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Making your own clock can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it, and today people are making clocks from CDs, plates, tiles, turned wood etc. your choice!. Whatever materials you decide to use, we talk you through choosing and fitting the clock movement, hands, numbers or whole bezel (or clock face), in the next few pages. Feel free to print this out for your reference, but please remember - it is copyright material. Have fun!

Where to Start?

With the mechanism to drive the clock. The standard quartz clock movement can be used with a variety of materials such as acrylic - card - ceramics - glass - metal - vinyl - wood etc and is ideal for that special single clock, limited edition clocks, and wholesale manufacture.

To give high quality and total customer satisfaction all our quartz movements are made by one of the leading German manufacturers and are accurate and reliable timekeepers.

Design considerations: Choose the movement depending on the depth of material for dial / case to be used (see movement selection below). Thick material can be recessed out to the required depth. You need a flat surface at the back of the case /dial slightly larger than the movement. Fitting the movement requires a 10mm hole drilling through the case /dial.

Movement Selection: We stock the standard quartz movement in three spindle lengths (the medium 17.2mm, and short 10.8mm being the most popular). Each movement is supplied with accessories as follows - Brass centre fixing nut - rubber washer - hand retaining nut - hanging bracket (solid hand nut available if centre seconds not required).

Hands, Dials, Numerals: A wide variety of hands can be used from the simple baton, to the spade, and the fancier shapes. To complete your clock you may need numerals (plastic self adhesive or brass, roman, arabic or baton) or a dial (full or zone).

Movement Fitting Instructions :

1. Put rubber washer onto the movement
2. Insert movement spindle through the back of the case /dial (ensure the hanging bracket is at the top)
3. Insert centre fixing nut with plastic washer through front of case / dial
4. Screw nut into movement finger tight, finish tightening with centre fixing tool (do not over tighten)

Hand Fitting Instructions :

1. Turn handsetter on the back of the movement until the two flats on the centre spindle are in the vertical position
2. Support the movement on a flat surface or with your hand, and push the hour hand on at 9 o’clock
3. Fit the minute hand at 12 o’clock, and screw the hand nut on (finger tight) to secure it
4. Press the seconds hand into position, again supporting the movement
5. Turn hands using the handsetter and check that the hands are not catching
6. Fit the battery (size AA) and the clock is complete
7. Hands on the finished clock can be set from the front or back.

Making your own hands :

If you wish to make your own hands we can supply hand collets (see Clock Catalogue) which fit both the standard and the pendulum movements.
Guide lines are as follows: Material · Aluminium max 0.65mm thick · Acrylic max 1.40mm thick Maximum length: 150mm from centre hole to tip
Total weight of both hands: 4gm maximum
Cut holes in material used before cutting hand shape, and make holes slightly larger than the holes in the collets.
When the hands are finished they can be glued on using super glue.
NB. We do not recommend making seconds hands.

Clock Movements and Materials Intro Page for dials, bezels clock hands, numerals etc.

Quartz Clock Movements - choose the size and type of movement, e.g.. second hand option.

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© Copyright AGThomas Bradford Ltd 2007