Vacuum Tube Building Workshop

I know this post is going to be a little bit over the top, but there may be some folks here who would really like to be involved with vacuum tubes on a whole new level. Here's an opportunity to enroll in a workshop that is available nowhere else on the planet. I don't claim to be the only individual hand-making vacuum tubes, but no one else is offering up their facility to teach YOU how to do it!

The link: http://www.vacuumtubeworkshop.com/

The response to the website has been very gratifying. I wasn't sure how it would be received, but the feedback has been 100% positive.

The date for the first Workshop is not firm yet because of the amount of work necessary to organize the project. I'm now in the process of moving all the necessary equipment from my facility to the Museum's machine shop. When everything is set up, sample tubes must be built and tested to confirm that the process of making 100% reliable tubes is realistic. 100% may sound like a stretcher, but I have achieved that when I build them myself in small numbers. There is no reason to think that an attendee couldn't successfully build a simple triode tube with the proper tools and instructions. The amount of time necessary to achieve these results must also be confirmed. It can certainly be done in less than an 8-hour day, but the actual number of hours needs to be established.

The approach to having a successful Workshop that will allow attendees to build a working triode in 1 day is based on the fact that this will NOT be a glassblowing class. There will be torches and glass parts that will need to be sealed together and then tipped-off, but it will all happen with the glass setup and aligned in fixtures. No glassblowing skills will be needed. The real hands-on part is in the making, assembly, and welding of the internal electrodes. There is some amount of dexterity and low level skills needed for this part, but you will have plenty of help to assure that you end up with a working tube. The radio construction project will require the use of a soldering iron and a screwdriver. All materials and tools will be provided.

One issue that has been pinned down is the fee for the first Workshop. It will be $350 per attendee. This fee must be paid in advance into VTW's PayPal account. The first Workshops will be limited to 5 (five) attendees. The first people to pay will be the first to be enrolled. From the number of people that have shown interest shown so far, these Workshops will be an ongoing project spaced at intervals.

At some point there will be a page on the VTW website with a PayPal button that will allow you to sign up. Check the site from time to time and any new information will be posted there.

Hi,

There is a progress page that has been added to the VTW site. It will be updated at intervals.

George Schmermund

Interest in the Workshop continues to grow and I'd like to thank all of you who have asked to be kept updated. A somewhat curious aspect of the Contact comments is that no one, so far, has asked any questions about the tube that they will build if they attend. This leads me to assume that any triode will do as long as it works when the project is completed. Well, obviously the tube will be of the triode variety, but there are certainly many ways to build one.

I can say at this point that it will most assuredly be a tube based on the early designs. The era will most likely be the late teen's and into the early 1920's. This would allow the choice of either a parallel or cylindrical plate designs. The grids could be either serpentine, like the first Audions, or helical to match a cylindrical plate. The filaments will all be made from 3 mil thoriated tungsten wire. I've been warned about offering too many choices of electrode design, but the reality of it is that they will all take about the same amount of time to construct.

For those wanting to immerse themselves into the design possibilities of early tubes I recommend reading "SAGA of the VACUUM TUBE" by Gerald F.J. Tyne and/or 70 YEARS of RADIO TUBES and VALVES by John W stokes. Either will provide excellent historical information with lots of illustrations. If you're going to commit to attending the Workshop, the experience will be greatly enhanced if you have some notion of vacuum tube history.

I would also like to point out that YouTube has some excellent videos on reproducing early tube construction. Claude Paillard's mesmerizing video has been up for several years and his work is outstanding, though detached from step-by-step instructions. The tube he is building in the video is from a construction project written by Franck Duroquier in the book La T. S. E. Des Amateurs, published in 1923. Here's a quote from the book, "The construction of a vacuum tube is a very delicate process which demands a great deal of application. Unsuccessful attempts will not sadden the amateur because perseverance will lead to future victory." Paillard has made some improvement's in the original construction methods, but the end result is ostensibly the same tube. I'm impressed with what he has accomplished.

The best instructional videos are put up by Ron Soyland. Ron's YouTube channel is 'Glasslinger'. He is without a doubt the most talented individual making vacuum tubes on YouTube. He has seemingly pulled himself up by his bootstraps in order to pursue glass work in his garage. He also has a website that is a most valuable resource for learning what tools and machinery are need to be successful at DIY tube making. The site is Tubecrafter.com.

Progress on the Workshop is moving forward, though at a slower pace than I intended, but I'm still confident that everything can come together by the end of this quarter. Each of the CD welders is getting refurbished with new capacitors and the weld heads are being rebuilt and customized with the best electrode configuration for doing vacuum tube construction.

The prototype glass lathe was tested yesterday. The design uses a re-purposed bench-top wood lathe of the 8" x 12" variety. I'm surprised and pleased at the sturdiness and ease of use that the cast iron construction of the frame and heads offers. There's some fine tuning that needs to be done, but the overall utility of the device is very well matched to the job of making virtually any reasonable size tube.

I'm still in the construction and testing phase of the new diffusion pumping system. The Workshop is in no need of having more pumping and processing capability, but I want to be able to offer all of the major and excessively expensive instruments that are required for tube making at what I hope is a reasonably affordable price. Being able to build working vacuum tube designs in the leisure and comfort of one's own shop may be of interest to some of the Workshop attendees. If not, well, that's OK, too. My major weakness is having an excess of interest in designing and building exotic machines and instruments, so I'd be building this stuff anyway.

One of the inescapable downsides of spending a lot of time at the Craftsmanship Museum is that almost anywhere I turn there is some sort of overwhelmingly interesting distraction. My time is spent primarily in the machine shop and there is always a new or ongoing project in the works. I get so easily drawn into them that I forget that my main project is to get the Workshop up and running.

Fortunately, all of my schedules and deadlines are self imposed.