Amateur Vacuum Tube Making
  • Titus RaindropsTitus Raindrops

    This is really one of the most incredible things I have ever found on the Internet… This guy Ron Soyland has dedicated himself to recreating the lost art of making vacuum tubes on a small scale, without the large factory furnaces, pumps, and stamping machines usually associated with tubes. I find it amazing to watch him work, experiment, engineer, fail, try again… and succeed! Anyway, if you’re into this at all here are a couple of links.

    He just published a sort of online book about the process at tubecrafter.com. He also has a very interesting and informative Youtube page here.

  • yewtreemagicyewtreemagic

    Fascinating stuff!!!!!!!

    Thanks for the link TR :-)

    Martin

  • schrabschrab

  • fcd72fcd72

    “Its life Jim, but not as we know it!” – Badass ÜberCool™

    Whats next? Hone your own Transistors from a Piece of Silicon??

  • shiftrshiftr

    this a french guy doing something similar… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzyXMEpq4qw&feature=related

  • MicMicManMicMicMan

    yep, i’ve seen the french guy video some time ago, but I must admit that the Nixie Cat is pretty impressive!

  • loderbastloderbast

    amazing. just watched the guy for like 2 hours. awesome!!! even most the tools are diy.

  • n8bitn8bit

    here’s another french guy doing something similarly great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFerxLepXKs&feature=plcp

    #fanservice

  • loderbastloderbast

    the result is similarly great indeed, but watching the process of making tubes beats programming, soldering and putting stuff on breadboard ;)

  • gritzgritz

    sigh This is beautiful!

    I’ve seen the French chap’s work before (and been amazed by it) but this link is new to me. I’ve bookedmarked it under “Art”!

  • Titus RaindropsTitus Raindrops

    The French guy is amazing indeed. Then I watched a BBC documentary about the Mullard Blackburn plant from the 1950s showing how the entire process was eventually automated. The machines invented to do this work were also a form of art. They weren’t robots, they were machines designed to assist humans, designed to work with their human hands. What a concept.

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