Lady Grace Crafts: Table Clock DIY

So, in my last post I described how my new clock face came to exist. I started to think about what I would need to do to turn it into a finished thing: a backing, a clock mechanism, and some sort of stand or hanger. So here is a little tutorial for how I made my own desk clock from polymer clay.

Step1: Get a clock

Find an old clock that you have laying around that you don't care about, or go buy a mechanism from the hobby/craft store. They are usually in/near the woodworking section, and run from $5-$8. I'm using an old clock that I got as an award back in college. You can probably also find a suitable clock in a thrift store, or maybe if even the dollar store. Make sure that if you are using an old clock to check it with a battery to make sure it still runs correctly.

Step 2: Remove the screws. I used the tiny screwdrivers from an eyeglasses repair kit. (If you bought a mechanism you can probably skip to step 5.)

Unscrewing my clock took two stages: the back outer case (3 screws), and then removing the guts from the front outer case (3 screws).

Step 3: Remove the hands. (I actually forgot to do this and got a small surprise when they came flying off when I pulled off the face in the next step...) You can try pulling them straight off, or use a small screw driver to pry them off. Be careful not to break anything.

Step 4: Remove the mechanism.

My mechanism was being held to the face of the clock by three little clips. You can see two of them on the right hand side of this picture.

Step 5: If you haven't done so already, make a hole in the face of the clock where the hands will come out and bake at the recommended temps/time.

Make sure it's big enough: mine was not. It was easy to fix with a round file, but slightly annoying.

Step 6: Decide on what you will use for a backing, and make a hole in it for the hands as well. I originally wanted to use a 4x4 bathroom tile, but realized it was going to be too thick, and that I would need special tools to drill a hole in it any way. I eventually decided to cut out a square of plastic from the lid of one of those plastic shoe box storage containers.

Step 7: Make sure everything will fit! Dry assemble your clock. Check that the hands will freely spin in the holes you created and that your face + backing is not too thick for the shaft length of the mechanism. Now is the time to change anything that is not right.

Step 8: Center the face of your clock onto the backing piece, and attach it with your preferred method. I used hot glue, which I do not recommend. Super glue or double stick tape would have been a better option, as I found the hot glue cooled too fast and left the face raised up in an unpleasant way from the backing, which later resulted in one of the points of the face to breaking off when I put too much pressure on it. (I later bought some E-6000 glue to try if I ever decide to do this again.)

Step 8: Attach the clock mechanism to the clock backing. (I used double stick tape this time, after the hot glue failure.) Put the hands back on. (they generally go on in this order: hour, minute, second.)