Let's Make a Pallet Wood Clock!

Yeah!  Funky idea, huh?

After doing up the pantry floor and the pallet wood vertical blinds, it appears I have lots of various sized pieces of varying types of pallet wood left over, kicking around doin' nothing.  While I was tidying up the basement and moving the pieces over to the new workbench area, a slat of wood caught my eye.

"Hey, psst.  Make me into a clock," it said, "It'll be neat!"

Maybe I've been inhaling too many fumes lately, I dunno, but it did ring like a nifty idea.  My brother used to make clocks out of old computer boards so it seems now clocks are running in the family.  Ah ha, pun!  Running....Ok, sorry.

Here's what I used:

• left over pallet wood slat (this piece was about 11.5" x 3.75")
• 3/4" replacement clock kit
• red acrylic paint
• black acrylic paint
• little pieces of wood
• regular ol' wood glue
• drill bit
• picture hangar

Total cost?  About $9.00 for the clock kit as I had everything else laying around waiting for a use.  And about an hour, which you could time once you get the clock together.  Ah?  Ahh?  No?  Ok.

Clock kits can be found darn near anywhere online, or I should say, they're super easy to find.  The trick for me was finding one that would work through half inch thick material.  They're out there!  Just make sure you purchase the right thread length for your clock face thickness, otherwise you're hosed and you'll always be late for stuff.

Right.

So I started by painting the tips of the hour and minute hands bright red plus painting the entire second hand.  Now, ordinarily, I'd opt for spray paint on this as the pieces are metal but it appears my red spray paint has vanished somehow.  If you're not going to be handling the hands all that much, acrylic paint is a-ok as a substitute.

Sorry, the lighting is a little rough downstairs in the ol' basement, hence crappy photos.

I also painted the edges of the pallet wood piece.

Next up, I cut a few small backing blocks from a piece of 2x so that a.) I had somewhere to mount the picture hangar to, and b.) the slat would sit more true vertically against the wall.  I painted their edges black so they'd semi-disappear if seen from the side.

After that, it was time to start assembling.

Heh, looks like a face.  :0

I drilled a hole for the clock kit to go through, just randomly picked a spot, but do measure if it makes you more comfortable.

After that, I glued on the wood backing blocks and painted the rest of them black, eh, just for good measure and because I like black.

I laid the picture hangar onto the backing block, held those itty bitty nails using a pair of needle nose pliers, and banged those puppies on in.

All that was left was to assemble the rest of the clock according to the directions with the enclosed hardware, stuff in a AA battery, and hang it proudly on the wall.

Super easy peasy.  Spiffy looking too!  Rustic-y industrial yet modern and clean.  The variations on this are mind-blowingly infinite with the colors, the way it hangs, the types of hands, the hand sizes, sealing the wood, or not, the shape, the size, painting on the face, no paint at all...what have you.  Oh my goodness, my brain is a-swirl!

Came out pretty cool, huh?

Don't wanna make it?  Rather just buy it?  Come and get this (or a different one) at my Etsy shop!