Clocks From Repurposed Piano Keys

Two clocks made from repurposed piano keys

Keys from an old piano

Hand saw

Clamps

Wood glue

Cordless drill/driver

Clock movements for high torque

Clock hands for high torque

Sandpaper

Furniture wax

The theater group I do some work for had a couple of old pianos destined for the dump. Before they were hauled away I asked if I could strip out the keys for possible future projects.

As you can see from the pictures, the B&W piano keys are just the part you see when playing a piano. The whole key is actually a long piece of wood that extends beyond the keyboard. I cut and separated the key parts and the wood extension using a hand saw.

It took a while for me to come up with my designs. After the keys were cut from their bare wood extension I tried different layouts. I set the keys up as they look on a piano. I liked showing the bare wood parts and was aware of the numbers stamped on each part from 1 to 88. I decided on one design that was recognizable as piano parts (square) and a second one that was more abstract (star).

You may have to go back and forth a bit with the directions so read this section in its entirety first. For the "square" clock I put together two sets of an octave, including the black keys. Glue the white keys together. Clamp them around the lower part of the keys. The black keys will sort of float in the space between the white keys and won't line up flush. Make sure you line up the tops of the black and white keys. You can use some thin ply or door skin and make a shape that will support your whole design from the back. (you will need to cut a 2 ½" x 2 ½" hole for the clock movement) Glue the black keys to the back support. I also glued up some of the bare wood piano key extensions to form the areas opposite the keys. I made sure the extensions showed their stamped numbers and I made a point to lay them out in consecutive order. I also used a hand saw to "router out" about a ½" of the wood on the back of the keys to accommodate the clock movement.

For the "star" clock I bought a new, clean silver 1 quart paint can from the paint store. I cut it down measuring from the top so it was 2 ½" tall. I folded over the cut edge so that I had a "hemmed" can that was 2" tall and included the end of the can with the lid. (I liked the way it looked) Working with the lid separated from the rest of the can I measured out where the keys would extend from the center can. My design is not the traditional clock hands layout. I took some artistic license and divided the clock into 16 spaces instead of 12. I glued together the keys that are at 12, 3, 6 and 9 (double keys). I carefully drilled the holes to attach the arms in the center can. I predrilled holes into all the clock arms. I punched a hole into the lid of the paint can for the clock movement and tightly pressed the lid on the can.

Note: When you buy the clock movements you can buy them with different "shaft" lengths. For the square clock I ordered the longest shaft size they had. For the star clock I didn't need a very long shaft length because the clock movement was butted up right against the can lid. I also bought movements that were "high torque" because I knew I would need large/long hands for these clocks.

I sanded the bare wood parts on the square clock and applied some furniture wax. On both I attached a d-ring hanger on the back.

One more note: the clock movements are pretty standardized. You feed the movement through a hole. You keep it in place with a little washer and a nut. The hour hand is a press fit and the minute hand fits over the top of the movement and is held on with a little finial. On the square clock you may have to bend the clock hands so that they pass over the height of the keys. Make sure that the hands clear the keys and that the hour and minute hands are not in contact with each other.

So, if you've got an old piano laying around . . . . this is the Instructable for you!