OK I'll jump in with a few points... 1, The price. From my dealings with this seller their idea of an offer will be $100 less than asking. (OK maybe free shipping).
2. Extra costs. If I could afford to pay that and brought them to the UK there would be an extra 20% tax to pay - the price is now over $50k. 3. Quantities. I read it as enough of some parts to make 1,000 tubes and of others for 10,000. No sign of cathodes so there may not be enough ot assemble even 1 without extra materials. 4. Knowhow. How long will it take, even with data/manuals (In Russian, probably added/changed as production improved and written by engineers for their own use......) to make a tube you could guarantee for 10+ years of life?. 5. Legality. IN-18s have a Mercury pill, in this country at least I don't see a chance of having their manufacture approved. There's some interesting bits there but a very long way from a turnkey nixie plant, which is what you'd need to justify the price.... though if I had a spare million I'd be tempted ;). Tony. On Feb 20, 11:21 am, Nick <[email protected]> wrote: > Yup - including the shipping, its not attractive. Note that all that > fragile glass packed into rather feeble cardboard boxes has to make it to > you in whatever country you are in, without breakage. > > Face it - what are you actually buying here? Part of (certainly not all) of > a factory line that made IN-18s. Big deal. That's not the problem - the > expertise is - neon equipment, spot welders, glass tempering etc. is common > and understood. The bags of ceramic beads etc. are useful, but not worth a > huge amount. The "special metal" is what exactly? Are the > wire-forming machines there? All the digits (and the decimal points)? The > anode screen punches? Nowadays the digits etc. would probably be formed by > an alternative technique - the Russians were expert at using what they had > available to the best effect, but in the 30 or 40 years since this > equipment was first commissioned, manufacturing techniques have moved on. > > Maybe USD 10,000 including shipping would be almost OK, but 40K? > > Certainly doesn't work for me :) > > Nick > > > > > > > > On Wednesday, 20 February 2013 10:35:57 UTC, Nixcited delighted wrote: > > So a best case scenario is you get 10,000 nixies at the end of the > > day. For all the heartache of making them you have paid $4.348 before > > adding the cost of the magic smoke, the compressor, hand press etc > > etc. If you only get the lowest estimate of 1,000 tubes, you will > > have paid $43.48 each, but probably double that. > > > Does it work for you? > > > John S -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
