ESRC Dollar Sale - Going, Going...

[wrenchone]

ESRC has a dollar sale on some selected tubes that expires at the end of the year. Along with the usual useless/replacement only tube types, there are a couple of good VHF/UHF triodes, a nice little horizontal sweep tube, a 21LR8 (spud, anyone?), some nice triode-pentode pairs with high transconductance pentodes, several hefty damper diodes, a couple of high sensitivity beam power tubes in 9-pin package, and two dual pentodes that would be a good choice for an all-compactron version of Pete Millett's new push-pull amp design. A search with tube manual in hand will be rewarded. I'm not naming any names here (except for the one), but anyone diligent enough should be able to shake out the useful tidbits in a half hour or so.

[wrenchone]

My stash of tubes was waiting for me on the front porch when i got home last night. In the mix: 6AG9 (frame grid pentode/triode), 6BN11 (dual pentode), 6BE3 (hefty damper diode), 6HQ5 (hi-mu VHF triode), 6X9 (triode/pentode), 8CS7 (dual vertical osc/amp triode), and 1625 (12V version of 807). I'm now equipped with a lot of "messing around" tubes.

[tubelab.com]

and 1625 (12V version of 807).

Were the 1625's in brown military boxes? I sold Stan about 200 of them about a year ago. Cheap too.

[wrenchone]

They were in blue Pro/Com boxes. Maybe the old brown boxes got a little too tattered (I have a few of those from other sources that look like they've been submerged and otherwise abused). I got a mix of old RCA and Sylvania types, reasonably clean, though I still haven't seen one of these that wouldn't benefit from a wire brushing of the plate cap and pins. They were still cheap....

[tubelab.com]

They were in blue Pro/Com boxes.

I don't know where he got them but he has about a million small and large Pro/Com boxes and a large quantity of ElMenco 9 pin and Octal boxes.

I have been clearing out my warehouse because the already too rich landlord keeps raising the rent (after he laid off my wife, who ran the place) and it goes up again in January. We are now paying over $5k per year to keep our "stuff". We have been downsizing but the landlord has matched our smaller storage needs with rent increases and he wonders why his occupancy rate is now 20%. Two years ago there was a waiting list.

5 years ago I had over 100,000 tubes (probably close to 200,000). Most were WWII vintage tubes. Every time I go to Orlando (about 200 miles) I take a truck load of tubes to Stan and trade them for credit. I would rather have a few boxes of tubes that I am likely to use than thousands of tubes that I never will use. At one time I had over 100 pounds of 6AL5's and 50 pounds of 2D21's (like I'm going to count them). I still have about 50 pounds of 6AK5's and 0A2's.

I have come to realize that I have more projects and project material that I could ever finish in two lifetimes, so every time I go north, more tubes get "voted off the island." I will be going to the Orlando hamfest in February, so another batch will go. What doesn't sell at the hamfest for 50 cents or a quarter, goes to Stan. Usually I get $100 to $200 for an F150 full.

I have somewhere between 50 and 100 6L6 type tubes, so the 1625's and 807's are gone. There were about 75 boxed 1625's and over 100 in military bulk packing. Also about 100 loose 807's too. Are your tubes from my stash? There is really no way to tell.

Stans warehouse is something to see. There are over 4 million tubes in one place. When I met Stan his father ran ESRC out of a small warehouse in Boynton Beach about 5 miles from where I worked at the time. It was poorly organized and you couldn't find anything. When his father passed he moved everything to Orlando. The last time I was there (a year ago) he had 2 million tubes in a fairly large space. All inventoried on computer. He has since doubled in size and space. I can spend a day there just looking at tubes that I have never seen before. It is dangerous because you get all of these wild ideas. It is especially dangerous when you have credit to spend!

I got about 100 or so dollar tubes last summer. I haven't melted any yet. The 6GV5's will crank out over 75 WPC in the Millett "red board", yes 75 watts for $2! The 6JQ6 will do about 20 WPC in screen drive. The 6HA6 / 6HB6 is an EL84 look alike but it has a different pinout. It also has a whole lot more gain and likes to oscillate when hooked up with clip leads. The transconductance is 20,000. I have not tried any of the other tubes that I got yet. They are 6LQ8, 6HM6, 6JD6, 6KR8, and the 6GF5. There may be a few more in another box.

[wrenchone]

I'm getting very selective about the tubes I choose to pick up. They have to have some purpose in mind (no more of those tube assortment buys). I started out with a fairly large list from ESRC this time around, then relentlessly pruned it. I've been lucky enough to pick up a lot of old organ iron lately, so I'm not short of power or output transformer, at least for my smaller projects. As with you, I have more projects than time, but I'm cranking them out slowly but surely. One of these days, I'll post my project list - it's a dog-choker, both vacuum and sand state...

[andyjevans]

I've found Stan quite flexible on quantity buys - I've always preferred to negotiate with him. If you buy a decent size box of tubes he'll give you a good deal. So I wouldn't confine yourselves to the dollar deals - if you want something else, just ask! Stan is a businessman and if he sees a deal that will be favourable to him he'll go with it.

andy

[wrenchone]

This may be true, but I can do a lot with those dollar tubes...