First Experiments With Molding glass for F Nixie tube | EP#2 

Your videos always have such interesting behind-the-scenes information on both technical and business aspects. Keep up the great work!

Making the stem from scratch will be quite a feat! I can imagine lots of challenges with glass to metal seal at the pins.

I always like to see, how other engineers tear down a bigger, difficult problem into small, basic steps and then build the whole thing back from step to step. I think this is cald product development.

Making the best possible seals are difficult, so much that certain Helium-Neon laser tube manufacturers paid a lot of dough to just get it right. And I totally agree that having your own machinery may help with keeping things rolling - just as you have found out, it's not always easy to work with the second source suppliers. So it's occasionally better to DIY.

that archive footage reminds me of when I was a glass blower, we had similar mechanical machines for making thermometers

YOU AND YOUR TEAM ARE AWESOME!!!! Keep it up guys! I love this, and it's beautiful to see a company that wants to do the best they can and don't cut corners! You will last Generations!! Mark my words! It's so rare to find good products and honest companies these days.

I have been following you ever since you first began your operation (even long before your website was launched) its truly amazing how far you have come keeping this beautiful craft alive in the 21st Century. Keep up the great work! Hope to purchase some of your tubes soon! Among my countless Soviet IN-X tubes, I have a Burroughs B-7971 4-digit clock project that has been sitting on the shelf for years now. This video reminded me that i really should finish it 😄

Great video, as always! I'm learning something new in every of your videos. I always have problems with metal/glass seals and I can't wait for the next video.

Glass making is poesy! And thank you for taking us on this adventure with you :D Probably it would be good to make some notches in order for glass to stay in the middle during heating.

Forbidden cok ring 😂😂 Awesome work! I'm living vicariously through your journey, I'd love to start a business making the most common tubes with the best quality possible, utopia, i know...

I'm very excited to see you solving this problem as well. I'm about to begin working on a similar approach using a set of progressive dies and a desktop arbor press. Of course, I don't need nearly as many pins as you do for my applications. My main concern currently is properly pre-processing the pins so that they have the correct oxide layer for adhesion and also ensuring that they aren't contaminated during pressing. I assume this is why the process is based on a ring of glass (instead of, say, glass frit) because it can be heated from the side opposite the pins and then pressed into them to protect the sealed portion during the rest of the heating and forming. I'm sure you'll find success before I do, but if I learn anything I'll let you know. Excellent work so far.

Great update, very cool to watch the process

This is going to be awesome!! Pressed stems were something I was fascinated by (still am), how they get the glass, pins, tabulation all pressed together in one go. I’ve got a few patents saved somewhere on moulds for bases, I’ll email you them.

Outstanding! I was lucky enough to visit Bletchley Park in the UK. There was a display of the replica code breaking machine designed by Alan Turing. The replica was used for the filming of "The Imitation Game" but none of the original machine or any of the tools were kept after WW2. Everything had to be made from scratch using original or similar materials and methods. It sort of reminds me of what you and your team are doing.

This is very interesting to watch. Thanks for the regular videos

I love seeing your updates! I just thought if you every get multiple molds, that it might be useful to punch the mold number into the surface so that it will show up in the final tube. That way you'd have a way to keep track of which tubes were made with which molds which might help if you have tube failures later down the line.

Amazing. Keep pushing the limits!!! 💙

I've been watching your work for some time - glad to see you again, still working at it!

self-reliance is essential in surviving, especially with a niche items like a nixie tube! I'm looking forward on what come next, thank you for sharing your journey!!

This makes me so excited!

I suspect the toothed ring in the old film notches the glass so it will more readily flow into the cavities in the mould to form the beads. You may run into an issue where the stem might deform the flatness of the moulded disk when the two die faces separate, which may happen if the stem is a friction fit with the mould base; so you may want to try two versions of the die, with one holding the stem in place, and the other with a loose fit to allow for the assembly to move freely. To achieve a cleaner surface finish on your moulds, you may want to make use of EDM cutting where feasible. However, you can achieve high levels of surface finish through conventional machining and the use of surface grinding (horizontal and tubular). When you get to working around the surface interface of the pins, you'll find that a pusher rod to push the stem assembly out of the upper mould should reduce the surface adhesion (Beyond improvements that may be gained through better surface finish). Something you see in blow moulded glass forms, is circulation channels for water coolant to keep the glass from adhering to the mould surface. However, you may not be doing the volumes needed for that feature in the final tooling, if there's a fair amount of time to allow the tooling to cool. When it comes time to mechanize the process, it may be worthwhile to build a modular jig that can be controlled with PLC logic, so it can be adapted to different stems and different fixtures. Rather than the revolving carousel assembly used in the mass production setting, it may make sense to have a feed chute, and a few stations with burners, and pneumatic or motorized swing arms to swap the stem to the next position. However, such a setup could also be built to run manually, with minimal automation and still increase productivity.

That is great, for the 1st one you seem to have gotten off to a great start. Can't wait to see the next test and how you work out the bugs.

Amazing! Thank You for sharing!

Great video! Thank you!

Fascinating!!!! How intrepid you are. Good luck sir!

What an amazing video and journey. This is all my favorite youtuber in one channel :D

Cool 😍 I love affordable nixi tubes!!😃👍😁❤

Love your video, as usual :)

Přesně takové průchodky vyráběly sklárny Kavalier. Mám tam dobrého známého, který mi o tom procesu kdysi vyprávěl. Určitě by byl ochotný prozradit všechno, co o tom ví.

Cool look forward to the next one Never would Have thought the glass would pick up such detail in the Metal surface.

Best of luck with this new endeavour!

Dude this is so damn cool. I wish you all the success!

You basically need a heating station, a press for the first process (the crimper wheel) and another press for the final pressing all in the same form (so you don't need multiple heating spots). The base should have the ability to rotate (for the heating) and an indexing position so the presses fit with the pins exactly where they need too be. Since you're doing it manually, the system for the press should be similar to a shotgun shell reloading station with a small carousel and an arm that allows you to press the final die to form the glass. Were i you, i'd first make each station separate, then integrate them all into one unit. You could use a pre-made drill attachment that turns a regular drill into a drill press or even a broken drill press to retrofit into this machinery. It already provides you with all the structure you need for the pressing action. I would not make it horizontal, that just involves gravity and gravity is never a welcome guest when it comes to fluids. Just my 2 cents on it all. :)

super video, člověk zase vidí něco nového a zajímavého a přehi hodně zdaru, ať se to nakonec podaří. btw. ten soustruh je epický..

Nice video, I love watching you work through problems and sharing them with us. I'll say this you had me worried working with the vertical lathe so closecthe propane cylinder😅

Congratulations on success with your first test!

Yes, good work there, now just need to have the next on with a decent polish on the faces, and probably for the production one not a parallel reamer to make the dimples for the glass but a taper reamer instead. Then comes making the holes ot fit pins, and making the jig align correctly. would say that possibly with the exhaust tube you have a tapered probe in the upper mould that keeps the exhaust tube from being filled, which should also help with getting a full fill in the base.

That glass melting montage on your vertical lathe reminded me of a changeling on _Star Trek._ Kinda neat how it almost goes from its formed shape to a round blob. Congratulations on your press working so well on the first try! 👍

great work as always! Those lathes are so cool. you might look at getting glass preforms waterjet cut from plate. a disc with the required holes for wires and stem already present would require the glass to flow a lot less, and it would flow more uniformly. Seems like having glass flow up into the beads from all sides of the pins at once would make for more reliable seals, avoiding problems with getting the tube to flow around the pins and shut properly on the inside of the stem.

congratulations! :) Why you don't ask Ron to build you 20000 stem/year 😁, the quality will be perfect! 😆

молодчинка

Doing it in the lathe suggests the idea of putting a glass tube in the center hole inside the radius of the pins. Then spinning it up. Then finally bring the up to the proper temperature to soften the glass and let centrifugal forces fill the mold while feeding the tube in. Not to in any way imply that what your doing isnt absolurely amazing.

Since you're creating a Monastery to re-create and preserve nixie technology through the coming dark ages, it makes sense to bring as much component manufacturing in-house, or in your local area as possible.

I really wonder if you could make a nixie tube that incorporated a mercury arc rectifier to have the filament glow in a blue plasma field from the arc rectifier.

awesome job!!! my favorite type of glass to melt is microwave plates. they are some kind of boro glass - very soft and creamy in the flame. i'm not sure the coe would match the metal leads tho. i've seen some glass metal seals made with uranium glass. please put a didymium lens in front of camera so we can see through the soda flare.

I wonder if you can get the beads sealing against the leads with just a single pressing step, or if you’ll need to have something like that toothed wheel step first?

Preheating the mold/top might help flow... You may also want to look into precision ceramic molds✌

Yes it's always better to make all your own components. Do you heat up the top half of the mold before pressing them together? I hope I will be able to buy a Nixie tube clock from you one day.

Been subscribed since the clock days before the Tokyo project. Is this new footage or footage of when you were trying to make that massive tube's base?

There is a company in the uk that makes them for transistors.

The final molds will be in platinum?

I guess it would help if the form was either lined or made from graphite rather than stainless.

Hi maybe you could borrow or rent an XRF spectrum analyzer (x-ray spectrum fluorescence, periodic table element identification divice). So you know what type of metal and glass they are using! 😃👍

I expected the glass ring to be blown away by the flame of the torch haha. is the flame that gentle or does the glass eventually stick to the steel mold? Great video by the way. As per usual.

What is the alloy of the pins?

will there ever be a flat-packaged nixie...? something with a pinch seal, a mesh anode and a pair of bulged glass panels that could be stood up on say.. a car dashboard, would be incredible. i have so many ideas, and no workshop to attempt them with 😫 also, you need a discord server.

It looks just like an IN-18 now

Sounds like the lathe bearings are a bit rough.

is that a old late 80s hp half rack in your shop? for a second i thought u had a 4062ux or something

Good lack!

I see that the glass is cracked, is that because you mold is made of metal and is too cold?

Please give the lathe a bit of grease. The Bearings make such sad noises.

why?

Chinese glass is all garbage. I swear they intentionally make inferior products that are essentially what you asked for. This is a really cool inside gaming stuff. Im surprised you wouldnt want to use borosilicate. I just assumed normal glass would crack.

Přesně takové průchodky vyráběly sklárny Kavalier. Mám tam dobrého známého, který mi o tom procesu kdysi vyprávěl. Určitě by byl ochotný prozradit všechno, co o tom ví.