unmarked tubes

Tube-specific discussions

Moderators: CurtissRobin, colossal, zaphod_phil

Post Reply
marshman
Occasional poster
Occasional poster
Posts: 308
Joined: Wed 11/23/05 2:00 am
Location: Cochranville, PA

unmarked tubes

Post by marshman »

So I recently scored a huge pile of loose tubes, and I'm going through them looking for anything of use and just generally sorting them by whatever I can find. Quite a few of them have had any useful labelling eradicated. I assume that there is no practical way for an average guy to ID a tube from looking at the guts. Should I just toss 'em?

Are they safe to recycle with my soup cans and soda bottles, or is there a better way to dispose of 'em?
0 x

57chevy
Occasional poster
Occasional poster
Posts: 400
Joined: Fri 06/16/06 2:00 am

Post by 57chevy »

... is there a better way to dispose of 'em?
eBay
0 x

marshman
Occasional poster
Occasional poster
Posts: 308
Joined: Wed 11/23/05 2:00 am
Location: Cochranville, PA

Post by marshman »

ebay, I would imagine, still requires some idea what the tubes are...if they're unmarked, who'd want 'em?
0 x

Phil_S
Frequent poster
Frequent poster
Posts: 861
Joined: Sat 11/11/06 2:00 am
Location: Baltimore, MD

Post by Phil_S »

At least give the freezer trick a try. When a tube is frozen, sometimes you can briefly see what indication was on there when you remove it from the freezer. Honest, just give it a try. It won't hurt the tubes and you have nothing to lose.

You might sort them by size/shape, etc and maybe there are groups of similar? LOL, maybe you have a bunch of 7167, 6BA6 or something like that! Donate them to an art college. A student will make a sculpture from them.

The metal has toxic stuff on it. You can't recycle.
0 x

marshman
Occasional poster
Occasional poster
Posts: 308
Joined: Wed 11/23/05 2:00 am
Location: Cochranville, PA

Post by marshman »

the toxicity was one of the things I was curious about. I wonder if it's even something that should go in a landfill. Maybe I'll consider recycling with batteries, or at the next computer dump day...

I got about 40 unreadable tubes out of 1 box, with 3 or 4 more to go...these are just the big tubes, I haven't started the 7 and 9 pins yet!
0 x

dotfret
Frequent poster
Frequent poster
Posts: 922
Joined: Wed 09/29/04 2:00 am
Location: East Yorkshire

Post by dotfret »

Remember that you can decode the Philips group codes to get the type in many cases. A lot of Amperex and Sylvania have these codes etched in the glass or written on the base, and RCA would relabel Mullard and Siemens & Halske products, among others. If you have that Philips/Mullard style code on anything, you can often work out what it is.

You can get the list here, in PDF format:

http://www.mif.pg.gda.pl/homepages/fran ... tAB-v8.pdf

It is not absolutely accurate, but it could save you from throwing out some good stuff.
0 x

Post Reply