Hand made vacuum tubes

[Markbnj]

It's not often I sit through a 17-minute video from the net, but this French fellow is amazing. The range of skills displayed, as well as the lyrical nature of the presentation, are really mesmerizing. Not many guys like this around.

http://blog.makezine.com/archi...r_own_vaccum_tube.html

 

[dkozloski]

Lee deForest did the same thing 100 years ago and didn't have anybody to copy.

 

[PottedMeat]

Thats badass. Is that half-can heater his annealing oven or something?

~75% of that equipment looks homemade, works pretty well.

Wonder how old that spot welder is.

Even got an old school V/I curve tracer.

Anybody know why he needed that heated ring to break the tube after he scored it? After scoring, you can just stick a torch on the line and it should snap.

 

[Markbnj]

Lee deForest did the same thing 100 years ago and didn't have anybody to copy.

Do you have a link to that video?

 

[dkozloski]

Originally posted by: Markbnj

Lee deForest did the same thing 100 years ago and didn't have anybody to copy.

Do you have a link to that video?

Lee deForest didn't make no stinkin' video, he made vacuum tubes from stone.

 

[spidey07]

That is VERY sweet. Thank you for posting that.

Pottedmeat - I think that's where he was removing the air to make a vacuum tube. errr, I mean now I know what you're talking about. Probably to make a perpendicular cut so all he had to do was sand it?

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Thats badass. Is that half-can heater his annealing oven or something?

~75% of that equipment looks homemade, works pretty well.

Wonder how old that spot welder is.

Even got an old school V/I curve tracer.

Anybody know why he needed that heated ring to break the tube after he scored it? After scoring, you can just stick a torch on the line and it should snap.

I dunno, maybe he gets more reproduceability with that rig.

Really neat video. Now I gotta dream up a good machine shop project to keep me distracted for a while...