Homemade Purple Nixie Tube

[joshua dejaen]

Hello,

I wanted to share a Nixie tube I made.

It only has 3 digits and uses nitrogen for the glow instead of neon so

it is rather primitive, but I have plans for more complicated ones in the future.

I made a video showing how I made it if anyone is interested.

(warning, it is barbaric)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7I61d27R3E

[Nicholas Stock]

Nicely done! The inevitable questions...

....strike voltage? Any idea of longevity etc?

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,

Nick

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[joshua dejaen]

Striking voltage is 450 V, maintaining voltage is 300 V. What a joke!

The seals seem to be good, however it will be short lived.

I am already seeing signs of sputtering on the glass with less than 30 minutes use.

Big difference between making something that works in the lab versus something that will work for

10 years in a clock.

[jf03...@gmail.com]

You can get a purple/UV glow with argon.  I used to have an AR-1 lamp with an Edison base that worked off the US mains, or something  less than 400V.  (it had a built0in dropping resistor).

[liam bartosiewicz]

I’ve got a GE AR-4, and I’m pretty sure it takes 120vac. I imagine it has some mixture of gasses, like mercury and argon, that allow it to strike at a lower voltage. Not sure about the feasibility of incorporating mercury into tubes made in the home shop though.

On Oct 19, 2021, at 3:56 PM, jf03...@gmail.com wrote:

You can get a purple/UV glow with argon.  I used to have an AR-1 lamp with an Edison base that worked off the US mains, or something  less than 400V.  (it had a built0in dropping resistor).

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[Audrey]

I wonder if it would be possible to use something other than mercury to extend the life

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[Nick Andrews]

No biggie, just don't breathe in the vapor and you'll be fine.  Any idea how many fluorescent tubes I've shattered over the years?  We used to use them as lightsabers at the old NMSU dump.  The 8' ones were loud when they popped!  But seriously, how much could it take for one tube?  A 4' flo tube had something less than 1/20 of a drop in it.  A guy built a device to try and capture the mercury, thinking he could recover and build up a small supply.  He found that he never could get any significant quantity from the tubes.  My carburetor sync gauge uses mercury.  Thought about getting a newer one that has small tungsten rods in it instead but haven't yet.

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[Nick Andrews]

Very cool!  Can't watch the video now, but did you bake the tube out while under vacuum to clean it well?  What wire did you use for through the glass seals?  I aspire to try similar at some point after I get my vacuum station all set up and running.

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[Mac Doktor]

On Oct 20, 2021, at 2:59 PM, Nick Andrews <nickja...@gmail.com> wrote:

A guy built a device to try and capture the mercury, thinking he could recover and build up a small supply.  He found that he never could get any significant quantity from the tubes.

Did he condense the vapor first?

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

https://www.astarcloseup.com

“...the book said something astonishing, a very big thought. The stars, it said, were suns but very far away. The Sun was a star but close up.”—Carl Sagan, "The Backbone Of Night", Cosmos, 1980

[Nick Andrews]

I don't recall for certain if it was NeonJohn or another guy, or even what group it was in.  Could've been the old geigercounterenthusiasts group on yahoo.  This was some time ago, when we were laughing about the insane overreaction to breakage of CFLs in school classrooms.  I've never tried opening a tube in a controlled fashion myself, but have seen tiny droplets in broken ones, usually near the ends of the tube.

Been playing with glass laser tubes a little the last week.  Found that Gammex patient positioners used both red and green HeNe before diodes took over.  Got one that won't lase though the plasma tube is a nice bright pink.  It hisses or buzzes continuously but no beam output.  The PS is good as it lit up a couple of similar size d tubes last night when I tried.  I need to completely remove it and try sighting through the bore.  It's possible it's leaking and coming up in pressure slowly and is now dead.  I was looking at the metal evac/fill tube where it's crimped off and wondering about the possibilities of re-gassing...  I have a couple of those metal tube ends with some defunct old tubes I got from Laser Sam a couple years back for experimenting.  More interests, less time...

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[joshua dejaen]

Thanks for all the comments,  sorry I could not reply sooner.

I have added mercury to glow tubes in the past but I have not wanted to contaminate my new pump.

I could do it on my old pump but it is not able to pump below 1 torr and the tube would be left with impurities.

My electrodes consist of copper welded to tungsten with a nickel buffer and then the tungsten welded to nickel wire that forms the digits inside the tube.

The tungsten forms the actual seal to the pyrex glass and the copper provides a nice external lead.

I heat up the tube with the torch while pumping for about a minute and let it pump under high(ish) vacuum (5-10  microns) for 30 min.

I then open the bleed valve and adjust the pressure until the glow looks good and seal it off.

I also have made Triodes in the past and those require about 15 min heating with the torch on the pump along with an hour of pumping.

[Ian]

Super cool

On 19 Oct 2021, at 02:52, Nicholas Stock <nick...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[chuckrr]

I distinctly remember some of Dalibor's first tubes from mnay years ago when he first started experimenting.

He made one that looked a lot like this one.   Nice Work!

Chuck

 

---- Original Message ----
From: "joshua dejaen" <dejaen...@gmail.com>
Sent: 10/24/2021 2:36:14 AM
To: "neonixie-l" <neoni...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Homemade Purple Nixie Tube
 

Thanks for all the comments,  sorry I could not reply sooner.

 

I have added mercury to glow tubes in the past but I have not wanted to contaminate my new pump.

 

I could do it on my old pump but it is not able to pump below 1 torr and the tube would be left with impurities.

 

My electrodes consist of copper welded to tungsten with a nickel buffer and then the tungsten welded to nickel wire that forms the digits inside the tube.

 

The tungsten forms the actual seal to the pyrex glass and the copper provides a nice external lead.

 

I heat up the tube with the torch while pumping for about a minute and let it pump under high(ish) vacuum (5-10  microns) for 30 min.

 

I then open the bleed valve and adjust the pressure until the glow looks good and seal it off.

 

I also have made Triodes in the past and those require about 15 min heating with the torch on the pump along with an hour of pumping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at 12:49:28 PM UTC-7 nickja...@gmail.com wrote:

I don't recall for certain if it was NeonJohn or another guy, or even what group it was in.  Could've been the old geigercounterenthusiasts group on yahoo.  This was some time ago, when we were laughing about the insane overreaction to breakage of CFLs in school classrooms.  I've never tried opening a tube in a controlled fashion myself, but have seen tiny droplets in broken ones, usually near the ends of the tube.

 

Been playing with glass laser tubes a little the last week.  Found that Gammex patient positioners used both red and green HeNe before diodes took over.  Got one that won't lase though the plasma tube is a nice bright pink.  It hisses or buzzes continuously but no beam output.  The PS is good as it lit up a couple of similar size d tubes last night when I tried.  I need to completely remove it and try sighting through the bore.  It's possible it's leaking and coming up in pressure slowly and is now dead.  I was looking at the metal evac/fill tube where it's crimped off and wondering about the possibilities of re-gassing...  I have a couple of those metal tube ends with some defunct old tubes I got from Laser Sam a couple years back for experimenting.  More interests, less time...

 

On Wed, Oct 20, 2021 at 2:37 PM Mac Doktor <themac...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Oct 20, 2021, at 2:59 PM, Nick Andrews <nickja...@gmail.com> wrote:

A guy built a device to try and capture the mercury, thinking he could recover and build up a small supply.  He found that he never could get any significant quantity from the tubes.

Did he condense the vapor first?

 

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"
 

https://www.astarcloseup.com

 

“...the book said something astonishing, a very big thought. The stars, it said, were suns but very far away. The Sun was a star but close up.”—Carl Sagan, "The Backbone Of Night", Cosmos, 1980
 

 

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[gregebert]

Did you need to use a diffusion pump to get below 10 microns ? Years ago I researched doing neon tubes, but got discouraged by the high-cost of the vacuum equipment and the dangers of bombarding.

[joshua dejaen]

I have an edwards e2m1 that I bought used for $200 which theoretically can reach .38 microns.

Its pumping speed however is slow and my rubber stoppers are not helping. My thermocouple gauge burned out unfortunately so I can't measure my current vacuum but I would not be

surprised if I was achieving 5 microns or lower after extended pumping.

A diffusion pump is not necessary in my opinion for experimenting, but probably is needed if you want to make a tube that will last for decades.

Bombarding is an issue I have not solved, I currently just heat the tube with the torch for a while pumping to remove impurities and call it good.

This leaves the electrodes unprocessed however and will lead to a shorter life.

Simplifier and myself have both also both made functional Triodes using nothing more than a rotary vane pump, and he was able to achieve below 5 microns with his generic Chinese

pump.

Here is a link to Simplifier making a helium discharge tube using only a cheap rotary vane pump https://simplifier.neocities.org/discharge.html

And his Homepage https://simplifier.neocities.org/index.html

He has a whole list of vacuum and glass related projects and does them in the simplest way possible.

[Nick Andrews]

I have also long been interested in doing neon tubes for fun, as well as lasers and other fun things.  I have both diff pumps and a turbo pump which I want to configure into a vacuum workstation built on an old ultracentrifuge chassis.  So I was looking at neon sign electrodes as a possible starting point for some of this stuff. 

Would placing a cold trap inline before the turbo pump capture any possible mercury or other contamination?  I would think that the vapor would be pulled through by the roughing pump anyway.  Am I correct in remembering that some diff pumps actually used mercury versus oil?  I'm pretty sure the two I have both used oil.  One was from ebay, the other from the aforementioned ultracentrifuge.  At least one of my 3 Welch rotary vane roughing pumps needs a rebuild (if not all of them).  Man, rebuild kits have skyrocketed in price!  Haven't tested the other, more modern roughing pump yet.

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