DIY Network

Bombarding and Assembling a Neon Display A neon sign is finished. From "Trade School" episode DTRS-303

Student Caren Whittler continues crafting her custom neon chopper display by welding the tubes together and filling them with gas.

advertisement

Figure A

Safety Note: Always wear safety glasses when working with glass or near an open flame.

1. With all the individual glass tubes shaped appropriately, Caren proceeds to weld the pieces together, forming four separate units that will later be linked together. Using a unique hand torch that features two flames facing each other, she heats the tube ends and fuses them together. On the ends of each unit, she also welds in glass-encased electrodes (figure A).

2. After the units have been sealed, Caren can introduce illuminant gas using a bombarder. Note: A bombarder is a large transformer and a powerful vacuum in one. For a red-orange color she uses clear glass tubes and pure neon. For the other colors in the sign, she fills phosphorus-lined glass tubes with argon and a trace amount of mercury.

3. Caren hooks up each unit's electrodes to the bombarder (figure B). She places thin pieces of semi-transparent mica, which is a mineral insulator, into sharp folds along the glass tubes (figure C). The mica inhibits electricity from jumping across the wrong pathway.

4. She now vacuums out the air from the unit, and then bombards the unit with high-voltage electricity to burn off any remaining impurities (figure D). Electricity enters through one electrode, passes through the network of glass tubing, and then completes the circuit back to the bombarder. Once the unit cools, she utilizes the vacuum state inside the glass to draw in the gas.

Figure B

Figure C

Figure D

	Figure E
	Figure F
	Figure G

5. After disconnecting the unit from the bombarder, Caren hooks it up to a power source, and "ages-in" the unit (figure E). Note: Aging-in refers to the initial lighting that allows the piece to achieve its full brightness. She repeats the bombarding process until verifying that all four units work correctly.

6. Before assembling her neon display, Caren halfway dips each unit in a vat of black-out paint (figure F). This masks the bends, crossovers and the backside of the unit allowing only the intended design to be visible when lit.

7. To be able to mount the neon tubes and house the necessary electrical hardware, Caren forms a box out of black acrylic plastic. She uses a strip heater to soften and bend the plastic, and then fuses on the end caps using a special plastic adhesive.

8. After instructor Doug Azar marks the box to indicate wire positions, Caren strategically drills several holes. Doug then helps her mount a transformer inside the box and run the wire through the holes.

9. Caren carefully snaps plastic mounting clips directly onto each neon unit. She then positions the units on the box and using the plastic adhesive, fuses them in place (figure G).

10. With the neon units in place, Caren splices the wires to the electrodes creating a full circuit through each unit and the transformer. She fits protective plastic caps over the spliced wires and powers up her custom display.

Now armed with a new set of skills, Caren makes her way back home to start her own neon sign business.