You are a genius. I truly appreciate your skills and I especially appreciate the fact you allow a hack like me to look over your shoulder while you do your thing. Thank you.
Thank you for the video! You are an inspiration for my own tubemaking endevors. I do not care if it does not work in the end the process is still educational and interesting.
Oscillion is just another name for a triode. When De Forest invented the triode he called it an Audion. In 1912 De Forest discovered that if the anode and grid circuits were inductively coupled it would oscillate so maybe this was when the name Oscillion originated.
There are levels of skill that make us remember all of the accomplishments that led to them. What a beautiful lesson in patience and knowledge. A tube is such a pretty thing... especially when it glows.
Hi Ron, Your videos are hands down some of the best. You really know your stuff, I always get a lot out of watching. I often think of doing a DIY vacuum tube project, but at best I’ll have to settle for a simple temporary demo in my vacuum chamber. About 20 years ago I almost bought a surplus glass lathe. Seeing your projects I wish I had, but buying it would have been just the start. Could you do a tour of your shop and explain how you got all your gear? I bet its quite a story in it self. I’m hoping to do a series of 1920’s replica radios just for my own enjoyment and maybe some folks on RU-vid will enjoy seeing them. On your replicas, are you doing them also just for the experience of the project, or are you doing this as a custom commission for a collector or museum? Thanks for sharing your talent. - Ed
Your videos are so interesting, and one of the most fascinating things to me is when you choose to swear and when you choose not to. I imagine having a cat helps with stress and might be part of the equation.
I so enjoy watching your videos. This is becoming a lost art. There was a guy in des Moines Iowa who commercially repaired CRT tubes. Sadly, he closed his business. As far as I knew, he was the only one in the US to repair CRT tubes.
First of all, thank you for your enjoyable and educational videos, I look forward to them.too bad this one did not pan out, hope you don’t give up ,and try again..
I love that you take us through the trials and tribulations of tube making, I do hope you show us when you successfully produce a fully working oscillion. I've been studying your website but I see you haven't put up the plans for a TM pump driver, that's something that I believe would be very useful.
I like the passion you put into your work, I like the fact that you don't get pissed when things go wrong, I like the fact that you never give up. I also never give up, but I get pissed off like a stuffed pigeon. Beautiful video Ron!
Failure is success if we learn from it. - Malcolm Forbes No genius has ever existed without a touch of madness! -Aristotle Say this was fun Ron watching your progress at failure. Another do , not try, is in order !
How does your technology compare to the technology they used back in the day when this tube was originally manufactured? Surely your equipment is better. Do have any examples of what they would have used?
When de Forest had this tube made the tech was fairly well developed. They had mercury diffusion vacuum pumps, and electrical spot welders. They had good glass blowing skilled workers. Some of the tubes made pre 1920 were very professional looking.
That's a real bummer that it cracked after you put so much hard work into building it. It seemed like it was working quite well when you were testing it while the pumps were maintaining the vacuum. I'm curious as to what it's amplifying characteristics and power output would have been, had it not cracked. I'm guessing that moving the plate and grid connections, so they pass through the same end as the filament, would make construction of the tube easier, but that would kind of spoil the replica aspect of the project. I hope you have better success if you try this project again. I really enjoy your tube making videos. Your patience and knowledge are incredible. Have a wonderful day.
This tube though it failed quickly did provide us with a fascinating video - thank you so much for sharing all your hard work. For a tube such as this one with an irreparable crack - could you build a second envelope to put around the entire assembly and evacuate that prior to the first going bad? Obviously this would be ridiculous in a commercial product but for hobby/experimenter work might be practical. I guess it would be almost as much work as simply building a new one, however.
He said he wanted to build functional replicas of period correct radios, so making it bigger would mean it wouldn't fit anymore. It was also probably damaged from running gassy while being pumped down.
@@trevorhaddox6884 Yes, you are right - I hadn't thought of that aspect. I still wonder if it would work but the more I think about it, the effort and time would probably be better spent making a new tube.
Hi Ron, I think that it is so important that you show both the successes and failures, it demonstrates that to become good at something there are many times that things will go wrong, but those that persist and are undeterred will get there in the end. I find it amazing that you don't get mad when things break, I think that mindset is why you have achieved so much and see everything as a learning experience that will get you closer to the goal next time - keep up the good work. Would you be able to do a video on how you constructed the spot welders and getter flasher? Warmest regards, J.
You have skills that I'm afraid will disappear one day. Have you ever thought of passing on those skills for future generations; perhaps write a book with many illustrations?
Another outstanding video. It's too bad that he designed the tube with such a fiddly dual sided schema. Almost like DeForest wanted the design to be as irritatingly difficult to replicate as possible.
Good God! You really have patience. Very neat work.But things may go wrong while working with glass. Can you make a metal halide lamp for the viewers, please give it a try.
Such a bummer Ron. BUT, you should auction these fails off on Ebay!!! They are ART. Your glass skills are crazy... Thanks for ANOTHER awesome video of your glass skills!
You are brilliant! Watching your channel, I rest and admire! You combine knowledge, diligence and excellent craftsmanship! Hold on! Robert SP5RF from Poland.
Where do you get your getters from? Or do you make them yourself? Every time I watch one of these build video it makes me want to get into glass work to maybe give something like this a go if nothing for making "art"
How about restoring a color television picture tube. There are generic electron guns available on the market. I know there was at least one company in America that was doing this work. You should give it a try.
Used to do that years back. The store I worked for had a "lifetime" guarantee on the picture tube and we had a small vertical lathe for attaching a new length of glass on the neck and then welding the new electron gun in place. For a picture tube, given it's size, the vertical lathe was, at least for us, much easier to use than the horizontal ones. We only had two ovens to process the tubes so it was very limited production. The rebuild tubes performed just as good as new.
Ron, when you make another Oscillion tube, will you be able to reuse _any_ of the failed assembly? Or do you have to start from absolute scratch? It looks like virtually all of your gear is home-made. Will you do some "deep dive" videos on at least some of your gear? Including what looks like DIY gauge scales calibrated for whatever you want them to be? Could you go into detail on how you make your gauges?
I had not seen one of these. Did de Forest have them gassy like his Audions? He wrongly thought they needed some gas...Even though no two worked the same and even at their best they were only OK. So I don't see why he would think any different about his Oscillion.
@@glasslinger the last time you left the rage/anger in the video you got a bunch of people mad at you for being mad at yourself. Probably best leave it out, let us all think you are calm and collective :)
All tubes seem to be built with a delicate glass envelope. I wonder if a tube was ever constructed that used the anode as the envelope. Imagine a metal tube pinched shut at one end with the filament and grid inserted into the open end then sealed in position with a glass plug. Such construction would be very robust but I've never heard of a tube built like this. Possible problems with metal expansion breaking the glass plug seal? Would make an interesting project but you wouldn't be able to fire the getter inductively.
Some relatively modern high power Traveling Wave Tubes are designed/manufactured with grounded anode/"depressed" cathode configurations. I provided engineering/ technical support to the Navy for a number of systems that used these in the 1960"s.
I suspect that the reason he didn't switch to all the electrodes through the same pinch/seal is because labour, even skilled labour such as glass blowers... was cheap back in the day. If you save some poor schleb half an hour to 2 hrs work... why bother... it's cheap.
Actually, de Forest FINALLY did change over to single ended design when competitors began making huge numbers of tubes cheaper than he could. It is much easier to put all the electrodes in one pinch than that horrible double ended alignment hassle!
Seen you do all this before, Ron..ho-hum. Is it not time now for you to be building your own first particle accelerator so we can witness you splitting the Atom...well it is about time, Ron...I reckon that is a good idea, what do you say...I hope you say yes and that you fancy the challenge. Well, you did do it all for God when he used you to help build his Universe, so time you did it all again...he-he
Wow... You have a massive investment in plant, tools, materials. I am staggered. That is equivalent to small production unit. Something's got to be warranting that. Are you small engineering plant? I gather that you use Tungsten for the feed through because of the hot glass. It was my understand that platinum was usually employed as it's coefficient of expansion is identical to glass but it looks likeTungsten is much the same as platinum but not so expensive. Ace videos... As for the Haute Culture garments, my only comments are "They must be ruined by the engineering conditions, paint spray. Saw and Lathe dust etc." But more critically, not wise around moving machinery and power tools. Factory safety officials would go bananas! 73.
