Hah! Well, California will have to do. Lived in TX for a brief period back in the early 70s, though, so maybe that counts. 🙂
Funny you should mention making vacuum tubes- I've actually tinkered with that! It's REALLY tough to do, and I've never made one more complicated than a simple diode that barely worked, but I have played around at it. But there's just no infrastructure for vacuum tube fabrication. I can get a lathe and learn how to use it to make complex parts, and while it might take a while to learn- and money to get the equipment, of course- it is possible to do more or less "off the shelf". But vacuum tubes, not so much. There are a few folks out there doing some crazy cool work with bespoke tubes, but they have setups that are far beyond what I can manage in my environment and it's mostly stuff they built by hand.
I also have been playing with making piezoelectric Rochelle Salt crystals to replace ancient vacuum tube turntable needles- nobody's made those commercially for probably 60 years.
I'm a sucker for learning how to do weird things no one does any more so I can make things no one uses work again.
(I think this is drifting off the topic of lathes, lol).
You shoulda been born in Texas.
Tough to make a vacuum tube though. You can substitute with a MOSFET eq ckt I guess.
I was playing around making a pinion the other day. More to it than meets the eye.