Thread: Tour the Tesla Tube Factory

I think the older fellow at the work bench once worked for Thomas Edison.

What a dump. I can't imagine manufacturing vacuum tubes in that environment. I guess they never heard of 6S or CI.

Originally Posted by Hiker

I think the older fellow at the work bench once worked for Thomas Edison.

That's a plus, not a minus. Zabar's best lox slicer was an 86 year old, old school, Jewish man. His technique and thinness of slices put the young bucks to shame.

Note: edited for word length!

Originally Posted by Myles B. Astor

That's a plus, not a minus. Zabar's best lox slicer was an 86 year old, old school, Jewish man. His technique and thinness of slices put the young bucks to shame.

Note: edited for word length!

That would be one of the problems you would encounter if you tried to start manufacturing vacuum tubes today in the U.S. All of the old gnomes are gone and there is no tribal knowledge left. The learning curve would be steep. It could be done mind you if we could find someone who wanted to make a small fortune from his large fortune. I swear we could.

Thank you. It always amazes me how much work it takes to make one of those tubes. I am afraid it is a craft that may disappear some day. I am going to have to start stocking up on tubes.

Should of stocked up as a boy. Also my biggest fear. The craft is disappearing.

Originally Posted by Steve

Should of stocked up as a boy. Also my biggest fear. The craft is disappearing.

I do believe the world-wide demand for vacuum tubes is high enough that some companies will keep manufacturing vacuum tubes. Sometimes we think vacuum tubes only exist for our hobby when the real truth is the market is much larger when you thrown in all the musicians in the world who play through tubes. Tube manufacturing on the scale the world knew it from the 1940s through the 1970s is gone forever.

The real problem is that we don't see much innovation with regards to existing tubes being improved in quality or new and better audio tubes entering the market. I think the KT-120 and KT-150 tubes are more evolutionary than revolutionary in their design. Colleges just aren't cranking out vacuum tube design engineers whether for audio or RF because of the low demand. We used to have incredible tube engineers that could make a vacuum tube do anything they wanted it to except mow the grass.

Given how niche the market is, it's not surprising that no one has invested in automating tube manufacture because to design and produce the machining that would automate the tube assembly process would never generate a return high enough to justify the investment in such equipment. But that's what tube manufacturing is crying out for - automation that reduces human error and high labor content in tube manufacture.

Originally Posted by cmalak

Given how niche the market is, it's not surprising that no one has invested in automating tube manufacture because to design and produce the machining that would automate the tube assembly process would never generate a return high enough to justify the investment in such equipment. But that's what tube manufacturing is crying out for - automation that reduces human error and high labor content in tube manufacture.

Below is a really cool video of a Mullard tube factory showing the large scale of production of vacuum tubes. This place was massive and the amount of machinery and foundry equipment is mind boggling. But this is how it used to be done.