[GAD]

I got this awesome nixie tube clock for father's day:

Unfortunately, a day or so later, one of the tubes started fading from the bottom up. The vendor (tubeclock.com), said it sounded like a bad tube and mailed me one out no charge.

I can't get the old tube out! I've used solder braid to get most of the solder out, and even tried resolder then desolder trick, which got even more solder out, but the tube is on there tight.

I need to heat all the pins at once. Any ideas?

GAD

 

[GAD]

I should add that I got the clock as a kit that I assembled...

GAD

 

[nikongod]

if the tube is bad, clip the leads off if you can, then remove the "stubs" one by one. otherwise you are in for the task of desoldering the individual pins, and removing ALL of the solder with the pin in the hole. you may have to resort to clipping all but a couple and desoldering those in the board if you cant get your dikes into those corners.

i should add:
that thing looks facking sweet! seriously nice looking.

 

[GAD]

When you say clip the leads, do you mean from the tube side of the board? If so that's not possible - the tube glass lays flat on the board. I'd have to destroy the tube to do so. While that's not outside the realm of possibility, I'd rather not.

The clock is awesome - I love it. Check out his other clocks too at http://tubeclock.com I can't recommend it enough.

GAD

 

[vixr]

GAD,
have you asked the vendor for their removal procedure? maybe they have an effective method...

 

[GAD]

It's fixed! vixr I sure did - it was his recommendation that worked best:

His advice:

Quote:

The first thing to try is to snip off the leads so they are flush (or as near as you can get) with the pcb. Then use copper de-solder braid to pull out the solder. A manual desolder pump also works well here. Once it looks like all the solder is out or very nearly out, you should be able to firmly rock the nixie tube back and forth for up to a minute and the residual solder connections will break and the tube should come out. If none of that works, as a last resort you can break the nixie tube and snip away the glass and metal internals until just the pins are left. Then you can pull the pins out one at a time. This works, but it does take some time with pliers breaking apart sharp glass, so be very careful if you do this.

Worked like a charm.

Thanks all!

GAD

 

[GAD]

Oh - and I didn't have to smash the tube. I got it out whole.

GAD

 

[ericj]

holy crap, soldered in nixies? ouch!

IN-12a/b sockets aren't that hard to come by. I have about a dozen of them rolling around here.

By the way, did the enclosure come pre-cut or did you cut those holes? I could never settle on an easy way to do those. Best idea i had was a router and a jig.

 

[GAD]

The enclosure came pre-cut.

Sockets sure would have been nice, but it wouldn't fit in the enclosure given the way it was designed.

I learned a lot about desoldering doing this kit - it was awesome.

GAD

 

[n_maher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GAD /img/forum/go_quote.gif The clock is awesome - I love it. Check out his other clocks too at http://tubeclocks.com I can't recommend it enough. GAD

Just a quick link fix, I think you meant tubeclock.com, not clocks. Cool looking project, that's for sure and glad to hear that you got it fixed without too much trouble.

 

[GAD]

right you are on the link - I've fixed it. Thanks,

GAD

 

[ericj]

The other option is single-pin sockets, as manufactured by mill-max.

The guy who runs nixieclocks.de prints his boards for use with those pin sockets. I keep hoping someone who prints a tube headamp board will print the board so i can use them, and not have to buy tube sockets, but no.

This is what my nixie clock looks like - I believe we have the same tubes:

You can see what the designer of these boards calls "mouser pins" here:

http://www.nixieclocks.de/english/ni...n106/index.php

 

[GAD]

That's nice! I had no idea those tubes had decimals in them - very cool.

This is damn Sexy - I may need to make one of these next:

GAD

 

[Lou Erickson]

I've been trying very hard not to buy one of these for ages. I think they're gorgeous. The matte black aluminum base one, particularly.

I also just saw the GPS sync option. I find the idea of slow-changing nixie tubes slaved to a high-accuracy GPS endlessly entertaining.

Of course, I'd want to make it an NTP client. Luckily, that means it's too much trouble and I can stay away...

Beautiful clocks.