Posted 4 years ago
AnythingOb…
(1778 items)
I fully admit I really didn't think that Vynil33rpm (nor lots of other folks here) really *would not* know the answer to the kinda 'challenge question' I commented about yesterday, which Vynil then ever so kindly added another posting showing them closer up.
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/280436-no-colorful-tubular-glow-without-these?in=activity#
SO, for any of y'all that might still remain curious, here's a few pics of these things actually 'doing their job' inside my own personal favorite 'big neon sign' glowing happily on the wall behind me right now. :-)
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/241317-fun-with-red-neon-channel-letters
On most any sort of actual neon sign (not modern LED anything btw) whether meant for inside or outside duty (little beer signs too, or anything with real "luminous tubing" in it...) and with or without 'exposed tubing' (unlike mine here) some variety of these 'standoffs' are used to hold the fragile glass neon tubing itself, which (as can be seen) is simply attached to them by little short twisty wires to hold them in place. The ultimate reason behind it is the fact that it takes (again, in general terms) something on the order of 5-10 times (at least) the actual voltage that comes out of everybody's common wall outlets (even outside of the USA where lots of folks' stuff runs on 240v vs. our typical 120v here) to make the actual neon tubes light up.
That's the kinda voltage folks, which is *entirely* capable of throwing your body across a room (if not thru a wall as well) if you got your fingers across the exactly *wrong* little bit of any odd electrical connection in there...IF you'd be lucky enough that it also didn't kill you kinda immediately in the process...big electrical jolts have their own tendency to "stop hearts from beating" if they aren't used in a hospital to try to otherwise "restart" a heart that quit on its own for some other reason. (like for instance, if you touched that perfectly wrong place in there...) And ANYWAYS, some various sorts of these standoffs are used to hold the tubing/wiring a safe-ish distance away from other metal parts of whatever kinda sign it is, to minimize the chance that any of that very high voltage might ever wanna try to find its way otherwise to anything else *but* the neon tubes.
I pulled the outer cover off my 'M' for these pics. There ain't a lot of room inside there to get better pics of how the standoffs exist, but I hope y'all get the idea anyways. Any of y'all that *do* have any sort of neon sign of your own are no doubt familiar with 'em anyway. ;-)
[and yes, I do also have a few coffee cans/little boxes full of them around here someplace...again, are any of you *really* surprised at that...?? <ROTFLMAO>
More kind THANKS to fortapache, MALKEY, Vynil33rpm, blunderbuss2, IronLace, vetraio50, Brunswick, lisa, & AntigueToys for stopping by and leaving a <love it> behind!! :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
Oh, the dangers of those exposed wires!
Very cool close-ups of your M, AnythingObscure!
I was disconnecting one of the tubes from one of my signs in order to find which of the several tubes had broken and caused the entire sign to flicker dimly.
I was very careful to disconnect the power every time before I untwisted the wires.
Except for that second-to-last time.
I reached behind the sign and for a brief fraction of a second, was amazed at the blue-white display of lightning crawling across my hand and forearm.
It looked like when the Jawas in Star Wars shot R2-D2 in the desert.
Really cool effect!
I thought, "Wow! That looks cool!".
That thought was swiftly overtaken by "That's MY HAND!!!"
It felt like 30 or 40 people were battering my arms with rubber mallets as the 5000 volts running through the small transformer momentarily found a new place to go.
I jerked loose and felt the screw and washer in my other hand burning a scar into me, having been the metal the current connected with for that brief instant.
I quickly stepped out into the hall just in case my heart was about to stop.
Someone in an adjacent studio would hopefully see me collapse and call for help.
That didn't happen, I'm happy to say.
I found the broken tube and rewired the rest of the sign without incident.
After that, I was MUCH more careful when fooling with electricity.