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Lamina Nixie Clock

by zorwick on April 1, 2012 Table of Contents Lamina Nixie Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Lamina Nixie Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: The woodwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: The tanks: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 3 6

Step 3: The electronics: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Step 4: The rest: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Step 5: Assembling: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Step 6: The final clock: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

http://www.instructables.com/id/Lamina-Nixie-Clock/

Intro: Lamina Nixie Clock

This is my first instructable and I hope you will like it. I have been reading this website for a while now and I decided to publish my project. I am non-native English speaker please excuse my language mistakes. This project is inspired by a previous instructable from Hellboy and his Lantern Clock . In the meanwhile he came out with the Cyclops which has a kind of similar concept as mine, but God see my heart, I just took the Lantern clock as my starting point. Anyway I would like to thank him for that inspiration. When I first saw Hellboy's clock, I said I want something like that. So I sat to my desk switched on my computer and started to design. After a while I came up with the final plan. The rendered 3d image looked quite OK for me. For the wooden parts I wanted to use wenge wood but I could not get wenge in that size for a reasonable price. So I decided to use the old proven walnut and maple combination. I realized soon enough that finding a similar brass disks and gears what matching my design is quite impossible so I decided to make them, but I did not know how yet. The turning would kill my little Unimat machine, which set is meant to make small parts not these big ones, so I just put them on hold for a while until I find a solution and start the rest. And lately, the solution came to me by itself. List of Materials, tools: -walnut timber -maple timber -acrylic tubes -circular saw, scroll saw -drill end router machines -brass rods, pipes -threaded rods -brass sheets -screws, bolts -lots of sandpaper -lacquer -nixie clock kit -12v power adaptor -wires -soldering iron -multimeter -safety gloves, eye protection Video:

Image Notes 1. The final Lamina Nixie Clock. Image Notes 1. The rendered 3d design.

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Step 1: The woodwork

First I made the mass model from cheap MDF to have a notion how it is going to look like, than I made a more accurate plywood model where all the openings and holes were correct. I ordered some 5mm thick walnut sheets and cut all of them by laser to have the accurate curves. The cutting shapes are from the 3d design, just had to convert them to vector format. That was the first time when I have ever used laser cutter, I can tell it is amazing how much work you can save just to use the laser... Of course I don't have a laser cutter at home, but there is one just 2 minutes away from my house in a public workshop. For a few Euro you can use it. For the base I bought walnut and maple timber. After planing I glued the print outs of the base shapes and drilled all the necessary holes. My experience to make the holes first, then cut the shape. Where the bigger holes are close to the edge the drill bit or router bit could break off little chips from the wood if you cut the shape first and that is definitely not a good thing. So after having the holes I cut the ovals with my scroll saw. For the PCB panel I made the opening on all 3 base components. After assembling all the parts the next step was to sanding all of them with a fine grit paper. I applied some dark stain for the walnut parts, the maple remained natural and sprayed them with a metal lacquer. I found it more hard and resistant than the one for wood.

Image Notes 1. The plywood model. Image Notes 1. The MDF mass model. 2. Temporary rods.

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Image Notes 1. Plained walnut timber for the base.

Image Notes 1. Originally I wanted to cut by hand, but as soon I have heard that there is a public workshop just 2 minutes from my house where I can use the laser cutter, changed my mind.

Image Notes 1. The laser cut parts.

Image Notes 1. Cutting the arms.

Image Notes 1. Laser cut parts on the plywood base.

Image Notes 1. The base was too thick for that laser cutter. For those I used scroll saw. I predrilled the holes before the saw cut.

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Image Notes 1. The wood structure.

Image Notes 1. Drying...

Image Notes 1. Threaded rods. Six of them are holding the wood laminas.

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Image Notes 1. 3,5 mm brass spacers.

Step 2: The tanks:

The Nixie holder tanks are made similar way as on the Lantern Clock . I bought 50 mm diameter acrylic tube from ebay and cut them to the desired size. The edges are painted with a ordinary white paint, expect on that little part where the LED is on the rim (bottom/back side of the tanks). The disks and gears on the tanks are made from walnut and brass. I cut the wooden disks by laser. For the brass I bought 1,6 mm, 3 mm and 5 mm thick sheets. The thinner ones are from ebay, from England. The 5 mm sheet was harder to find (for good price), but finally I had them from Germany. After making the proper drawing for them, I took all the sheets to a local waterjet cutting company. We had some difficulties to find out how to cut these small part without losing or damaging them. Two things happened, after the cutting head just finished on one of them, the little parts are popped up and fallen to the deep mud under the machine, so I could say goodbye to them, or the bigger disk slightly moved after cutting head just finished the cutting cycle and the loose disk slipped into the water beam and this made some irreversible damage on them. The solution was to leave a little holder beam/rod on each pieces connect them to the sheet and later I could just break them off, like on the plastic model kits what you can buy anywhere. As soon I have received the ready disks and gears I had to get into polishing. This is always a nice part, you sand and polish everything for days and days, and everything is just a mess, but at the end you have the shiny discs just waiting to be on the final place. The acrylic holder rims are made from two parts, one outer disk and one inside disk for the acrylic tube. Between them I placed a bolt to screw in the tank holder threaded rods. These main rods on the bottom are holding the base by attaching them to the clock base, the rods on the top are connected to the arms to hold them tight. The bottom rims are also keeping the Nixie tubes in place. The top and bottom rims are connected with a 2 mm brass rod with tightening bolts on the two ends. This is strong enough to secure everything in place. All the bottom disks/gears have two more bigger openings for the Nixie tube wires.

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Image Notes 1. Making the side holes for the rims. Apart from the alarm LED which is inside one of these holes, these have only a design function.

Image Notes 1. Holes for the wires. 2. Bolts on the two end of the 2mm rod. These tightens the two disks.

Image Notes 1. 2mm brass rod connects the rims.

Image Notes 1. Polished brass inserts.

Image Notes 1. All disks and gears were connected to the sheet to prevent damages during the cutting process.

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Image Notes 1. Damaged disk. This guy probably just slipped into the beam at the end of the cutting cycle. 2. Missing tooth. Image Notes 1. Raw cut disks and gears. Just hot from the waterjet company.

Image Notes 1. Raw cut disks. Image Notes 1. Sanding/polishing with p80-600 sandpapers.

Image Notes 1. Polished gears. 2. Protection agains fngerprints.

Image Notes 1. 2x13 wires need to go through here.

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Image Notes 1. Slot for the tightening bolt.

Image Notes 1. Assembled top part.

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Image Notes 1. Polished plugs are protected from my fingers.

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Step 3: The electronics:

The electronic parts including the tubes are from England, from a very-very helpful guy, Pete . I have to say a very big thank for all his help. After I have finished the PCB I had to wait a while to see if its really working, because the tubes are not soldered to the panel, first need to make the place for them, than connect all the legs by wire. So first thing first... I extended the nixie legs with some wire to reach the PCB. I used black for the anodes and for all the rest I used white wires. I know I should have used some rainbow coloring, but the wires what I could get in different colors were too hard to bend into that small place what I had between the panel and clock base so I had to use some softer ones. Anyway it was not difficult to work with them. I used 4 colors to mark each wire, by colormarks I, II, III. Than I had 4 x 3 color code =12 + 1 anode, so 13 connection point per Nixie tube. For the hour/minute/second separator neon lights I used the ones what were come with the electronics package, and I placed the to the front of the clock base, inside two 10 mm outside diameter acrylic tubes. The power connector fixed to the base sandwich along with operating buttons, what I just bought in the local electronic shop. I made some brass tubes around them to match the design. From the PCB you can optionally run 6 LEDs to the tubes to give some blue or any other colors of extra light. I used only 3 blue LEDs for the 3 tanks. For the alarm LED, I found one SMD LED, probably from an old CD writer, in my spare parts box in a very nice matching orange color. I decided to place it inside the acrylic holder rim behind one of those design holes around them.

Image Notes 1. Alarm indicator LED (on).

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Image Notes 1. Alarm indicator LED (off:).

Image Notes 1. SET, ADJUST, ALARM buttons. 2. Power point. 3. Separator neons.

Image Notes 1. Separator neons. The wires run in the groves.

Image Notes 1. Testing the backlight LED.

Image Notes 1. The neons are sitting in the acrylic tubes.

Image Notes 1. The blue LEDs inserted to the bottom/back side of the tanks, facing upward to light up the acrylic tubes.

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2. The thin red and black wires go to the alarm inicator LED.

Image Notes 1. The white wires are marked with 4 different colored stripes I-II-II. The anode wire is black.

Image Notes 1. All the tubes are connected.

Image Notes

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1. Final power test.

Step 4: The rest:

The clock has some more little brass details what I had to cut and polish. Such as the plugs above the separator neons. I have them cut by the waterjet guy using the 5 mm sheet, but I could have cut them from a 8mm diameter rod as well. The spacers (84 pieces) for the laminas and for the base made from 4 mm brass pipe. I polished those along with the visible screws and bolts. Remember: To protect your eyes is a MUST! For the bottom of the clock I chose an ABS plastic plate, laser cut it and engraved informations over the buttons and the power requirements. The little holes under the PCB give some ventilation for the electronics.

Image Notes 1. Cutting the spacers. To protect your eyes is a MUST!

Image Notes 1. 84 pieces for the laminas.

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Image Notes 1. Removing the sharp edges.

Image Notes 1. Polishing the spacers, 5 at the same time.

Image Notes 1. Polishing the ends of the rods and other small plugs.

Image Notes 1. I used benzol to clean them. Make sure you use mask and plastic gloves to protect yourself.

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Image Notes 1. The bolts need some shine as well.

Image Notes 1. M3 brass bolts.

Step 5: Assembling:
First I had to place all the Nixies into the tanks, and run a wires through the holes. During the assembling the top parts of the tanks were removed, and the 'laminas' and arms were also not attached to the structure. Than I screwed the 3 tank bases to the base and soldered all the wires to the PCB. I left little extra length of wire to have some space to flip to the side the PCB panel. After connecting and testing the clock the next step was to place the remaining base parts and the preassembled 'laminas'. The next step was to solder the neon, power and button wires and closed the bottom. For the legs I was thinking a lot what to use, and finally I have found these brass legs in one of the local hardware shop. The final step to place the tank tops and the arms and plug the power cable to enjoy the clock.

Image Notes 1. Power point and operation buttons.

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Image Notes 1. All in place.

Image Notes 1. The final base of the clock

Image Notes 1. Operation buttons outside on the back side.

Image Notes 1. The 3 tank bases, protected agains dirt and fingerprints. All the other parts are easily removable if I need to re-polish them, but not these. After the wires run through them it will a quite complicated to take them a part.

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Image Notes 1. Laser engraved informations. 2. Ventilation holes. As it now after a week runtime I checked the outside temperature under the high voltage components, only 40 degree celsius. I do not think that I will have any problem with that.

Step 6: The final clock:

Here is than, my Lamina Nixie Clock. Shiny and beautiful. Everybody to who I have showed the clock were hypnotized, just sat and stared the running numbers for minutes :) That is a good reward for me.

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Related Instructables

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Making a Steampunk Portable Harddrive Case by nevets_mcd

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Apr 12, 2012. 11:36 AM REPLY

Dream Dragon says:

It's BEAUTIFUL! A lot of work and your effort is well rewarded. Thanks for sharing your project.

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