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Food Living Outside Play Technology Workshop

Lamina Nixie Clockby zorwick on April 1, 2012

Table of Contents

Lamina Nixie Clock ............................................................................................................

Intro: Lamina Nixie Clock .....................................................................................................

Step 1: The woodwork .......................................................................................................

Step 2: The tanks: ..........................................................................................................

Step 3: The electronics: ...................................................................................................... 1

Step 4: The rest: ........................................................................................................... 1

Step 5: Assembling: ........................................................................................................ 1

Step 6: The final clock: ...................................................................................................... 1

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................ 2

Comments ................................................................................................................ 2

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Intro: Lamina Nixie ClockThis 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 Englishspeaker 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 similarconcept 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 thefinal 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 maplecombination.

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 yeThe 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 astart 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 Notes1. The final Lamina Nixie Clock.

Image Notes1. The rendered 3d design.

http://www.instructables.com/id/CYCLOPS-1/http://www.instructables.com/id/Lantern-Clock/

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Step 1:The woodworkFirst 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 howere 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 themvector 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 cu

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 theholes first, then cut the shape. Where the bigger holes are close to the edge the drill bit or router bit could break off l ittle chips from the wood if you cut the shape first athat 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 naturaland sprayed them with a metal lacquer. I found it more hard and resistant than the one for wood.

Image Notes1. The MDF mass model.2. Temporary rods.

Image Notes1. The plywood model.

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Image Notes1. Plained walnut timber for the base.

Image Notes1. Originally I wanted to cut by hand, but as soon I have heard that there is apublic 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 Notes1. Laser cut parts on the plywood base.

Image Notes1. 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 Notes1. Drying...

Image Notes1. Threaded rods. Six of them are holding the wood laminas.

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Image Notes1. 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 arpainted 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. Thethinner 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 fthem, 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 saygoodbye 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 someirreversible 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 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, andeverything 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 threa

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.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Lantern-Clock/

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Image Notes1. Making the side holes for the rims. Apart from the alarm LED which is insideone of these holes, these have only a design function.

Image Notes1. Holes for the wires.2. Bolts on the two end of the 2mm rod. These tightens the two disks.

Image Notes1. 2mm brass rod connects the rims.

Image Notes1. Polished brass inserts.

Image Notes1. All disks and gears were connected to the sheet to prevent damages duringthe cutting process.

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Image Notes1. Damaged disk. This guy probably just slipped into the beam at the end of thecutting cycle.2. Missing tooth.

Image Notes1. Raw cut disks and gears. Just hot from the waterjet company.

Image Notes1. Raw cut disks.

Image Notes1. Sanding/polishing with p80-600 sandpapers.

Image Notes1. Polished gears.2. Protection agains fngerprints.

Image Notes1. 2x13 wires need to go through here.

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Image Notes1. Slot for the tightening bolt.

Image Notes1. Assembled top part.

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Image Notes1. 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, thconnect 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 rainbowcoloring, 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 somsofter 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 13connection 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 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 tomatch 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 theacrylic holder rim behind one of those design holes around them.

Image Notes1. Alarm indicator LED (on).

http://www.pvelectronics.co.uk/index.php

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Image Notes1. Alarm indicator LED (off:).

Image Notes1. SET, ADJUST, ALARM buttons.2. Power point.3. Separator neons.

Image Notes1. Separator neons. The wires run in the groves.

Image Notes1. Testing the backlight LED.

Image Notes1. The neons are sitting in the acrylic tubes.

Image Notes1. The blue LEDs inserted to the bottom/back side of the tanks, facing upward tolight up the acrylic tubes.

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

Image Notes1. The white wires are marked with 4 different colored stripes I-II-II. The anodewire is black.

Image Notes1. 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 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 thePCB give some ventilation for the electronics.

Image Notes1. Cutting the spacers. To protect your eyes is a MUST!

Image Notes1. 84 pieces for the laminas.

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Image Notes1. Removing the sharp edges.

Image Notes1. Polishing the spacers, 5 at the same time.

Image Notes1. I used benzol to clean them. Make sure you use mask and plastic gloves toprotect yourself.

Image Notes1. Polishing the ends of the rods and other small plugs.

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Image Notes1. The bolts need some shine as well.

Image Notes1. 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' anarms 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 panelAfter 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, powand 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 Notes1. Power point and operation buttons.

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Image Notes1. All in place.

Image Notes1. The final base of the clock

Image Notes1. Operation buttons outside on the back side.

Image Notes1. The 3 tank bases, protected agains dirt and fingerprints. All the other parts aeasily removable if I need to re-polish them, but not these. After the wires runthrough them it will a quite complicated to take them a part.

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Image Notes1. Laser engraved informations.2. Ventilation holes. As it now after a week runtime I checked the outsidetemperature under the high voltage components, only 40 degree celsius. I donot 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 forminutes :)That is a good reward for me.

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Comments

1 comments Add Comment

Dream Dragon says: Apr 12, 2012. 11:36 AM REPIt's BEAUTIFUL! A lot of work and your effort is well rewarded. Thanks for sharing your project.

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