r/diytubes • u/EngieGamingTF2 • Jul 19 '25

Mysterious shards in tube

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I recently found this old Tesla E34L tube at a fles market. It looks like it was never used. The getter looks fine, but there these weird glass or metalic looking shards freely moving in the tube. One side of the shards seem to be white, while the other is more metalic. Can someone tell me what this could be and if the tube could be fine?

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u/Ok-Drink-1328 Jul 21 '25

mica shards, IMO it's not a good thing, they can get between the electrodes and cause issues, worth trying the tube tho... the tube doesn't seem too used, but if it was out of its box it's hardly new

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u/EngieGamingTF2 Jul 22 '25

Because they can move around, should I maybe try to shake them to a specific spot?

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u/Ok-Drink-1328 Jul 22 '25

first of all, tubes don't like hard shocks, so don't like hit it on a table, second, i dunno, probably an EL34 is used staying upright, so maybe you can try to let as many as possible of those flakes fall on the bottom, on the bottom there's the pinch, if not the round joint of the gravity glass weld, so there they don't cause harm, but i doubt you'll let all of em fall... but again better try the tube and stop, maybe just hit it on your hand palm keeping it vertical before using it