Friday, June 15, 2012

Making My First Clock - First of Many!


Having never made a clock before,  I never realized how much work actually goes into making them. I thought I could buy the anchor, buy the clock, insert the clock and whaaa-laaaa! instant clock. Nope.

The anchor turned out to be too thick for the clock to fit through, it did not come with a hole drilled in it nor did it have the back cut out for a place to put the clock mechanism. Off to the garage I went. 

First, I measured how much I needed to cut out from the back of the anchor so I could insert the clock mechanism. Then I drilled a hole all the way through.

After I measured what I wanted to cut out to fit the clock mechanism, I figured I would drill out as much as I could and then use the dremel to sand away the extra wood. (I don't have a router, so my options were pretty limited.)
I was going along just fine with the drill when I heard a sound I didn't want to hear. Snap! Part of the anchor broke off. But, as Bob Ross used to say, "There are no mistakes, only happy accidents." Bob was right. Having that part broken off actually made it a lot easier to cut out around the circle where I drilled.


At I first tried to cut out the extra wood with the jigsaw, but it was too powerful and almost broke the wood even more. I then took the dremel and sanded it. It got to the point where the wood was smoking from the heat from the dremel, so I put that aside to let it cool down.

I then took off the other side of the anchor, as it was much easier to sand that way.

I didn't have a way to cut the ends off the anchor as the dremel was too hot and the jigsaw was too powerful,  so I went and got a good old steak knife from the kitchen. It worked like a charm!

Thank you steak knife! I then cleaned up the wood, brought it inside and glued it. It is now sitting in my kitchen awaiting me to finish it. Going to paint it, add some customized words and some rope. Should be really cute when it is done. :)


I love making things when I have no idea what I am doing. It is fun to figure out. Makes me appreciate clocks a lot more, that's for sure.