6x Russian IN-18 Nixie tubes from November 1982 in an Amboyna burl wood base, underlit with adafruit Neopixels driven with an Electric Imp wifi module for zip-code based weather status.

From purple at freezing to red at 99 degrees, with a spectrum across temps, blue flashes in rain, white flashes in snow, different animations for various weather conditions

One of a kind for sure. Very, very happy with this one

This clock started off as a sketch after I found a really nice piece of amboyna burl wood from Thailand.

I had just taken posession of a batch of matched CCCP IN-18 nixie tubes from November of 1982

Getting them lit up was the first step, as I wanted to make sure they all worked before I spent time building out the clock.

I had to measure out the holes for the tube sockets, and decide how deep the holes should be vs. where the sockets lay below the tubes and the top surface of the clock.

Getting it secure in the milling machine so I can get the holes laid in squarely and securely.

The plan here is to radius the edge of the hole so the radius of the base of the glass nixie tube will nestle down just below the surface.

The fun thing about how this ended up was how the right-most tube location fit with the natural void in the wood, just... barely... fit with the socket cavity beneath the tube.

Once all six through holes are in for the tube socket pins, then I flip the board over to hollow out the bottom for the sockets and wiring and control board. Here I'm using forstner bits to get the majority of the material removed.

Then I use an endmill to rout out the rest of the material needed to make room for the electronics.

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