Crafts

Time to Make a Clock

If you remember, earlier this week we showed you how we built and installed our floating shelves. Well for 11 years a clock hung in that spot. Jim asked why I kept looking at the shelves. Ha. I was actually looking to see what time it was. Hard habit to break. Time to make a clock.

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New clock

I dug into my stash and pulled out this picture frame. Apparently I didn’t like the picture that was in it cause it was long gone.

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One picture frame

The color isn’t what I had in mind…easy fix. I gave it a quick sanding to rough up the surface and painted it black. For added protection, I sprayed a coat of polyurethane in satin finish.

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A coat of black paint fixes everything

With the frame ready to go, we headed to the workshop to cut a backboard from plywood.

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Cut to size

I didn’t want the clock in the center of the frame, I wanted it higher than center. Jim drilled a hole for the clock parts to go through.

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Drilling the hole

Then used the router to make a place for the back part to fit into.

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Go Jim

Here is how it looked at this point.

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Should fit

We decided that rather than paint the clock face, we would cover it with birch bark.  Who does that?  We dug out our winter boots and headed out to the woods on a mission.

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First tree

Someone should have told us that birch trees peel in the fall, not the spring.

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LOL

And…

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Jim is in there somewhere

Remember, this is only a few days after our spring snow storm.

Back at home I got to work with my hateful handy glue gun.

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I see a seam that needs some glue
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Fitting the last piece

With that done, it was time to finish this finely crafted timepiece:)

Just so you know, things don’t always go according to plan. Before we started this project, Jim said he had a couple of clock kits in the workshop. Of course he does.

He brought both in and got a battery ready for testing. The first kit we tried was the one we wanted to use. The hands were big enough to actually see. It worked perfectly. We got it all installed and guess what? Didn’t work.

The smaller set worked though, so we installed that and hot glued the larger set of minute and hour hands on top. It actually worked.

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Jim working the glue gun

Here is a close up of the finished clock.

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One of a kind

Now I can tell the time from my chair again. All is right with the world. If only.

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New clock

Have a great weekend.

Later

 

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