I admit it: I'm a total geek. I love electronics, programming, 3D printing, 3D art, and vintage Apple hardware. I'm always juggling half a dozen projects. I also enjoy documenting it all: my successes, my failures, my experiences... and everything geeky along the way.

Nixie Clock V2 - Part III | Kevin Rye.net - Main

Kevin Rye

Geek Extraordinaire. Yeh, I said it.

Nixie Clock V2 - Part III

Jun 03, 2017 Filed in: Electronics | Arduino | Clocks | Nixies | 3D Printing
I last left off with the completion of the case design. Well, almost complete. I need to incorporate some kind of mechanism for securing some fabric over the hole for the speaker. I guess I could just hot glue a piece into position, but that seems lame.

nixie_clock_v2_prototype_case

I chalked up a little grommet thing and a test piece for the hole.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0004

They clip together perfectly and secure a piece of speaker fabric nicely.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0009

That'll work.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0006

I incorporated the pieces into the design.

Screen Shot 2017-05-27 at 4.49.23 PM

It was then time to print the final case in wood PLA. The bottom came out not too bad.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0010

There's a few rough patches where the part didn't quite stick to the raft. I might be able to just sand those out. In any case, it's on the bottom, so I'm not too worried about it.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0011

The speaker grommet fits perfectly.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0014

That will work nicely.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0013

The rest of the case is a different story. While the front looks pretty good….

nixie_clock2_final_case_0007

…the back is a complete horror show. I don't know what happened, but it's a mess.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0008

I tried another one and made a few small tweaks to improve the print, but it was still a disaster.

I decided to try filling the holes with some wood filler.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0015

I then gave it a nice sanding until everything was really smooth.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0016

Well, the wood fill is supposed to be stainable, but it came out horrible. This is totally unusable.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0017

The bottom, however, clips on perfectly. I'm really happy with the way that it came out. It's almost seamless. It would be a shame to waste this one and print another one plastic.

nixie_clock2_final_case_0019

Rather than spend the next week printing enclosure after enclosure until I'm finally happy with one, I think I'm going to cut my loses and save both time and PLA. I'm going to just paint this one black and call it a day.

I gave it a few coats of black, followed by two clear coats. It came out really nice.

IN14clock_encloure_complete_002

I then reassembled the boards inside the case. It was a pretty tight fit, but I managed it.

nixie_clock2_final_assembly_001

I then screwed the bottom cover on and powered it up. AWESOME!!!

nixie_clock2_final_assembly_002

Here's the chime on the hour in action…

IN-14 Nixie Clock chime

I'm really happy with the way that this clock came out. It's so much nicer than my IN-12 clock.

See this project from start to finish:
 IN-14 Nixie Tubes
Nixie Clock V2 - Part I
Nixie Clock V2 - Part II
Nixie Clock V2 - Part III
Clock Button Panels