Wood cases for nixie kits?

[lokn...@gmail.com]

It seems like it is fairly easy to find already built clocks or kits available with extremely basic/cheap clock cases. I have yet to see any wood cases sold that are really of display quality for clocks that themselves can end up being fairly large investments.
So, I have resorted to learning some basic milling and building my own. I imagine there must be others who have been doing something similar.
So, what do you guys do for quality exotic woods. I have been thinking of milling out some nice burl pieces if I could find a good supplier of stabilized burl wood(sealed with epoxy) etc..
my last clock was just some thin sheets of mahogany from eBay.

[Terry Kennedy]

On Sunday, December 23, 2018 at 4:57:39 PM UTC-5, Collin Smith wrote:

So, what do you guys do for quality exotic woods. I have been thinking of milling out some nice burl pieces if I could find a good supplier of stabilized burl wood(sealed with epoxy) etc..

I have never used them, but a friend makes designer boxes using wood from https://www.rarewoodsusa.com/

[Roddy Scott]

You will find that wooden cases are custom made for each clock and not available in quantities as the plastic varieties are as they are usually one offs with a few exceptions.

I make all my own cases from various solid hardwoods to suit the design I have in mind, I tend to avoid constructed cases but in saying that I have made a couple in the past.

If you want some ideas towards wooden case designs take a look at Paul Parry's Bad Dog Designs, DIY submissions, there are some excellent wooden cases from various woods by various people.

[gregebert]

I use whatever I can find a Lowes/Home Depot , and stain it.  Most of the fine solid woods are birch or poplar.

Beware of the large 4x8 sheets that are a laminate, because when you sand them, the top-layer is so thin it sands-away. BUT....the next layer down is thick enough to tolerate considerable sanding. So, I just sand-off the top-layer, which reveals a red layer of adhesive, then finally the underlying wood.  I usually take it down to 600 grit for a smooth finish. Then stain, sand, finish-coat, more sanding + finish.

The case for my 7971 nixie clock uses buffed wood (no finish), and it turned out surprisingly well with no chemicals. I'll probably do that again for my next case.

Remember that any imperfections or joints you can see with bare wood is magnified after you stain and finish, so be sure to fill all voids and sand them perfectly.

[lokn...@gmail.com]

I ended up finding some stabilized burl redwood that turned out to be just Big enough to contain the boards.

Sent from my iPhone

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[lokn...@gmail.com]

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 15, 2019, at 20:16, gregebert <greg...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Nicholas Stock]

Well done! That’s a lovely looking case.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 15, 2019, at 17:44, lokn...@gmail.com wrote:

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[Michail Wilson]

Beautiful

 

Michail Wilson

206-920-6312

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/D01A77B4-58A2-4CFD-80D1-EE110F3BAE7A%40gmail.com.

[lokn...@gmail.com]

Thank you, 

The inside is not quite as pretty but it is fun to look at.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 16, 2019, at 00:19, Michail Wilson <M...@michail.com> wrote:

Beautiful

 

Michail Wilson

206-920-6312

 

From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of lokn...@gmail.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 5:45 PM
To: neoni...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Wood cases for nixie kits?

 

<image001.jpg>

<image002.jpg>

<image003.jpg>

<image004.jpg>

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 15, 2019, at 20:16, gregebert <greg...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I use whatever I can find a Lowes/Home Depot , and stain it.  Most of the fine solid woods are birch or poplar.

 

Beware of the large 4x8 sheets that are a laminate, because when you sand them, the top-layer is so thin it sands-away. BUT....the next layer down is thick enough to tolerate considerable sanding. So, I just sand-off the top-layer, which reveals a red layer of adhesive, then finally the underlying wood.  I usually take it down to 600 grit for a smooth finish. Then stain, sand, finish-coat, more sanding + finish.

 

The case for my 7971 nixie clock uses buffed wood (no finish), and it turned out surprisingly well with no chemicals. I'll probably do that again for my next case.

 

Remember that any imperfections or joints you can see with bare wood is magnified after you stain and finish, so be sure to fill all voids and sand them perfectly.

 

 

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[lokn...@gmail.com]

I realized after I sent the last set that the image was too small to really zoom in and see the tool marks so I hope this works a little better.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 16, 2019, at 00:38, lokn...@gmail.com wrote:

Thank you, 

The inside is not quite as pretty but it is fun to look at.

<image1.jpeg>

[lokn...@gmail.com]

Here is one with a little better resolution 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 16, 2019, at 00:19, Michail Wilson <M...@michail.com> wrote:

Beautiful

 

Michail Wilson

206-920-6312

 

From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of lokn...@gmail.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 5:45 PM
To: neoni...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Wood cases for nixie kits?

 

<image001.jpg>

<image002.jpg>

<image003.jpg>

<image004.jpg>

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 15, 2019, at 20:16, gregebert <greg...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I use whatever I can find a Lowes/Home Depot , and stain it.  Most of the fine solid woods are birch or poplar.

 

Beware of the large 4x8 sheets that are a laminate, because when you sand them, the top-layer is so thin it sands-away. BUT....the next layer down is thick enough to tolerate considerable sanding. So, I just sand-off the top-layer, which reveals a red layer of adhesive, then finally the underlying wood.  I usually take it down to 600 grit for a smooth finish. Then stain, sand, finish-coat, more sanding + finish.

 

The case for my 7971 nixie clock uses buffed wood (no finish), and it turned out surprisingly well with no chemicals. I'll probably do that again for my next case.

 

Remember that any imperfections or joints you can see with bare wood is magnified after you stain and finish, so be sure to fill all voids and sand them perfectly.

 

 

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[lokn...@gmail.com]

Sorry about the duplicate. I didn’t think the first had gone through.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 16, 2019, at 00:19, Michail Wilson <M...@michail.com> wrote:

Beautiful

 

Michail Wilson

206-920-6312

 

From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of lokn...@gmail.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 5:45 PM
To: neoni...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: Wood cases for nixie kits?

 

<image001.jpg>

<image002.jpg>

<image003.jpg>

<image004.jpg>

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 15, 2019, at 20:16, gregebert <greg...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I use whatever I can find a Lowes/Home Depot , and stain it.  Most of the fine solid woods are birch or poplar.

 

Beware of the large 4x8 sheets that are a laminate, because when you sand them, the top-layer is so thin it sands-away. BUT....the next layer down is thick enough to tolerate considerable sanding. So, I just sand-off the top-layer, which reveals a red layer of adhesive, then finally the underlying wood.  I usually take it down to 600 grit for a smooth finish. Then stain, sand, finish-coat, more sanding + finish.

 

The case for my 7971 nixie clock uses buffed wood (no finish), and it turned out surprisingly well with no chemicals. I'll probably do that again for my next case.

 

Remember that any imperfections or joints you can see with bare wood is magnified after you stain and finish, so be sure to fill all voids and sand them perfectly.

 

 

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[Roddy Scott]

You can use Forstner bits to excavate the hole in a pillar drill or milling machine although it can also be done carefully with a hand held drill. I use that method on solid wood cases.

That is a lovely piece of wood that looks great in the clock.

[lokn...@gmail.com]

“You can use Forstner bits to excavate the hole in a pillar drill or milling machine”

I had thought about that, however with the super tight clearance between the colon riser holes I opted for pre-drilling the solid block until I had a wide enough hole to begin milling the hole with a rotary tools straight routing bit. After I had test-fit the tubes in the holes I picked the cleanest looking of the two sides and opened up the other for the boards. Green masking tape came in very handy to keep unintentional damage to a minimum.


Sent from my iPhone

[Keith Moore]

These are all gorgeous, folks! Far better than anything I can make. 

I am so cheap I just use cigar boxes. I have a stash of them and they work well especially if I am just painting them.   For me, I am just happy to use a non-conductive material of any type and emphasize the glow. So I have a pile of projects that leverage old cigar boxes and old cell phone boxes. 

  - Keith 

On Sunday, December 23, 2018 at 4:57:39 PM UTC-5, Collin Smith wrote:

[lokn...@gmail.com]

“I am just happy to use a non-conductive material of any type and emphasize the glow.”

I am the same way for most things but these clocks I find so interesting and they provide some sense of nostalgia. I also love that the small SMD components allow for such amazing designs that could never be possible when the tubes were first manufactured. I have another clock I am building now that I found board and BOM files for so you have to send files to have them fabricated. I will share that in a separate thread since this would be about the Tech and not the wooden cases.

Oh, if anyone is interested I just started a personal blog to capture my project builds. I am calling it Tinkermeister.com

It is really new so Check it out and give me some feedback.

Sent from my iPhone

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[Ian Sparkes]

This guy appears to do quite a few nice looking things:

http://www.thdesigns.store/

He makes his own internals, but I know that he has a lot of stock of woods, and basically makes individual cases for people.

[Thomas Kummer]

On Sunday, December 23, 2018 at 4:57:39 PM UTC-5, Collin Smith wrote:

Personally I buy my wood from Koetter Woodworking, a wood and construction company less than 10 miles from my house. I always buy just one piece of toe kick in whatever wood I am wanting to work with. It’s funny every time I call to place my order they say, “we don’t sell just one piece of toe kick”, but then I ask to talk to the guy who always does it for me, and I get the wood. Their selection is okay, maple, oaks, hickory, and cherry to name a few. However, they don’t have walnut. The B-6091 clock case was made from hickory, and the Dekatron case was made from cherry. I’m thinking about making a cherry case for the B-6091 clock though.

[Erick Anderson]

All but one of the clocks I've built have been in wooden jewelry boxes. They're readily available on eBay in various styles.

[David Pye]

Another solution that works quite well is laser cutting.

I've laser cut cases for my clocks out of 3mm ply or 3mm acrylic, depending on the look you're after.

For example, see attached (Yes, I know, it's a VFD clock, but the principle is the same!)

I used free cad software (openSCAD), and the files are here, if you wanted them for a starting point:

https://github.com/davidmpye/VFD/tree/master/IV11

(available as either .SCAD to edit, or .DXF as is..)

David

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[lokn...@gmail.com]

Another solution that works quite well is laser cutting.

David,

I appreciate the suggestion and offer to use your files as a starting point. I am actually looking at laser cutting as an option. I just found out that our local ISP has a makerspace available. They use Fusion 360 for CAD design. I would imagine if the files you have in your repo are in an open format they could be imported. 

Collin

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<finished_clock.jpg>

[David Pye]

The DXF, certainly.

Go ahead, enjoy :-)

David

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[David Sloan]

That’s a great idea! Or maybe cigar boxes?

[David Sloan]

Here in Houston, our county library system has several maker labs with laser cutters/engravers, CNC machines, 3D printers, and lots of electronics parts. Free to use, you just pay for whatever supplies you use. That’s where I was able to get my clock worked on by a former NASA enigimeer, Jim Thompson.