using. Need more info!

~~~
cyberferret
I'd be interested to learn more too. Old methods of tube production produced a
lot of waste like Mercury and other toxic (carcinogenic) byproducts. I believe
modern production methods (where they still exist) are better, and I bet this
subject would make an interesting video/read in its own right.

~~~
analognoise
We should connect and try to figure this out - there must be more of us; maybe
even dozens!

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jbuzbee
I'm really, really impressed with the amount of work that goes into making
these tubes and can understand why he's selling them for around $150, but what
I don't get is how he can compete with the nixie tubes that go for under $10
on eBay. Are his better or more reliable?

~~~
fake-name
Primarily size. The $10 ebay nixies are _tiny_.

If you can find 2-3" digit size nixie tubes on ebay for a substantially better
rate then these, I'd be very, very surprised.

~~~
hatsunearu
Yeah the IN-18 which I think is the big kind goes for like 180 bucks each.

These ones are 145 and they are stupidly (in a good way) humongous. I want to
try building with these, if I'm honest, wow.

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lumberjack
I've seen this elsewhere and what baffled me was the startup aspect of it all.

He spent 5 years doing this and a non-insignificant amount of money. How does
he know it will eventually all be worth it?

It seems like such a baffling risky step to take.

~~~
comboy
I can't imagine him getting back money that was spent on the equipment visible
on the video selling these tubes. It seems to me more like the money wasn't a
problem, and he just really wanted to start making these tubes (which is
awesome).

~~~
dogma1138
He is getting money, he started the business with a loan IIRC, he's located in
the Czech Republic which means that the cost of some of those things isn't as
high as you would expect.

He's selling them at around 150$ per tube, his complete Nixie tube clock sells
for 1700-1800$ and he's shipping these units about as fast as he can make
them.

The volumes aren't high but like with any other artisan crafted item they are
making money of it.

~~~
comboy
Great to hear, after watching the video (I recommend 2x speed) it feels like
he very much earned it, but starting this business with a loan, wow..

~~~
crististm
On the contrary - I recommend watching it at 1x for the pleasure of discovery.
What's with the rush?

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teh_klev
Previous discussion from around a month ago about Dalibor Farny building out
his workshop etc:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12308974](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12308974)

[http://www.daliborfarny.com/#about-me](http://www.daliborfarny.com/#about-me)
(you might need to scroll down to the "About Me" section).

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pavel_lishin
> _I needed more room so I moved from the garden shed to a local castle._

I had to rewind to make sure I heard that right.

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cornholio
Number 6 is dead on the top left tube in the observation rack.

~~~
hatsunearu
Heh, that's a nice touch on the video if that was intentional.

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ams6110
Glassblowing is a disappearing trade itself. I'm not sure what university
chemistry departments are doing these days, an in-house glass shop with one if
not several skilled glassblowers used to be pretty common. Likely it's cheaper
now to have this outsourced.

~~~
bch
Here's a story from Caltech:

[http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech-
glassbl...](http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech-
glassblower-20160613-snap-story.html)

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lokedhs
Interesting to see those IKEA cutlery drying containers being used (about 3
minutes into the video). I've often seen them used for all sorts of different
purposes. A very useful product.

[http://www.ikea.com/sg/en/catalog/products/70179546/](http://www.ikea.com/sg/en/catalog/products/70179546/)

~~~
unwind
Yeah, they're awesome and everywhere.

The name ORDNING means "order" (as in "the opposite of chaos", not as in
"telling someone what to do"), by the way.

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db48x
That seems like a pretty expensive manufacturing process. Not very capital-
intensive though.

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markbnj
That was a really amazing video. Thanks for sharing.

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gravypod
Glass is an amazing material because it's one of the few that I can say I know
nothing about how to manipulate it.

