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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    A fellow named Trevor has started a forum aimed at the group of folks that might want to make vacuum tubes. I'll be posting most of my tube projects over there. If any one here is interested in following this here's the link: http://diyvacuumtubes.com/
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    Chris - Thank you for the adulation. It may be premature depending on how well these tubes work once they're processed and in a circuit. The assembled tube in the photo is one that I just bent into shape with pliers and spot welded together. I expect the newer ones built using fixtures to be the...
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    The new fixture works very well for making grids to install into the current triode design. The yield and reproducibility of grids have gone way up. I plan to make a fixture for the next plates and filaments. It should be a reasonable task to build tubes with very similar characteristics when...
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    I had a chance to do some machining over the weekend. What I have now is the first attempt to make a fixture for aligning and spot welding the grids for the the new triode. The material for the ladder is a 20 mil wire called Blendalloy which is an alloy of nickel and iron. The side posts are 40...
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    The 'double wing' Audion was a much better tube and could be used in an Armstrong regenerative radio circuit. The photo shows an example of the ones I made way back when. These tubes were built using a spot welder because I have always had them them in the shop and a welder does make the...
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    Hop - The tube that was posted earlier along with its curves was about as simple as it gets. I wanted to test the idea of making a tube with the least amount of equipment that would still make a working tube. The geometry follows the earliest de Forest 'single wing' Audion. The single wing...
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    Since I mentioned DP designs I'll toss out this steampunk project for consideration. Some time back I accepted a friendly challenge to make a scratch built diffusion pump (DP) with stuff that can be easily found at places like Target, Home Depot, and most any hobby shop. While the skeptics were...
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    Chris - Thank you for your kind words and warm welcome to this forum. I'll keep posting any progress in the triode builds as long as there are folks here that are interested in following along.
  9. G

    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    Hop - With a career background like that it should be a trivial task for you to build a working triode. This could get very interesting if you were to support the idea that DIY vacuum tubes are really doable in the home workshop. If you need a small DP I can post a couple of photos of a very...
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    Hop - The usual choice for pumping fluid in DP's used in most labs is DC 704 silicone oil. There are other more expensive oils that are readily available on the internet, but they offer little improvement to the average science hacker doing general vacuum experiments. The filament wire of...
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    Claude Paillard's video has certainly become one of the cult classics in DIY vacuum tubes over the years. I still find it fascinating to watch.
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    Hop - It's good to see that you're obviously no stranger to the world of high vacuum. Having your own good 2 stage pump is nice for starting out doing electronic vacuum experiments. Unless the pump that you have has been abused and sat for a long time with no oil in it, you may get by with just...
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    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    hevans - Thank you for the comment. Producing a useful high vacuum today is much easier than it used to be. Harbor Freight sells 2 stage mechanical pumps at very reasonable prices. There are many sources for mechanical pumps used for refrigeration service. Some good pumps can also be found on...
  14. G

    Building DIY Vacuum tubes

    I've been playing with DIY vacuum tubes for a while now and the latest effort is in the area of simplifying the electrode geometry. Cylindrical electrodes are classical in design and work well as triodes, but the assembly is more difficult to align reproducibly. I've switched back to the...
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