Several years ago I ran accross some surplus nixie tubes and decided they would make a nice clock. Having almost no electronics chops, I sort of blanched a bit when a friend started explaining what would be involved. Then he sent me a link to Mike Harrison's nixie tube clock page, which convinced me that perhaps I was best sticking to replacing light bulbs.

The project languished for a few years, until another friend convinced me I could do it, and also promised to hold my hand throughout the entire project.

Here's a first cut proof of concept, using a ready-made board costing about $24US.
First, of course, I had to go shopping. As you can see, this is a painstaking and delicate process, requiring utmost skill. However, lacking those abilities, I simply bought the entire mess:

Nixie Shopping
photo by Tim Perkis
And here's the finished product:

Clock full front view, with cover off
With cover off. Box is $3.50 softball collector's display box from Tap Plastics. Magnet is for setting the time display via  reed switches from the outside when case is closed.

Clock closeup front left
Closeup with cover off. Sockets were fashioned by drilling pin recepticle holes in the 2x4" plastic face mounting. Cables were handmade to attach to cutpoints on the  board and then to the backside of the socket face mounting to attach to the actual nixie tube pins. (I'm too cheap to pay for real sockets.)

Clock right closeup. Cover off.
Another closeup with cover removed. Reed switches are the two thin (bluish glass) components with copper leads sticking up off the right-rear of the board.

Clock top right with cover on
A (not very clear) view of clock with cover in place. You can sort of see the two holes between the hours and minutes nixies for holding the colon, provided by two neon bulbs.

Clock viewed directly from top
Another marginal quality shot taken from directly above. You can see the cable pins connecting to the nixies through the plastic.