Hello, I also spent some time with glow tubes.. good practise. You mentioned that air is much dimmer than neon - argon is not better :-( but argon is inert and You could make glow tubes with much higher lifetime..
Go for oxy-gas torch, You will be surprised how thoroughly is possible to heat the seals :-) I bought a cheap ($25) acetylene-oxy torch, I am using it with gas-oxy, it works well! Dalibor Farný http://dalibor.farny.cz sent from Samsung Galaxy Pad Dne 27.9.2012 13:28 "jb-electronics" <webmas...@jb-electronics.de> napsal(a): > Hi, > > wow, that looks good. I am trying to make smaller steps because I am not > so good with the mechanics. I will build small tubes out of test tubes > first; a glass lathe is nice but for now it is too much for me. > > Jens > > Hello! > > Nice, I am glad You are really working on it, so do I :-) I am spending > all my free time making nixies, not much time to write about it on blog.. I > am now in phase of building glass lathe again, the previous one was of bad > design.. > > I made several stems from Simax (boro) glass using a lead-in-wires with > tungsten middle sealing part. I tested them on helium leak detector and > some of them are ok! :-) So now I need the lathe to make the envelopes and > seal it.. > > http://dalibor.farny.cz/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/IMG_8088.jpg > > I also did simple experiment with photo-etching of numbers from thin > stainless steel sheet. It works, but the etching proces will have to be > made more even and much much faster to prevent under-etching.. > > http://dalibor.farny.cz/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120804_120302.jpg > > I also had to build new transformer spot welder, the capacitor discharge > welder waswaste of time :-( the new one can be adjusted, tungsten-steel > welds are now really easy :-) > > Dalibor Farný > http://dalibor.farny.cz > > sent from Samsung Galaxy Pad > Dne 27.9.2012 5:17 "jb-electronics" <webmas...@jb-electronics.de> > napsal(a): > >> Thanks Michel, I am planning to do all kinds of glow lamps before I get a >> real torch, a real colon display would be nice. >> >> Next, I will experiment with the aluminum oxide insulator. Sadly, it is >> quite brittle, so if you shake the tube too hard it will break loose. But I >> could use this insulator to prevent parts of wires to glow. >> >> But I doubt that air is going to get any brighter, Argon would probably >> yield much better results. >> >> Jens >> >> >> Nice work Jens! >>> >>> Would be a good combination, nixie tube clock with glow lamp colons or >>> something like that. It doesn't seem as bright as neon but that is >>> probably because it is a prototype. >>> >>> Michel >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Sep 27, 7:10 am, jb-electronics <webmas...@jb-electronics.de> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi folks, >>>> >>>> finally I got my first glow lamp working. It is the third try, therefore >>>> I call it "GL-LS-3", short for glow lamp lab sample 3. See two pictures >>>> here: >>>> >>>> >>>> http://www.jb-electronics.de/tmp/gl-ls-3_1.jpghttp://www.jb-electronics.de/tmp/gl-ls-3_2.jpg >>>> >>>> It consists of 9mm soda lime tubing and Dumet wire. The gas filling is >>>> normal air at 9mbar. It ignites nicely at roughly 550V DC. >>>> >>>> I used a simple propane torch for the glass work. Will switch to a >>>> hand-held oxygen-propane torch in a few months though (when I have >>>> enough time and money). >>>> >>>> I will get my needle valve in two weeks or so, then I will be able to do >>>> something with neon. Believe it or not: over two months lead time for a >>>> silly needle valve... Anyway, I hope I will have the tube making content >>>> prepared for my website by then. It is piling up, but there is still >>>> much to do. >>>> >>>> Best regards >>>> Jens >>>> >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "neonixie-l" group. >> To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "neonixie-l" group. > To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "neonixie-l" group. > To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
