Any interest in non-working IN-18's?

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Terry Kennedy

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Mar 6, 2012, 2:36:09 AM3/6/12
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I have qty 13 of non-working (no illumination on any digits at all,
seals appear intact) IN-18 Nixies. These are pulls from a no-longer-
sold clock kit which "ate" tubes. I had purchased and assembled the
kits years ago and sold them on, then wound up replacing the tubes
under my warranty. Eventually I sent the 2 customers new replacement
clocks from a different designer.

From what I heard from my customers, the tubes slowly faded out after
several months of operation. Sometimes various digits would light and
others wouldn't, and in other cases the tubes flickered over a period
of weeks and then stopped lighting entirely.

When I tested them tonight, all 13 of them were bad. In happier news,
94 other IN-18's I tested were good.

The date codes of the tubes are:

Qty 9 - 8702
Qty 2 - VIII 77
Qty 1 - 11 82
Qty 1 - 88 02

Any interest? Or better yet, any ideas on rejuvenating them?

I don't want to list 'em on eBay, because no matter how many times I
state that they are non-working, people will bid insanely and then
complain that they don't work.

Mich...@aol.com

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Mar 6, 2012, 2:45:51 AM3/6/12
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Ebay drones aren't that bad, are they?  HA!!
 
Still amazing how many of those same idiots are allowed to vote and get a drivers license.  :(
 
I believe there is a particular person in chat that would love to try to re-gas them.  German?
 
Michail

H. Carl Ott

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Mar 6, 2012, 7:52:30 AM3/6/12
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I'd like to see the schematic / design of a clock that 'eats' tubes.

Always lessons to be learned.


carl
--------------------------------------------------------
Henry Carl Ott   N2RVQ    hcar...@gmail.com

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Tony Adams

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Mar 6, 2012, 10:04:30 AM3/6/12
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I would be interested in them depending on the price but suspect that
postage and taxes to the UK would make it uneconomical.

Tony.

Jeff Thomas

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Mar 6, 2012, 10:26:11 AM3/6/12
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On Tuesday, March 6, 2012 5:52:30 AM UTC-7, H. Carl Ott wrote:
I'd like to see the schematic / design of a clock that 'eats' tubes.

Always lessons to be learned.

Also frit seal leakage from pin stress is a possibility. If the board uses flush mounted pin sockets, and the designer wasn't careful with calculating the pin circle footprint.

Regards, Jeff

Nicholas Stock

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Mar 6, 2012, 12:12:07 PM3/6/12
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What use are the dead tubes (except for taking the digits out and using them as numerals in a regular clock?)....I have about 6 dead ones and am loath to throw them out...

Nick

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Gene Segal

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Mar 6, 2012, 3:56:17 PM3/6/12
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I would be interested in dead IN-18's, to add to my pile of possible candidates for resurrection some day. 

If anyone would like to sell/donate theirs, please contact me at wave...@earthlink.net

Regards, Gene

B Otto

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Mar 6, 2012, 6:26:35 PM3/6/12
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I too have a small, but growing, collection of dead nixies. I've been
trying to collect more types as I only have IN-9s and 12s but my goal
is to examine dead tubes with industrial x-ray and electron imaging.
When I have a decent data set I'll post it so those dedicated few who
are making their own nixies can possibly extend the life of what they
create. Personally, I'm hesitant to open any of my dead ones because
they contain mercury - even though I have access to HAZMAT containment
hoods. I'm not the paranoid type but mercury poisoning makes lead
poisoning look tame...

Cheers,

-otto

Frederick Heald

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Mar 6, 2012, 9:39:27 PM3/6/12
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I'd take a couple, if only for objet d'art. Not sure how much that
would be worth.

MichaelB

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Mar 7, 2012, 1:55:00 AM3/7/12
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MichaelB

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Mar 7, 2012, 2:03:28 AM3/7/12
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Interesting your failed ones are all pre 91' Terry. I have about 15
of the dearly departed and they are all the earlier vintages. But
that's another discussion.

I have tried in vain to resurrect them and so I too have a pile that I
can't bring myself to throw away. What to do...

Nick

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Mar 7, 2012, 2:16:42 AM3/7/12
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On Tuesday, March 6, 2012 5:12:07 PM UTC, Pramanicin wrote:
What use are the dead tubes (except for taking the digits out and using them as numerals in a regular clock?)....I have about 6 dead ones and am loath to throw them out...

Don't do that - they are (almost certainly) coated in Mercury...

Nick 

Nicholas Stock

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Mar 7, 2012, 10:40:46 AM3/7/12
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I'm not too worried about that Nick for the following reasons. There's a small amount of mercury (vapour) in there, chronic inhalation is more of worry than acute exposure, therefore break the tube in a well ventilated area (outside) and leave for a while and things will be fine. Elemental mercury is far less of a concern than mercury salts or even worse, alkyl mercury's which can kill you with a single exposure if you're not careful.....

I think I've seen somewhere on the internet someone who cut the digits out of an IN-18 for just that very purpose...

Nick

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John Rehwinkel

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Mar 7, 2012, 10:44:15 AM3/7/12
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> I'm not too worried about that Nick for the following reasons. There's a small amount of mercury (vapour) in there, chronic inhalation is more of worry than acute exposure, therefore break the tube in a well ventilated area (outside) and leave for a while and things will be fine.

Alternatively, you can absorb the mercury with powdered sulfur, which will bind with it and keep it from evaporating (this is what is used in mercury spill cleanup kits).

- John

Per Jensen

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Mar 7, 2012, 2:24:57 PM3/7/12
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Agree. I'm pretty sure that the amount of mercury absorbed from teeth fillings are a lot more than a broken nixie. People break flourescent light fixtures and cfl's often, taking no special precautions too....

// Per. 

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