LED Light Wall Clock

After some success with LED strip lightboxes I became curious as to whether it was possible to create a LED lit clock. I had an old clock that was hard to read at a distance and decided it was worth disassembling it to see if a new generation of clock could be created!

This project came together quickly and I think demonstrates potential for future illuminated clocks.

The clock has a standard clock movement running the hands, powered by a AA battery, a wooden lasercut face with holes for the numbers which allow the light to come through from the clear acrylic layer below. A strip of LEDs rings the movement on the inside of the clock allowing the acrylic to be edge lit.

Materials:

• Clock mechanism and hands or old clock to disassemble
• 3mm MDF or Plywood (2 x 25cm x 25cm)
• 3mm Clear Acrylic (25cm x 25cm)
• Super Glue
• LED strip (max 1cm wide)
• LED strip to DC connector
• Picture Hanger Hook
• Acrylic paint

Tools:

• Beambox Lasercutter 40W
• Needle nose pliers
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Clamps
• Tiny Screwdriver

Skip this step if you purchased a clock movement.

I had an old clock that I removed the movement from to create this clock. Disassembling the clock was a simple matter of removing the nut with some needle nose pliers and then pulling the movement out of the old MDF clock.

Make sure to keep all the pieces together!

To design this clock face I replicated the measurements of the original clock, in this case the clock was 25cm in diameter and had a hole of about 9mm for the movement. You will need to modify your measurements based on the movement you have and the size of clock you want (which will be dictated by the movement and clock hand lengths).

I then entered these dimensions into Affinity Designer and broke the clock into segments to align each of the numbers. A core element of this design was to create an easily readable clock, so I chose a clear serif font.

I created 4 layers, colour-coded in the SVG below.

1. The wood face of the clock, cut circle(#231F20) and cut numbers (#0D28F2)
2. The acrylic inner layer, cut circle (#E5F20D) and etched numbers (#F25E0D) to enhance illumination
3. The MDF filler layer, cut (#0DF228)
4. The MDF backing layer with hole for clock movement (#0DF228 and #0DCAF2)

I then cut each of the four layers from the corresponding material using my Beambox lasercutter.

Starting with a layer of wood for the clock face, followed by the acrylic and two layers of MDF.

I chose to varnish the wooden face to bring out the colour and texture in the wood, however that is not at all required.

Painting the layer of MDF that sits behind the acrylic (layer 3) meant that the numbers would look more interesting when the lights were off, and when the lights were on as well with the texture of the paint.

I checked that the fit for the clock movement worked well and peeled all the protecting layers off the acrylic for glueing.

I glued the central axis first using super glue and clamped it, making sure the alignment was as good as possible, and then glued up the three outer rings and the clock face. The layer order is important here, make sure the clock face is at the front, followed by the acrylic, followed by the painted MDF then the plain MDF.

I used 12V 2pin LED strip which measures 1cm wide for this project, however really any LED strip could be used.

I measured up the LED strip to fit around the central axis and cut it to length along the closets cutting mark.

This kit came with a 12V DC adapter which I clipped on to the end, then I removed the sticky backing to stick it to the center.

With the LEDs attached it's time to glue in the central axis and add in the clock movement, I used super glue.

I recommend lining this up closely at this stage, I did not get it aligned right and it is a bit wonky at the back.

The clock movement is mostly held in with the nut, I chose not to glue it this time around.

This was a good point to take a break and just check everything was working, and so far it's looking as planned, however the missing middles of the numbers was rather ruining the effect.

Using super glue I glued in the missing parts of the numbers, this could really have happened at any stage since glueing the face to the acrylic.

I built this hanger based on the original clocks hanger. First finding the centre top of the back (which I should have done before glueing in the centre), then building up a platform the same height as the clock movement back, in this case 15mm. I used 3 cut pieces of MDF, glued and clamped them and then screwed on a hanging hook. Most forms of hanging mechanisms could work for something as light as this clock.

Now everything was glued and assembled it's time to add back on the hands. For this mechanism the hour hand has a wider hole and goes on the bottom section and the minute hand has a narrower hole and goes on the top. They are then held in with a pin that the clock originally came with.

Now it's time to plug in the clock to a 12V DC adapter, add an AA battery to get the clock working and admire!