The Art of Making a Nixie Tube [video]

This is really cool. I&#x27;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&#x27;m keeping somewhat of a diary of my progress with photos and videos in this collection of tweets about the process: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;jazzychad&#x2F;timelines&#x2F;773442085278085121" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;jazzychad&#x2F;timelines&#x2F;773442085278085121</a>

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&#x27;s a pleasure to see such refined work, many many frustrating mistakes were made to reach this level of refinement.

It&#x27;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.

Artisanal vacuum tubes are a thing.[1] There&#x27;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&#x27;s a lot of work.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hackaday.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;11&#x2F;21&#x2F;artisanal-vacuum-tubes-hackaday-shows-you-how&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hackaday.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;11&#x2F;21&#x2F;artisanal-vacuum-tubes-hackad...</a> [2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.earlytelevision.org&#x2F;crt_rebuild.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.earlytelevision.org&#x2F;crt_rebuild.html</a>

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&#x27;m wondering what types of coatings he&#x27;s using. Need more info!

I&#x27;m really, really impressed with the amount of work that goes into making these tubes and can understand why he&#x27;s selling them for around $150, but what I don&#x27;t get is how he can compete with the nixie tubes that go for under $10 on eBay. Are his better or more reliable?

I&#x27;ve seen this elsewhere and what baffled me was the startup aspect of it all.<p>He spent 5 years doing this and a non-insignificant amount of money. How does he know it will eventually all be worth it?<p>It seems like such a baffling risky step to take.

Previous discussion from around a month ago about Dalibor Farny building out his workshop etc:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12308974" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12308974</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.daliborfarny.com&#x2F;#about-me" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.daliborfarny.com&#x2F;#about-me</a> (you might need to scroll down to the &quot;About Me&quot; section).

&gt; <i>I needed more room so I moved from the garden shed to a local castle.</i><p>I had to rewind to make sure I heard that right.

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

Glassblowing is a disappearing trade itself. I&#x27;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&#x27;s cheaper now to have this outsourced.

Interesting to see those IKEA cutlery drying containers being used (about 3 minutes into the video). I&#x27;ve often seen them used for all sorts of different purposes. A very useful product.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ikea.com&#x2F;sg&#x2F;en&#x2F;catalog&#x2F;products&#x2F;70179546&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ikea.com&#x2F;sg&#x2F;en&#x2F;catalog&#x2F;products&#x2F;70179546&#x2F;</a>

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

That was a really amazing video. Thanks for sharing.

Glass is an amazing material because it&#x27;s one of the few that I can say I know nothing about how to manipulate it.