The technique is similar to but much simpler than glass bending. The trick of bending is to bend one small section or bend at a time, heating one part of the tubing so that it is soft, without heating some other part of the tube as well, which would make the bend uncontrollable. A bend, once the glass is heated, must be brought to the pattern and fitted rapidly with vigilant forethought before the glass hardens again because it is difficult to reheat once completely cooled without risking breakage.

To do this, it is frequently necessary to skip one or more bends and come back to it later, by measuring carefully along the length of the tube. One tube letter may contain 7-10 small bends, and mistakes are not easily corrected without going back and starting all over again. Once one stick of neon is bent, if more neon glass is needed to lengthen, another one is cut off and welded onto it, or the parts can be all welded onto each other at the final step.

The finished tube must be absolutely vacuum tight in order to operate, and it must be vacuum clean inside. Once the tube is filled with mercury, if any mistake is made after that, the entire tube had, or should, be started over again, because breathing heated mercury impregnated glass and phosphor causes long term heavy metal poisoning in neon workers.

Sticks of tubing are joined until the tube reaches an impractical size, and several tubes are joined in series with the high voltage neon transformer. In large installations this is done through by point electrical wiring, where extreme ends of the electrical circuit must be isolated from each other to prevent tube puncture and buzzing from corona effect.