Quote:
Originally Posted by broadgage
Has anyone tried making new magic eye tuning indicators ? This would need glass working facilities, basic metal working equipment, and a high vacuum pumping plant.
Not a job for the average home workshop, but several people have manufactured valves by hand, and a magic eye looks no more complex than a triode.
Valve manufacture by hand showing the equipment needed.
It might be easier to break apart the envelope of a dead magic eye, recoat with phosphor, and seal into a new envelope.
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Both ideas have crossed my mind frequently, and I have already gathered some of the equipment and materials needed and plan to gather other materials and equipment over the course of the next year or years as I come across it. I don't yet have a suitable workshop to put them in either. One of the materials I still need to source are getters (If anyone knows a cheap source?). I already have phosphor (in powder form) and cathodes (though not of the right type). Equipment isn't yet complete either. I own a medium vacuum Edwards pump, a heating element for annealing a single valve or light bulb that I need to build an oven around, some gas burners, a spot welder. A high vacuum pump may be needed, an induction heater and some glass working equipment such as a lathe.