I just got a Lite beer neon sign and a few of the tubes are broken, also a tube with a wire going to it is broken off. Are they worth fixing? Are they a throw away item? Should i toss this one and try to find a working one?

 

The tubes have to be repaired and filled with the correct gas. Different gases will give off different colors. At least, that's what I remember from high school chemistry.

Now might be a good time to enroll in a glass blowing class.

 

I doubt if most neon sign shops would fix it for you if it is a trademark item. You can take the parts to a shop and see if they have another sign you might like.

 

The guy across my street makes neon signs in his garage. Too bad I don't talk to him(he is a chevy guy).

 

It would be easier to toss and find another one. They would have to bend glass tubing to make it look right on your sign, fill it with gas, and cap it. This would cost quite a bit of $$$. Most colors on "Neon" signs though are not gasses, but only flourescent lights, with interior painted tubes, this way they can custom make the color.

My 400th post!

 

ATTN:twofiddy-
Neon signs are cool and can be repaired. here is a site that lists alot of shops doing neon sign work, it is: http://www.neonshop.com/neonweb one of the sites listed under the abovementioned is: http://mrneonsigns.com/beer_neons_html
I'm not sure if the second address should have a dot or an underline between "neons" and "html", but that site is listed under the "neonweb" site. There is another site called "tube bender" (I can't remember its address exactly- it's in my "favorites" list somewhere) that shows you how to make the basic bends in glass tubing that are used in neon sign building. If you're really interested in neon signs, a book titled NEON SIGNS written by Samuel Miller and Donald G. Fink has been reprinted by Lindsay Publications Inc. The ISBN# is 1-55918-034-X Lindsay Publications has a web address: www.lindsaybks.com
The NEON SIGNS book was originally published in the 1930's, but it explains and shows with pictures how neon signs work and how they are built, and how to build /repair them. Don't throw away your old Lite Beer sign, the transformer on it could be used to light up another sign! (I have an old Camel cigarrette sign with broken tubes, and a Budweiser beer sign that needed a transformer--- voila! one restored Budweiser sign shining brightly in my billiard room.) Good luck on finding more signs!

 

You can make a jacobs ladder with the transformer, just don't electrocute yourself.