I know a number of old timers who have used everything, including high power transmitter tubes that get very hot, to tungar tubes, and mercury vapor tubes, and they all handle the tubes without gloves. Tubes are nothing like halogen or metsl halide bulbs. These fail because their high heat carbonizes oils from skin to form a dark spot on the glass. That spot then absorbs light instead of letting the light pass through and that spot then heats up to a much higher temperature than the surrounding glass and this creates a weak spot that fails and causes the bulb to explodes. Also, the internal gas in these bulbs develop extreme pressure (it is not a vacuum). Even if a tube had a dark spot on it, it doesn’t emit enough light to heat up and fail. People write on tubes with marker pens to no ill effects.
Anyone wear gloves to handle vacuum tubes?
I wear cloth gloves to change or to test tubes. Does anyone else do this? I see lots of bare fingers handling tubes on ebay. If I ever do touch them with bare skin, I am very quick to wipe with dry cloth after. Just wondering what the rest of the world does. Thanks