Nixie Tube Clock

In the summer of 2013, Char learned what a “Nixie Tube” was and immediately had to get her hands on some. After a little research, she ordered from an Ebay seller who fed her an incredible story of their provenance:

How did I get these tubes? Indiana Jones style! Traveled to Russia in 2006, with the Germans on my heels, trying to outbid me. Spent days and nights in damp basements and haggling with mean dangerous Russian men, then there was the whole customs/export fiasco! One of those adventures I will never forget. But worth it, so that people like you can enjoy the beautiful tubes.

Is it true? Who knows. What matters is that these beautiful, oversized Nixie Tubes arrived safe and sound to start their second life as a clock.

The casing is made from pine, drill-pressed create the openings, stained a rich brown, and then fastened with brass clasps. The clock was put together from a “SPECTRUM 18 Nixie Clock Kit”, which required soldering all the capacitors, transistors, resistors, and other miscellaneous circuitry to the PCB (no small feat for someone who had never soldered before).