Several years ago I researched neon signage, and you need a high-vacuum, around 1 micron (10-3 Torr). The books I have didn't get into specific vacuum levels, as there are multiple ways to cleanse the tubes, notably via bombarding. They did not cover nixie tubes.
To get micron-level vacuum, you need a mechanical pump to get around 100 microns, followed by a diffusion pump. There might be other ways to get the required cleanliness without a diffusion pump, but I dont have any details. If you just want to do some experimenting, start with a mechanical pump. I plan to do that soon, as I have a small pump used for evacuating air conditioning equipment. Some of the reasons I'm not doing neon work are the cost of the equipment, the dangers of bombarding, need for mercury to extend tube life, and I expect it to be difficult to find getter material. All I want to do is get some sort of discharge glow, and play around with easy-to-find gases like argon and helium. I saw a mention in the Weston book of pressures in the 10-2 to 10-4 Torr, though it covers theory of operation rather than fabrication details. On Friday, November 22, 2024 at 12:33:28 PM UTC-8 Miles Thatch wrote: > > [image: vac.png] -- 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 view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/7e19cde9-eb07-42fa-bb3b-2ccf0d4b22a6n%40googlegroups.com.
