Neon Signmaking Books

Unless you are rich or have a connection with a neon shop, it is unlikely you can afford to get in to it. The problem isn't the materials or the workspace, both of which can be modest. It isn't even the glassworking tools - torches, etc. - which take a few hundred dollars. The problem is that the vacuum equipment, gas handling equipment, and electrical transformers, including the special stuff that cooks out the tubing during setup, have an initial cost of several thousand dollars. The only way to bypass this is to take your almost finished glasswork to a shop that will draw it down and charge it for a fee. Follow this link

to my site for data on a book Or go to their site 2003-11-27

The Neon Engineers Notebook Here is a practical guide to optimizing your work place. This book presents ideas and methods to tweak your machinery as well as yourself to produce your best work.

The chapters pertaining to glasswork illustrate techniques for success to improve the bending skills of novices and seasoned professionals alike.

First Edition / First Printing 2003 ISBN 0-9716530-1-1 9" x 7" $37.95 Available from Lightwriters Neon Bookstore

I've heard of hobbyist gas lasers (CO2) being operated with a continuous feed of gas on one end and a vacuum pump on the other. As long as the pressure is regulated at 20 torr, then it apparently works. (I have not seen this firsthand but it sounds feasible.) If this is true then surely a neon equivalency is possible by putting two electrodes at the end of a glass tube, feeding neon in one fitting and pumping down from the other. Sealing the tube in this condition sounds very difficult however. You might be able to find a good used vacuum pump on eBay:

I know enough that the process of bombarding (a word that eluded me in my previous reply) involves sucking down a phenominal vacuum and then cooking the inside with a special bombarding transformer that can put a couple of amps (or more?) into the plasma so the molecules of gas that will cause problems later are cooked out. Then, a tiny amount of the illuminating gas is added to the vacuum to get the result desired. Sealing is simply a matter of applying a torch to the neck and watching the vacuum suck the glass down tight. The transformers used for lighting, while not cheap, are much less costly than the bombarding transformer.

Hmm, say if 7000v is required to initiate the plasma channel in a length of neon tubing, then 1 ampere of current at 7000v = 7000 watts of power - things are going to get very very hot, very quickly!

Hmm... I have no idea if this would work, but get a plasma channel going with a regular neon sign transformer, then switch on a microwave oven transformer (or MOT at they are known, again eBay is your friend.) A MOT puts out about 3500 volts at an half amp or so, things will still get pretty hot.

Neons do have markedly large terminating electrodes where the power is connected. They must be large in order to conduct heat - if they are too small, they will get red hot and fail. It seems like the best bet would be to buy these premade - they have some pretty special features that a do-it-yourselfer cannot accomidate.

Neon Sign Transformers (NST's) can be found all over eBay. Lots of people (nerds?) use these and MOTs to make Tesla Coils. For any newcomer to high voltage electricity, please read up on how dangerous this stuff is before endeavoring in a very hazardous hobby.

I just found this cool link all about neon signs:

Right in the beginning it says: "A practical person can learn how tobend the glass, attach the electrodes, pump out the air, fill the tubewith neon or some other gas, seal it, mount it, connect it to thepower source, and install the completed tube. All these things can bedone without knowing how or why the tube works." It goes on to explain a lot in detail, including the bombarding process. It's a good read.

-- "Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you long to return." Leonardo da Vinci

Yes, it gets very hot.

Bombarding transformers are huge. Pole transformers, pole pigs(?), are often used. You can find them on eBay from time to time too. It's been ages since I've done any neon, but I do seem to recall the electrodes getting red.

Actually, a "phenomenal" vacuum would be undesireable; you need some gas in the tube to initiate the discharge. Current will vary depending on the length (and probably the cross-section) of the tube. Also, you aren't cooking out the gas molecules - you are liberating impurities from the walls of the tubing (perhaps just a matter of semantics). For a 4 foot piece of 12 mm, I use much less than .25 amp @ (about) 15kV. 0.5 amps would be a huge amount of current, and parts of the tube would probably soften enough to get sucked inward before the entire length has been cooked. I understand that those pesky Europeans forego the excitement of the bombardment by baking the tubing in an oven while maintaining a good vacuum. That's likely a more effective technique, altough it requires a potentially huge oven (depending on the size of the piece), but mostly it eliminates the "WOW" factor that is so attractive to us HV junkies.

I recommend checking out the LightWriters web site. I learned the basics of neon from Jacob Fishman.

Joe

Mike Firth wrote:

Bombarders are typically 12 to 15kva. The processing current is at first typically 250 to 300 ma. The voltage across the tube will be whatever it requires - on average 10kv + or - a few thousand volts. Most of the processing happens in the 2 to 4 torr range. The heat releases impurities from the glass wall. Near the end of the process at around 250'C the pressure is lowered some more and the current is raised. This electro-chemically 'converts' the electrodes so that the cathode fall is reduced. The tube is then pulled down to about 1 to 2 microns and cooled somewhat before backfilling to approximately 10 or more torr.

Kenny Greenberg

Not to argue with you Mike but "several thousand dollars" isn't a lot of money these days. Heck, my glass orders usually several thousand dollars and I have a medium sized stained glass store. Besides, the original poster might be loaded. LOL you never know how much money someone has.

Andy

One can go fishing for a few bucks or buy a bass boat to get you to the hot spots on the reservoir with 100 horsepower, etc, for $6,000 or more. But if the poster is asking for books about neon working and asking questions that indicate a naive beginner, a suggestion there is an expensive sink hole out there for a person who goes it alone might be in order. ["The best way to make a small fortune in art glass is to start with a large fortune."