There are many ways to make your own sockets. Here is one I came up with long ago:
Find some wire that has insulation that will fit snuggly around the tube pins. This is fairly easy to do with pins that are .040 to .042 inch diameter. It might be a bit more difficult to find insulation or tubing that will fit the larger diameter pins found on an IN-1 tube. Once you find the insulation, cut it into pieces that are about 3/8 or 7/16 inches long. Cut one piece for each tube pin. Then, take your tube and make a pattern of the socket pins by inserting them into a piece of soft plastic foam such as the side of a white foam drinking cup. Using that hole pattern template, transfer the holes to a suitable material to hold the insulation pieces. Some examples of materials I have used successfully have been 1/8 inch thick clear acrylic, and one other time I drilled the holes into some oak that's slightly thicker than 1/8 inch. The holes need to be sized so the insulation bits fit in with a mild press-fit. Once that it all done, here comes the socket part: In each insulation bit, take a piece of #30 gauge kynar insulated wirewrap wire and insert it up through the insulation and then down along the ouitside, twisting back onto itself. Have it stripped off bare for the portion that goes up through the insulation and back down the outside. The bare wire being fastened to the inside of the insulation gets forced up against the tube pin when the pin is inserted into the insulation. Lead all the wirewrap wires out to a suitable connector and solder them down to it. I like to use a 14-pin DIP header plug for this. It's a bit of work, but you end up with a nice socket that is easy on the tube pins. Chuck > > >---- Original Message ---- >From: [email protected] >To: [email protected] >Subject: RE: [neonixie-l] Questions on IN-1 nixies >Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:41:18 -0800 (PST) > >>Hi all- >> >>I have recently been accumulating a small number of different nixie >tubes >>for eventual use in clocks and whatever other imaginative uses I can >come >>up with. Some of the ones I picked up are IN-1s. From what I can >gather, >>sockets are very difficult to come by for these. >> >>Does anyone have any suggestions on alternatives to sockets in terms >of >>mounting/wiring these? Are there any PCBs out there available for >purchase >>that fit IN-1s? >> >>Any tips or suggestions for working with these would be greatly >appreciated. >> >>-- >>You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >Groups "neonixie-l" group. >>To view this discussion on the web, visit >https://groups.google.com/d/msg/neonixie-l/-/W3-udrd20QYJ. >>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. >> >> $4.95/mo. National Dialup, Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus, 5mb personal web space. 5x faster dialup for only $9.95/mo. No contracts, No fees, No Kidding! See http://www.All2Easy.net for more details! -- 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.
