Tube storage?????????

Is there a preferred (horizontal v. vertical or somewhere in between) way to store tubes? If there is another thread here, please delete this one and point me in the right (or left) direction.

in a gun safe . . .
also, if you haven't seen these, these are nice . . . . https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/egg-crate-large-st-tubes . . . they also come for the smaller 9p tubes
I store mine facing up, but it really doesn't matter

Cheap basterd that I am ...



Standard size Mouser box with chunks of pipe insulation. Nice fit on noval 9's.

I imagine the way I store mine is so unstylish but I keep my spare tubes in the boxes they came in and then I put them in a cardboard box that I store on the shelf in the closet.

Keep away from moisture , pins might corrode and eventually weaken the glass.
Also keep away from hydrogen and helium gas as these may diffuse through the glass and
fatally poison the tubes.
Helium is unusual, hydrogen might be present at places where lead-acid batteries are charged.

Good thing I don't keep helium balloons or lead acid batteries on the shelf in my closet.

I sense a market for a new style tube storage unit with special silver wiring and cryogenic properties and negative humidity powered by nuclear flabbergasters and muffler bearings that should sell for, say, $15k or so.....available only in your boutique hifi store or online from the manufacturer...avoid the middle man markup!

[quote="wildiowa"]I sense a market for a new style tube storage unit with special silver wiring and cryogenic properties and negative humidity powered by nuclear flabbergasters and muffler bearings that should sell for, say, $15k or so.....available only in your boutique hifi store or online from the manufacturer...avoid the middle man markup![/quote

Mpffffff..... I have, perhaps, about 2,000 tubes. They are in plastic containers roughly divided into four categories:

a) Exotics: These include my Euro tubes, exotic audio tubes, NOS 6550s and such. Perhaps 200 tubes in all. very few of them are in boxes. As well as my dedicated audio tubes.
b) TransOceanic tubes: Mostly 1.6 V tubes including my 1L6s, 1U6s and DK92s, as well as the others in that line, and some locktals for the 7G and 8G series.
c) Other Radio Tubes: these include octal and pre-octal tubes for my radios from 1919 through 1963.
d) Everything else: A mixed bag (several, in fact) of tubes that I have accumulated/acquired from the souks of Saudi Arabia, to a small group from Istanbul to various fleas/garage/yard sales here in the US. The actual bulk of the entire group. But, for instance, in that lot are two sleeves of NOS RCA 7199s. I know where they are, but they are unsorted.

Willy-nilly, topsy-turvy. One of my winter projects is to sort through at least 1/3 of the otherwise unsorted tubes and distribute them to the first three subsets as noted above, and then contribute the dross to the DVHRC tube bank.

Ah, well. Here in the Philadelphia region, tubes seem to be thick on the ground. Sylvania had their largest factory over on Parkside Avenue, and RCA was nearby in NJ. Philco was on Tabor Road - and more. Not to mention Dynaco, Acrosound and more.

I'm about to come into an "inheritance" of tubes. But they are apparently nearly all TV receiving tubes; few to none of the audio types.

They're even in the Philadelphia area...you don't suppose the DVHRC would just take 'em all?

GP49 wrote:I'm about to come into an "inheritance" of tubes.  But they are apparently nearly all TV receiving tubes; few to none of the audio types.  

They're even in the Philadelphia area...you don't suppose the DVHRC would just take 'em all?

They would. The DVHRC membership covers many aspects of the vintage tube-based hobby. Where are you?

Peter W. wrote:

GP49 wrote:I'm about to come into an "inheritance" of tubes.  But they are apparently nearly all TV receiving tubes; few to none of the audio types.  

They're even in the Philadelphia area...you don't suppose the DVHRC would just take 'em all?

They would. The DVHRC membership covers many aspects of the vintage tube-based hobby. Where are you?

I'll be in Bensalem. You have a private message about it.

It'd be a shame for them to all be crushed in a landfill.

I'll be looking at a box of tubes a buddy is bringing over tonight. He just picked them up at his folks home where his Dad was into shortwave in the late '40's/early '50's.

I'm excited....cold beer already in the fridge.

All this talk of large quantities of tube aquisitions is making me jealous. Have you guys thought about forming a self help group for yourselves?

Dogstar wrote:All this talk of large quantities of tube aquisitions is making me jealous. Have you guys thought about forming a self help group for yourselves?

Move east, preferably to a densely populated are in Electronics Row (Brooklyn, NJ, Philadelphia, Central PA), put yourself in harm's way (flea market, estate sales (!!) and Craig's list), get the word out to your community. And tubes will beat a path to your door.

When my wife and I were working in Saudi, I purchased a single (GE 7025, SR3) tube at an outdoor Souk near Hofuf (they called them bulbs). I found out that the seller had a Crosley Table Radio (in the shape of a table, 1920s, table made by Red Lion (a competitor of Keil). He need, it turns out, two 26 tubes for it. With his very poor English and my poorer Arabic (none, really other than a few expressions and greetings) we exchanged phone numbers. On my next 'leave', I brought an entire set of tubes for his radio model back, called him - "I am the guy that bought your Bulb - and I have bulbs for you" half-a-dozen times. Finally I got my translator to make the call. We met, I gave him the tubes. We exchanged e-mails. Eventually, he invited me to his house! Introduced me to his family! Including his wife!! Came to my house with his son!! Allowed his son to play with our dog!!!! And brought two standard plastic grocery bags full of tubes for me. He had gotten his radio to play, and was exceedingly happy.

We remain friends to this day.

This is how one gets tubes.... amongst other ways.