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I tried the washer idea with some medium density foam I had. It didn't work but I am going to try again with a few more layers and better sized metal washer to compress it with. My other thought is to glue the pieces together and compress them with my fingers until the glue sets seeing as you glue the wire in anyways. I would use the bolt as a guide of course.

I don't mean to be stupid, but can someone suggest an easy way to strip the enamel off the thin copper wire used in the coils? It's so thin that I keep breaking the wire.

Either carefully scrape it off with a scalpel blade or try a very hot iron which will burn through it. I prefer the old enamelled wire which would just melt away but the new stuff it seems has to be double coated for safety.

I have an exacto knife that I will try when I get home. But first I will have to rewind the coils with snapped lead wires. Oh well...it's actually pretty fast once you get a good rhythm.

I read elsewhere that you could use steel wool to rub the enamel off. I will try both to see which is easier...

I used 3 or 4 passes with sandpaper.

The sandpaper worked great! Thanks for the suggestion.

Just got my kit a couple days ago...

I have started working on the
kit tonight decided I would start with a display PCB. Any way got one
all the way done. Do any of you guys have any pictures of how it fits into the
enclosure for the pieces? I assume that you push the PCB up into the bottom and that
the .8mm spacer sits against the chess board so the coil is just above
the board coil. THen the nixie tube comes down through the hole in the
top of the base. And do you sand off this shiney stuff that has gold swril in it on the top of the base? What is that stuff any way none of the other parts have that on them
feels almost rubbery..


I see two kinds of .8mm spacers. There are the white ones and the
brown ones.. Does it matter which I use? I would imagine not but your
directions do not mention anything about the difference.. Thanks again
appreciate it.

Oh and I have one last dumb question for you guys.

Yes there's a ridge inside the base piece, the PCB assembly will rest on that with the .8mm piece level with the bottom of the base sides. Push the nixie into the socket pins through the hole in the base piece, sandwiching it.

They're made from cast urethane, sand the top flat then add any decorations if wanted.

The white spacers were intended for the silver/white side and the brown spacers for the bronze/black side. Probably not important as adding a felt disc to the base might be a good idea.

Got it thanks so much Tony. I was actually just pondering that today. I was so excited just about the whole thing running on the Nixie tubes I started thinking about game play and the pieces. I noted in all the videos ive seen of the finished boards all the pieces look the same. So how do you know which is white/silver vs which is black/ bronze. Do you pain the bases that the nixie tubes plug into? I know you mentioned the spacer was supposed to delineate between this but that surface is on the bottom of the piece against the board so how would you see it?

Also once completed do you glue the spacer into the bottom of the housing that holds it or does the nixie just being slid into the socket secure it well enough so that gluing it in is not necessary? I suppose if I put felt over the whole bottom that the edge of the casing would stick to the felt sticky side and help hold it together.

Any way got a pretty good handle on the complete construction of the pieces now. Thank you for the description.

I am surprised how hard it is to keep track of the amount of times you wind the wire around the thing. It should be very easy but I tend to loose count. Do you check the wingdings with a volt meter to see how much voltage is getting inducted across to each one? If im off by a turn it would just make it slightly brighter or dimmer would it not?

Thanks again.

Lee On to my second piece tonight. Honestly the hardest part is winding the wire the soldering im finding pretty easy. These printed PCB's are great as well.

The piece bases on the original board were finished with engravers wax which was melted and spread onto them. I would recommend trying silver/bronze paints first though as it will result in less burned fingers

One side has silver wax, the other bronze/gold. I bought the wax on ebay a few years back and haven't seen any for sale recently.

Again I've just plugged the nixies in, the pins usually hold them in place and it's easier to swap them round to reduce cathode poisoning but if you do glue them, use something that can be removed easily. Sticky felt should be enough to hold the PCB/coil in place.

Don't worry about missing turns, +-1 won't really be noticeable. If you think you've miscounted then err on the high side as it's easier to remove a couple if it's too dim than to add more wire.