Building DIY Vacuum Tubes

[George_Schmermund]

I've been playing with DIY vacuum tubes for a while now and the latest effort is in the area of simplifying the electrode geometry. Cylindrical electrodes are classical in design and work well as triodes, but the assembly is more difficult to align reproducibly. I've switched back to the parallel plate style of the WE 101D and its ladder grid, though the ladder is more demanding to build compared to the Audion's serpentine grid. I did make the first ladder grid, as shown in the photos, by just hand holding the pieces to weld them. This method is easy, but tedious. I'll use an aligning fixture for the next build.

The next part that needs attention is the filament. The original WE 101D's that I've looked at on eBay show an 'M' shaped filament. This is a simple arrangement if you're using a glass arbor to support and position the electrodes. I'm going to avoid using an arbor and just utilize the extra pins in the button pinch and run three filaments in parallel. I'm looking forward to getting one of these tubes processed and tested. I expect the electrical characteristics to be ostensibly the same as the original 101D. We'll see.

 

[schmitt trigger]

Do you have the equipment to fully exhaust all gases from the tube?

 

[betwixt]

If you search on Youtube there is a video of someone else making their own tubes. I'm afraid I don't have the link to hand but a search should find it. It's a very interesting video and might give some tips on how to best do it.

Brian.

 

[George_Schmermund]

Thank you for the replies.

Schmitt - Yes, I have all of the equipment needed to build and process these tubes. I've built quite a few triodes over the years and there is still a lot to learn as the designs get more ambitious.

Brian - Yes, YouTube is a great resource for DIY vacuum projects including building tubes. The Paillard video has become a tube building cult classic and I still enjoy watching his work. The best instructional videos are on Ron Soyland's YouTube channel 'Glasslinger'. Ron is a very talented person.

 

[Warpspeed]

After the big EMP event....
This may be the only way to build anything "electronic" in the future.

 

[andre_luis]

If you search on Youtube there is a video of someone else making their own tubes. I'm afraid I don't have the link to hand but a search should find it. It's a very interesting video and might give some tips on how to best do it.

You are perhaps talking about this video, quite interesting, a real treasure.
Not only manufacturing process itself, but also artistic production, and course, musical theme:

 

[George_Schmermund]

A fellow named Trevor has started a forum aimed at the group of folks that might want to make vacuum tubes. I'll be posting most of my tube projects over there. If any one here is interested in following this here's the link: https://diyvacuumtubes.com/