how tubes are made

[MoeGJBeener]

That was so cool! I always wondered how they were made.

[beans-on-toast]

Originally Posted by KJung

You would thing the variability across units would be relatively high given all the handwork.

There were high rejection rates on the more automated production lines as is evident in the pic below. It makes you appreciate the exacting standards that went into the NOS tubes.

[BassSurfer]

Extremely neat!

[DaveDeVille]

very cool , whole new respect for the craftsmen involved ...

[jaxstarke]

Kewl vid. Those were some big-a$$ tubes! Do they mass-produce tubes? If they do, I wonder if they are more uniform in their performance? Seems like a lot of work to build something and you don't know exactly how it's going to work.

[will33]

Originally Posted by beans-on-toast

There were high rejection rates on the more automated production lines as is evident in the pic below. It makes you appreciate the exacting standards that went into the NOS tubes.

Makes sense.......if somebody has shaky hands one day, you might get a few bad tubes out of them. If something isn't just right with the source material or all the high volume production machinery, you might have a batch of 1000 bad ones by the time you catch the error.

[jaxstarke]

Originally Posted by jaxstarke

Kewl vid. Those were some big-a$$ tubes! Do they mass-produce tubes? If they do, I wonder if they are more uniform in their performance? Seems like a lot of work to build something and you don't know exactly how it's going to work.

Oh, nevermind. Guess I should have read all the replies first.

[B-string]

To share a little info. A friend of the family used to work at one of the last manufacturers in the USA. He was instrumental in a clean room procedure. All materials were cleaned and production was done in a relatively clean (but not today's standards) environment. This reduced reject rates by 60%. The resulting costs were a wash.

[johnpbass]

Very cool video. Thanks for sharing!

[Downunderwonder]

Originally Posted by Jim C

Never realized how much precision hand work was involved.
Assuming all tubes are made this same way, $15 - $35 for a standard audio tube seems like a bargain.
Cool post

I think our standard tubes must be a lot more automated or they would be costing $$$ like the flashy ones shown.

[Mastermold]

Wow! Very cool!

[zillo]

Fantastic. Much respect to folks that do such fine work.

Thanks

[Seans]

Or, you could do it yourself with a Swiss Army Knife!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl-QMuUQhVM

[Bongokid]

NICE

[Edword]

And a good explanation of how they work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v...ture=endscreen

[Groover]

Great videos, and this confirms that Video DID NOT kill the radio star