My Tube Collection, Welcome to share yours

Blue58 · Aug 9, 2023

adrian cheng said:
View attachment 114516

The Cossor factory is/was 10 minutes walk away from me at Highbury & Islington.https://www.pricemyers.com/projects/london-screen-academy-118

adrian cheng · Aug 26, 2023

adrian cheng · Sep 7, 2023

EL33

Sablon Audio · Sep 7, 2023

Pin cleaning adventures. E83f Philips disc getter, so mid to late 50s production

Photo before soaking for 4hrs in lemon juice (and much the same afterwards also….)

Photo after 10 minutes in hydrochloric acid (35% solution)

The acid solution started clear but this is what it looked like after 10 mins

Sablon Audio · Sep 8, 2023

Silver dip for today’s ecc40 as they typically have silver plated pins which the acid would otherwise strip

Treehaus Audiolab · Sep 18, 2023

adrian cheng said:
View attachment 103789

What are you using these Tungar supplies for? I love the look of these.

adrian cheng · Sep 19, 2023

Treehaus Audiolab said:
What are you using these Tungar supplies for? I love the look of these.

Direct current for the Lomo tweeter

adrian cheng · Sep 20, 2023

Mullard GZ34 Black Fat Base ..Five version

Kingrex · Sep 20, 2023

Sablon Audio said:
Silver dip for today’s ecc40 as they typically have silver plated pins which the acid would otherwise strip

View attachment 116288

What are you using on the silver?

Sablon Audio · Sep 20, 2023

Kingrex said:
What are you using on the silver?

Silver dip.

Kingrex · Sep 20, 2023

Sablon Audio said:
Silver dip.

I saw that. I was wondering if there are better brands than others. I want to clean surfaces, but I don't want to strip the silver. And it needs to be water soluble to rinse clean.
Thanks

Kingrex · Sep 20, 2023

If you look at you pins, they are horribly pittled and blistered. Have you ever tried polishing them smooth. You would remove silver plating, but the contact surface would be much better.

Sablon Audio · Sep 21, 2023

Kingrex said:
I saw that. I was wondering if there are better brands than others. I want to clean surfaces, but I don't want to strip the silver. And it needs to be water soluble to rinse clean.
Thanks

I used an English brand called Goddards but don’t know if that’s available in USA. Silver dip won’t strip the plating and is usually water soluble.

Sablon Audio · Sep 21, 2023

Kingrex said:
If you look at you pins, they are horribly pittled and blistered. Have you ever tried polishing them smooth. You would remove silver plating, but the contact surface would be much better.

So the Philips e83f in the photo, which had the acid bath, have I believe untreated steel pins (rather than the silver plating of the ecc40) and 65 years of atmospheric exposure has clearly taken its toll. I’m sure they could be polished however it would be a rather fiddly given the small size of novals and time consuming job for 36 pins. I just wanted to quickly remove the oxidisation rather than do a full restoration.

Kingrex · Sep 21, 2023

The small tubes do have a lot of pitting. Hard to deal with. You don't want to shrink the diameter of the pins. The larger tube has more a spalding. Either I agree are hard to recondition.
I deox all my tube pins when done cleaning. I have never used an acid.
You would be shocked to see how much tarnish comes off the surface of gold. Don't forget those.

adrian cheng · Oct 7, 2023

EL34 Metal base with different Date Code...1)SYA D4 D5... 2) SY1 56T TO 57C...3) SYN 5A TO 5E.....4) KEC 5D and SYO 67 With same Disc getter...5).. SYO 54L TO 56L..6)...SYA D4 SYA D5 With metal piece....7)...Difference between SYO and SYA