Wednesday, January 28, 2015

DIY wall clock out of wood









I had a circular piece of plywood left over from my basketball hoop project and I decided to make a wall clock out of it. You can watch how it was made here.

First of all I rounded over the edges using my router and a round over bit.

I wanted the clock to have a few curves on it’s design so I made a special router jig for that.

First I traced the body of the clock on a scrap MDF piece and cut it out on the scroll saw. 

I nailed the MDF piece on my bench. I created a pivot point on my bench using my drill and a metal rod. This way the main circle can move around it on my bench.

Then I took my compass and measured four equal arches on the main circle.I mounted the router and my circle cutting jig on the new jig. I brought the beginning of the first arch in line with the circular jig’s center and I made the first cut. I turned it to the second point of the arch and routed again. I did that four times. Now I had four integrated arches on my clock’s body.

I sanded the piece with 120 grit sand paper.

On the back I traced the mechanism of the clock.

I mounted my guide bushing on my router. I took my caliper and measured the distance between the end of the router bit and the beginning of the guide bushing. transferred this distance around the traced path of the mechanism. I took my glue gun and glued four scrap pine pieces on the clock. This way the router created a hole for the clock to go into, which was the size of the clock plus the size of he router bit. I completed the cut on three passes.

I painted the clock with latex paint.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find clock hands delivered to me soon so I made my own clock hands. I cut an empty plastic bottle and painted them white with a spray can. I drilled holes on them to fit snuggly on the clock’s mechanism. I used my caliper to measure the widths I needed. 

To mount the clock on the wall I used two metal rings and string.

I glued the mechanism with hot glue and added the clock’s hands. First you add the hour hand on the white piece and then the minute hand on the metal piece above it.


The clock is ready!

4 comments:

  1. What are you? Are you an engineer of sorts? Are you just plain smart?

    I am watching your projects and truly amazed at your talent. How you figure out things and make do with, well, with scrap. I know you are male, Greek (not sure where you live, but I did visit Athens along long time ago), can play the guitar (nice made one by the way) and young - I am guessing somewhere between 25 to 35 years of age. Your hands have cuts on them, but never glue, paint, or grease, and you certainly don't get anything on your projects. Yes, I know it is sped up and time lapse, but one can still those things.

    But seriously, you have a talent that I have never seen in a person before.

    Thank you for sharing what you make, for you are teaching me wood crafting and I am 60. :)

    -roo

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    1. I thank you! Actually my profession is graphic design! I am not in a position of teaching wood working because I am just an amateur myself! I just love making things and woodworking videos! I get inspired by many people, I hope I inspire back a few! Thanks again for the nice comments!

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    2. Please never ever think you aren't a teacher. Whether it is your kids, nephews or nieces, friends, other people - we are all teaching each other and passing along our knowledge day by day. I am retired from a college. I wasn't a professor, but I did teach staff and professors when I worked on the equipment, audio, video and computers ( I was IT) . So, you see, each of us in our on way, passes our know-how to others.

      And you, Ion, have passed along what you know, via your videos and blog, more than what you think. And for that, σας ευχαριστώ. (I hope I got that right).

      -roo

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