I use a silver colored metal camera case that I came across at a yard sale. It hadn't been used so the foam inserts were still completely intact so I was able to configure the foam for tubes. I can't remember exactly how much it cost but it wasn't much. There is something similar but smaller sold for more money called the TubeCube but I'm sure you could find something like the camera case on eBay for less money.

Added: A search of the bay for "diced foam" should return a few good value options.  ;)

I keep my signal tubes in a wooden box I got with honey and candles from Hawaii. I keep my rectifier and regulator tubes in a metal tin I got with mixed nuts from Sunnyland Farms (those are da bomb!) And I keep my power tubes in their boxes in an old wooden cabinet that my wife bought to hold a to of her stuff and she graciously allowed me about a square foot for that purpose.

I have two of these which I claimed whilst on a store refurb 30 yrs ago
I have a lot of signal tubes in one and 4 or 5 rectifiers in the other.
I knew they`d come in handy  :)

Little square stickers on the tubes, numbered, and entered onto some loose pages for easy recognition.

"Yellow Submarine" lunchbox.

I saw this thing on Amazon.

It may work.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016LK9U9Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1...

I have prototyped a few tube boxes that firmly hold your signal tubes in place with sockets, and a hinged lid.  Works great, but so far the cost per box is well over $150 each and they hold 8 tubes.

When I show the boxes to audiophiles and ask what they would guess it costs, the average figure is below $50.  That comes from a lack of understanding about what hand made things cost, a lack or understanding how complicated it is to create the tube sockets imbedded in the wood, and from reference to similar sized wood boxes that you see all over the web, from china.



Knowing the cost will be higher than people think it should be, and knowing that a box this quality can only be built by a seriously good woodworker means I may have either slow sales and no return on investment, or get stuck waiting for inventory to fill orders for potentially long periods of time and neither is a very powerful motivator for driving the development. This is the reason why even though I drew this design on my cad over 8 years ago, nothing has happened with it beyond the prototype stages.

I'm still working on making it happen.  Just two weeks ago I designed a new socket system that might be a cost effective alternative to what you see in the picture, which is real tube sockets.  

Frankly I can tell you it's frustrating to have good ideas get stalled out like this because you know it would be an entirely different story if it were mass produced.

If I get this particular box perfected to my liking which means able to be built in a reasonable amount of time, I don't see it ever dropping much below $150, so I would like to offer a usable alternative at the same time that is less expensive and have been working on ideas for that as well.

Something like this I could probably sell for closer to $75 making them one at a time, which is the only way I can do it. This would however be an item that could drop in price if more than one were ordered at the same time since much of the cost is setting up the laser and then cleaning it when everything is done.  



This model features seven 9 pin sockets, but the sockets have 10 pins allowing you to rotate the tube so that the labels face forward making them easier to see.  Of course the tubes in the picture have no branding or labels, but this is a picture for this forum post, not a web page

Steve

I think something like this would be really cool.

Vintage tube Caddy (s).  Great storage and cool retro factor.

There's a vacuum inside so I'd say, no.  However, the metal pins can corrode.

Inexpensive boxes From IKEA.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/G95ckBxQ253vJDtU9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wRkdgSwUhWMgcxPj6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LXpppjm5x1Zndk9q8

Store tubes like a pro: I got an old RCA tube caddy on ebay. What the TV repairmen used if you are old enough to remember that. But I've got a lot of tubes.