GoKawiilHobbyist Documents Custom Vacuum Diode Build for Make: Magazine Feature
An amateur vacuum tube maker built a second diode tube specifically to document the process for a Make: Magazine article after his original tube, made hastily before Hackaday Superconference 2022, lacked good process photos. The piece, published in Make: Volume 86, details the tricky pinch-seal technique using Tungsten wire welded to Nickel pins and coated with oxide to bond glass and metal in a vacuum-tight seal.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
This kind of hands-on documentation helps preserve and popularize a nearly lost craft—hand-building vacuum tubes—for a new generation of makers and electronics hobbyists. It also shows how maker culture bridges hobbyist experimentation with more formal publication, turning a conference talk into a detailed technical resource.
- A hobbyist rebuilt a vacuum diode tube specifically to properly document the fabrication process for publication.
- The article appeared in Make: Volume 86, focusing on the difficult pinch-seal method for vacuum tube bases.
- The technique relies on Tungsten wire oxidized and welded to Nickel pins to create a vacuum-tight glass-metal seal.
Source: nickpoole.me — Nick Poole, 2026-09-10
Published there as: “A Vacuum Diode for Make: Magazine”
Read the original report → The summary and analysis above are GoKawiil's own, written from reporting by the source above. Facts and quotes belong to the original publisher.