Neon Supplies?

[The Cheese]

Hello all - interested in learning more about neon sign making. Anyone around here make them? Looking for a good site to get materials and tools.

Any other info is greatly appreciated too.

Thanks!

[vetropod]

http://www.tecnolux.com/

[BlueBeard]

SVP neon. there is also neon workers message board on their site . The guy that owns the place is really helpful.

[jes]

Please let everyone know what you find out, I am really curious too but wanna do it all properly....

[re-vit]

damn, that technolux is amazing. i called them one night about 2 minutes before close and must have spent an hour chatting up the dude that answered the phone. nice guy- really into what the artists out there are doing. haven't spent any money with them yet, but i'm looking forward to doing business with them. where else are you going to get boro electrodes?

watched my buddy learn to do neon over the last few years at chestnut signs. i've worked on and seen a handful of neon projects go down. my advice is that all you really need to do is blow the glass, (attaching the right size of little tube coming off for neon processing.) then you should hand it over to someone experienced in processing neon.

let them deal with the toxic mercury; let them stock argon, krypton, and neon gas. there's a pretty hefty transformer involved, and the risk of serious electric shock is very real. it seems like a dying industry- most neon applications have been totally displaced by LEDs. the few neon artists left need your business.

[jes]

Whoa, now that is some good advice...

Let the pro's handle it and try to learn more and more as the time passes by...

I have seen classes with someone from Turkey with plasma and neon gasses they look real great skilled and everything if I see more I will post it...

[Greymatter Glass]

Get The Neon Engineers Handbook. it has a lot of good info.

Also, check out EGL and Daco for equipment and supplies. Technolux is a good supplier, but not the only one.

As for transformers and what not... yeah the bombarders aren't called "widow makers" for nothing... but they're not more dangerous than a gun when used properly.

the actual sign transformers are all solid state protected circuits now, so the risk of a serious shock from them is minimal...

And the mercury isn't really a concern either if you know how to handle it. it's not radioactive or explosive, just toxic - don't eat it, wash your hands if any gets on them, and don't spill any.

The gases are ridiculously expensive... but a little goes a very long way.

Probably the biggest expense in setting up will be the pumps, you'll need a roughing pump at the very least, and ideally a finishing pump of some sort, like a diffusion pump. A decent diffusion pump is $1000 and a roughing pump can be had for a bit less. A pro system with manifold would be around $5000.

...

or you can make whatever and have someone else fill it up, but a lot of old school neon guys wont fill signage unless they made it, and will be difficult to work with on any thing else...

[The Cheese]

Thanks for the insight everyone! I'll do some digging and post up little resources here and there as I find them.

Lot's of bars, resorts, etc up here that use neon signage. Love making the pipes and they sell out fairly well, but wouldn't mind exploring this either. I haven't learned many advanced color techniques but have got welds and sectional working down pretty well despite the lack of reversal balls and stick stack sections.

[LunacyMountain]

My buddy has a filling station and the proper vacuum pump set up, but just watching him use it is an art.... he mostly makes free standing statues and sculpture not signs, I'm about to make some puffer fish and have him fill them..I'll be posting pics up in about a month next time I go up his way....

[Deez]

take a class
http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36049
like this one!

[Aussie]

A decent diffusion pump is $1000

nothing beats a glass finishing pump, so make your own, it'll be cheap as chips then ... personally I used mine so little, I ended up filling it instead. This one's my mercury vacuum diffusion pump ;) ... I still have my oil diff pump just in case, but the mechanical pump I have seems to be pretty good and does the job well.

[Aussie]

almost forgot, there's a couple of neon forums out there, you'd be better off tracking those down and asking sign specific questions there. They'll be able to point you to the right places. Signs are usually made with soda or lead glass, so it's more fluid and can be bent more smoothly. As far as I know, the only country which makes their signs out of boro is France.

[BlueLilyStudio]

I just got back from the David Wilson Neon class at whatiswhatis in Boone NC. It was fun, and filling the artwork doesn't seem too difficult there is just the initial cost of pumps and manifold. We successfully filled many items with neon xenon argon and krypton. Now the only problem is that I want to be able to do it on my own so I guess its time to start saving up. so now I'll go search out a sign making neon forum and join there.