On Jun 26, 5:15 pm, jb-electronics <[email protected]> wrote: > But not only are the tubes getting more and more expensive, interesting > Nixie tube listings on Ebay are getting rarer and rarer as well...
Which leads to an interesting thought - if the supply of additional tubes is drying up, what is the possibility of commissioning the manufacture of some new tubes? There are still companies producing vacuum tubes (mostly in Eastern Europe) and with current eBay closing prices, it would seem to be cost-effective to build and sell new ones. What type(s) would people want? IN-18, B7971, or (dare I say it) CD47? Something else? If some eBay sellers are hoarding large quantities of true NOS tubes (I suspect this is the case for the IN-18, far less so for the others), just serious negotiations with a manufacturer about restarting production might break the logjam. I don't think doing this for VFD displays would be cost-effective, at least not until prices rise considerably. IV-17 / IV-4's have all but disappeared from eBay - it used to be possible to buy 100's at $1.50 each or less. There are a few listings now for small lots (4 or 6 tubes) at $3.00 each. I wonder if someone who plans on producing kits (or assembled clocks) bought them all up? That would be a lot of tubes - 2 years ago I had a quote from a Russian vendor with quantity discount breaks up to 10,000 pieces. If there is interest in the IN-18, Svetlana may even have existing tooling: http://www.svetlana-tubes.com/svetlana.htm If that doesn't work out, perhaps a manufacturer like JJ Electronic would be interested: http://www.jj-electronic.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
