Fixing tube broked pins

[catalin gramada]

Why not junk broken tubes and insert something else?

Tubes ARE available,and always were.
Some particular model could have disappeared but tons others can more or less do the same, LOTS of interchangeability.

If needed, rewire *sockets* and leave tubes alone.

You missed the point. This is a piece of "history" from a communist period 50 years ago when nothing was available on the market in my country and techs looking for desperate solutions...I found it on the flea market and picked up just as a piece of collection...

[J M Fahey]

I think that a direct solder of a wire on a pin cut practically flush without any other type of contribution in terms of mass could not even support its insertion in the socket.

Problem is that alloy used on miniature tube pins does not "take" solder.

I have solved that problem, not in case of broken pins which I consider non-repairable but to mount tubes horizontal due to absolute lack of space (inside a pedal sized Hammond case) by using individual female contacts, the crimpable ones used in female .1 pitch connectors, each with an individual wire which can be soldered to PCB wherever needed, turning Novals (and 7 pinners) into a sort of "pencil tube" with its hair thin flying leads,but more reliable.

Such contacts are short, you canīt insert tube pin fully, but grab it tightly (they are undersized for a 1mm tube pin).

I wouldnīt rolltubes once a week as some do but for normal use they work well.

Oh, and individually heat shrink them.

[drewl]

Reminds me of the people in Cuba keeping those old cars from the 50's running with all kinds of weird parts.

[catalin gramada]

Reminds me of the people in Cuba keeping those old cars from the 50's running with all kinds of weird parts.

Same thing. Thanks God the global politics changed...Ceausescu was sort of Castro "brother"...

[vintagekiki]

Guys
Discard politics, accept techniques.

[g1]

This is a piece of "history" from a communist period 50 years ago when nothing was available on the market in my country and techs looking for desperate solutions...

Well this guy must have been at least a bit well-to-do if he could afford to throw around safety pins like that. Then again, maybe they had lots back then for use with cloth diapers?

[Enzo]

Many years ago...many...I used safety pins in electronics. I was into radio. I had a galena crystal, we unbent the pin partway and screwed it to the wooden chassis. The point was then used to find a sensitive spot on the crystal to act like a diode for detecting radio signals.

[Helmholtz]

The point was then used to find a sensitive spot on the crystal to act like a diode for detecting radio signals.

...and so you produced a Schottky diode.

[Enzo]

Point contact diode of some sort. That was how people had to get their radios to work in the early days. That is why diodes are still sometimes known as crystal rectifiers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_detector

[Helmholtz]

FeS2 is a semiconductor. Metal to semiconductor contact makes a Schottky junction.
I also started electronics with detector receivers.

[drewl]

I thought I was old!

[Helmholtz]

I thought I was old!

It's all relative.

[Pedro Vecino]

Problem is that alloy used on miniature tube pins does not "take" solder.

There is no problem soldering the pins. I took an old 6BQ5 GE to test it, but the example of the 6463 "converted" to 12BH7 already indicated this. Of course it is necessary to clean them from rust and dirt.

[g1]

I still have no idea what is going on with this fix. If I could see the stubs of the original pins that might help, but it looks like there is nothing there.
At a quick glance, I would be more likely to think that those supports were put there to help keep the top cap in place.