I don’t think I will be making neon signs anytime soon, but one day I would like to. I am wondering where you all get neon gas and mercury metal. Argon is easy enough to source, and some people are selling mercury tilt switches, but that isn’t really convenient or economical. On eBay there are also tanks of neon gas available, but it is research-grade 99.999+% pure, and it is 250 liters, so it is over $350. Also there are big bottle of mercury, but I don’t need much. I also have a couple of large chemistry mercury thermometers, but they look really high-quality so I am not gonna break them.

How much (money-wise) would it take to get a very small cylinder of neon or vial of mercury? Where do you get it?

Thanks!
 

For mercury just grab a tilt switch. There already are several grams of mercury in one of those, and you only need several tenths of a gram for anything lighting-related. Even a cheap, crappy old fever thermometer has an amount that you can fill many meters of discharge tube with.

For neon, i don't know. A potential search word is 'Lecture bottle'. These are tiny gas cylinders of about coffee thermos size, that can be used for experiments on the bench rather than for production or research at scale.

Now that I think about it, buying some mini mercury tilt switches on EBay is probably the best approach. Every dose is sealed in glass until I need to use it, minimizing my possible exposure. Unfortunately, I have had no luck finding lecture bottles of any gas (for a reasonable price), never mind something rare like neon.

You can get tilt switch modules from cheap electronics kits. I found some modules online for a dollar each. The amount of mercury in them can dose up to three 40w tubes.

You need clean mercury. Mercury is rather reactive and mercury re-used from crushed switches or so will bring many impurities to the lamp. Generally not a problem. Invest into a proper glassworking and pumping equipment before, mercury is the least problem and is often given out for free with all that stuff.

$350 is not a bad price for a bottle + neon. You can not use this bottle by itself, you need some kind of gas supply system that is bottle adapter, some metal tubes, vacuum grade needle valve and so. Plus of course your system need to consist some manifold and vacuum pump. These all are expensive toys, even 2nd hand

@RRK

Yea, I know saving money on something so trivial won't really help. Torches are probably the biggest investment involved (if you aren't using a diffusion pump, that is).

One can only wish for such lavish luxuries...

Sometimes there is a chance to pick up neon shop equipment from some guy going out of business. That way you get the equipment you needed inexpensively, yep even mercury.

And you don't need a diffusion pump that much.