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Monday, May 16, 2011
Got An Amazing Wall Clock Saddled With An Unfortunate Dangling Cord? Hate Those Dang Dangling Cords? Me Too. Status: Let's Get Rid Of 'Em!
Stupid cords. Don'tcha just hate 'em? I mean, I guess I could drill a hole in the wall and do some household wiring...no...no, no, no...that's not gonna happen. What's a man to do? Make another trip to the Thrift Store for the remedy!
So here's what you do. Buy yourself a CHEAP battery operated wall clock from the thrift store.
Pull out it's guts. Do a clock gut transplant. See below.
Remove the clock face cover to access the hands. Carefully remove the hands so that you can
remove the battery operated clockworks. You might need to use the hands that go with this
clockworks as the hands on your cool clock might not fit this new clockworks. I had to use the
hands that came with the battery operated clockworks.
Ah, free from that bland boring clock and ready to rescue a vintage cool clock! Note that the
"new" clockwork is a quartz movement. It should be accurate. You can also buy new clockworks
like this pretty cheap at some hobby shops but you probably won't accidentally find a cool sofa
or set of awesome dishes for cheap there. And you won't be recycling or upcycling or whatever
not to mention helping a not for profit like Goodwill Industries or the Salvation Army. Anyway,
now you got your transplant guts.
So then I had to remove the clock from the "starburst" on my personal project so that I could
gain access to it's clockwork. Two screws held it on and two more were removed to remove the
face from the body.
The "old" clockworks was a two part unit, one being the motor and the other being the gears.
Two screws removed the motor but the gearset was permanently attached to the face with rivet
type attachments.
Now that the motor is no longer attached to the face it's time to cut the cord. Finally, the clock
is wireless! But now it don't tell time! Gotta fix that. So...I gotta make room for the new
clockworks. The gearset has to come off. I used some pin nose pliers to un-attach the rivets.
I could have used a file to get them loose too, but the pliers worked ok.
Then, when I test fitted the new battery operated clockworks, I realized that it would not fit
through the face with that brass fitting in the center still in place. I used a file to grind down the
back of it and easily pressed it out leaving a slightly larger hole. Perfect.
I put a very small amount of Super Glue Gel on the new clockworks and carefully positioned it
on the back of the clock face making sure that the part that passes through doesn't touch the
hole. I'm not sure if this would make a difference or not, I just didn't want to find out it did the
hard way.
The hands from the battery operated clockworks were too long to fit inside the face of the
starburst clock. I used a set of wire cutters to easily cut them down to size. The second hand is
counter-weighted so I had to take as much off each end to make it even.
Stuck a new battery in the unit and screwed it all back together and here's the end product. All
that just to get rid of the stupid cord! It's worth it. Now it's wireless...like my phone and the
laptop! Wow.
I put a kit in a Russel Wright clock not long ago, but I bought it at a hobby shop. Your idea about picking up a cheap clock at a thrift store is great. I hadn't thought about doing that.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't you re-use the original hands from the starburst?
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good idea, I like how you trimmed the new hands.
ReplyDeleteI do the same when I rewire old lamps, just get a terrible new lamp from a thrift store and you have everything you need.
Dana - I am a super cheapo..and uh, I like the idea that the crappy plastic clock isn't going to the landfill. The leftovers will be going to the recycle bin.
ReplyDeleteAnony - the mounting holes of the original hands were a different size. They are smaller and I kept them, so someday I might modify them to fit!
Anony 2 - Yeah, that's an idea I picked up from Mom Modtomic.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of having my clock modified. Thanks for giving me the idea!
ReplyDelete