About the author : Dalibor

Hi all, the frequency of posting updates decreased significantly, but don’t be afraid, I am still working hard to produce real nixie tubes. I am building a garden shed now, I collected so many crazy stuff that I need more room again. I will post some photos of the garden shed later ;-)

I am developing a layout for etching all the metal parts necessary for assembling a nixie tube, such as digits, anode grid and so. My plan is to make Z568M reproductions as I consider these tubes the most beatiful ones! I found that using a 0.1 mm thick stainless steel for all the parts is quite tricky, it is too thin and especially the anode tends to twist.. I will have to find a supplier of 0.3mm stainless steel sheet and I now this will be pretty hard here in Czech Republic.

There are some photos of the test assembly.. It turned out that I used wrong line thickness for the anode grid so it was etched out :-( There are also some other minor problems that will be fixed in next layout. The enclosure is pretty creased because I fold it in hand, I plan to use some bending tool for real production to achieve right angles and perfectly flat areas.

I would like to thank to etching company Etchworks.cz for their patience with me!

7 Comments

  1. Daniil June 3, 2013 at 21:35

    This is beautiful! :) What material spacers are made?

    • Dalibor June 7, 2013 at 20:41

      Hi Dan!

      Nice to hear from You! Those spacers are just Miyuki beads, 1.8mm..

      Dalibor

      • Daniil June 8, 2013 at 21:57

        Did you get my mail? (just to know I’m writing to correct address)

        • Dalibor June 9, 2013 at 06:39

          Hi, I got it thanks! I am going to answer and attach some yet unpublished photos. It takes some time, please be patient :-)

          • Daniil June 9, 2013 at 07:07

            Oh, no problem, I understand, kids, garden work, regular work, wife… just wanted to know that you get it.

  2. Martin June 3, 2013 at 21:37

    Absolutely wonderful!

    I have one recommendation and that is that you should not make only one point of contact for electrical connections, both to digits and to the anode mesh. I have recently come across large nixie tubes like ZM1040 and similar types where the electrical connections to the anode mesh has come loose and also where some of the digits have come loose in GR10G nixies. The connections have come loose due to poor welding spots. So when you make connections to the anode mesh and digits you could do that in more than one point to ensure that a single failure point does not exist. For the digits some manufacturers use two etched wires at the bottom, beneath the hole for the bottom support, and then welded them to two points on the connecting wire and they also used two or more points of connections to the anode mesh – I guess that they learned from early mistakes with nixies that did not work when the welding spots failed.

    • Dalibor June 7, 2013 at 20:46

      Hi Martin,

      thanks for the tip, I also have some z566m that have faulty welds.. I will check my tubes thoroughly and carefully set the power for the welds so that the metals really flows into each other. This way there is almost no chance for the weld to crack. Those welds in original tubes are often very poor, I am surprised they put such tubes on market. I dont want to complicate the desing much as each compication means some extra time when making the tube..

      Thanks and I am looking forward to hear from You soon!

      Dalibor

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