Today should be the valve show (postponed) - a chance to update supporters. On lockdown, no volunteers on site but Roy's been busy practising glass skills, modeling valves, wiring activation rack panels & turning pins. While things may have slowed down work still continues.

The final countdown has started to #retrotech Warwickshire Event Centre - WEC. Looking forward to showing our complete range of valves including new ECC83s and updating everyone on progress at the Great British Valve Project. buff.ly/2Zvuqmp

We've been in the potting shed planting bulbs in copper pots! Instead of a John Innes No.5 we used a special cement used by Brimar and Mullard which we then cured in Bongo (our oven). Not as messy as we expected!

Having got so close to doing it, we spent the last few hours before #RetroTech trying to make some fully working R-Types. New filament material, a harder vacuum and a different drop seal technique. Come and see us at the show and see if we did it .... Even we don't know yet!

The quiet before the storm .. Our stand at #RetroTech Warwickshire Event Centre - WEC virtually complete with something for everyone whichever way you look at it!. Join us on Sunday for some great show prices and some news about valve manufacturing in the UK! Thank you BVWS for your support!

What a fantastic day at #RetroTech with our friends BVWS made perfect with the big reveal - we have succesfully made our first R-Type valves. A big thank you to all staff and volunteers. Brimar Thermionic Products Ltd. are now officially valve manufacturers! 👍

Now the refinement begins starting with pinches. We stopped using pinch tooling and used hand clamps but they are hit & miss. Now it's time to fix the tool to allow the glass to spread and an opportunity to play with the cnc mill and put our name on it!

Perfecting the art of sealing the latest batch of R-Type valves on the vertical lathe. The bulb is held in a clamp at the top and the pinch sits on a specially made carbon jig. As the edge is heated, the seal is formed and the excess glass falls away. Well done team Brimar!

Chris has been busy working out a rough layout for the Grid Winder backbone pulling system while he has been laid up with Covid - get well soon Chris!

Oliver has been busy moving parts from Grid Winder 3 which is going to storage and fitting them to Oskar Jr to make it as complete as possible. Chris has ordered the ball screws so the 2nd phase of cnc automation can be worked on - pulling the grid backbone wires thru the winder

A few weeks ago, we moved all our machinery around to make room for new gear coming in. This needs needs specialist movers as each machine weighs between ¾ and 1½ tons. We took the opportunity to move equipment into store that we don't need for this phase.

Having made space we collected a fly press and 2x4 slide presses for making anodes and cathodes etc. The nice surprise - the big 4 slide press was made locally and was used by Thorn emi and the Fly Press is still made in Brum by a firm who were established in 1900s!

With move done, time to work on Alf - 9 pin button pinch m/c. New gas piping passed tests so 5,4,3,2,1 ignition! The jets need adjustment and focus once flames are right size. Unfortunately, a loose bevel gear stopped us after an hour - stiff turrets identified for strip down.

Our small 4 slide press has had a Brimar make over and is now ready to accept tooling to make new parts. The last job to be done is to add a control box with a VFD speed controller and e-stop. Anyone out there need any metal parts made?

Our 10 ton vertical press made in Birmingham by Sweeney & Blocksidge is nearly finished it's make over. While cleaning, Oliver found an asset label from M.O.V. so we lucked out on our recent acquisition with 2 out of 3 presses having direct links to valve making in the UK.

Wishing all our customers, volunteers, and followers a very happy Christmas and a happy, healthy 2023

Wishing all our customers, volunteers and followers a very happy Christmas and a happy and healthy 2023 from the team at Brimar!

Lots of lovely valves now in stock! buff.ly/3ubwEGD Lots of lovely valves now in stock!

Ediswan RF Induction Heater Completed buff.ly/47q3fHq Ediswan RF Induction Heater Completed

Brimar launch the new Ediswan R-Type Valve buff.ly/gvzbFAH Brimar launch the new Ediswan R-Type Valve