Glow in the Dark RAM Clock

This instructable will show how to make a glow in the dark clock out of old computer parts.

Tools Required:

1)  Hot glue gun
2)  Super Glue
3)  Drill or dremmel tool

The following are the materials used:

1)  Hard Drive
2)  RAM
3)  CD/DVD
4)  Clock Mechanism
5)  Small SMD IC chips (Surface Mounted Device Integrated Circuit)
6)  Lots of Hot Glue

The hard drive platters can be removed from any hard drive by removing the screws on the red dots in the image.  Drill out the middle of the spindle on the green dot big enough for the clock mechanism to fit though. 

Don't forget to erase any important data just in case an ID thief breaks into your office and steals the clock.

Mix and match any RAM although I found the 300mhz to give the clock the best performance.   Depending on the size of RAM you may need to sand the corners at an angle to allow for a better fit when arranging them in a circle

Just in case anyone asks about the RAM you chose I've included a diagram to help your response sound smarter.  Or you could mumble something about Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory and wave your hand dismissively.

You can strip the clock mechanism from an old thrift store / yard sale clock like I did or you can buy just the mechanism You can buy them at any craft store like Michaels or Hobby Lobby or you can buy them online here:

Clocks
http://www.klockit.com/depts/ClockMovementsfeaturingQuartexBrand/dept-355.html

Hands
http://www.klockit.com/depts/Hands/dept-5.html

1)  These are easy to de-solder from any PCB board by heating up the opposite side of the board as the chip.  I used a heat gun but you could use a lighter, torch or flame thrower.

2)  Super Glue them to the Hard Drive Platter at the respective time positions.  I used long IC's for 12,3,6,9 and short for the rest.  Hot glue will not stick to the HD platter.

Just in case here is a view looking into a computer and shows where you can find each part in red.

RAM (left)
Integrated onto the motherboard in slots of 2 or 4.  You can finally buy packs of old RAM cheap from ebay or a used computer store.  They might even give them to you since anything older than DDR1 is pretty much obsolete.

Hard Drive (bottom right)
Flat, rectangle looking thing usually placed on a shelf in the front of the computer.

CD (top right)
Shinny flat circle that kids love to throw around and stick places.

1) Cut out battery slot on CD
2) Hot glue Clock Mechanism onto CD.  Position battery slot over the cutout spot on the CD
3) Hot glue RAM around the clock mechanism.  Keep the gluing area limited to what will be covered by the hard driver platter.
4) Glue HD platter over clock mechanism and cover up all that glue.
5) Drill hole to hang on wall nail

1) Paint hands white or glow in the dark.
2) Place Glow in the Dark Binary Stickers.


Binary 1-12:

1 - 0001
2 - 0010
3 - 0011
4 - 0100
5 - 0101
6 - 0110
7 - 0111
8 - 1000
9 - 1001
10 - 1010
11 - 1011
12 - 1100