Motherboard Wall Clock
I'm back for another fun instructable! Prepare your inner geek for this fun project!
When I was a kid, I had a hard time of keeping out of the guts of my computer. I spent many a night, tinkering and over clocking my desktop to squeeze as much performance as possible out of my rig. Eventually, my luck ran out and I had a casualty. I pushed a little too hard one night and watched the north bridge go up in smoke. (Literally catch fire and smoke!!!) It was a a moment that I look back fondly on. So much in fact, that I kept that motherboard for years.
I was recently cleaning out my parts bin and came across this old friend and decided to make some useful art out of it, and so my motherboard wall clock was born!
Follow along and you will have a art piece that will be the talk of your clan, or D&D party, or LAN Party, etc etc etc
When I was a kid, I had a hard time of keeping out of the guts of my computer. I spent many a night, tinkering and over clocking my desktop to squeeze as much performance as possible out of my rig. Eventually, my luck ran out and I had a casualty. I pushed a little too hard one night and watched the north bridge go up in smoke. (Literally catch fire and smoke!!!) It was a a moment that I look back fondly on. So much in fact, that I kept that motherboard for years.
I was recently cleaning out my parts bin and came across this old friend and decided to make some useful art out of it, and so my motherboard wall clock was born!
Follow along and you will have a art piece that will be the talk of your clan, or D&D party, or LAN Party, etc etc etc
Parts Neeed
This is actually a very simple project. Here's a list of things I used.
* A motherboard (preferably broken)
* A computer with CD label software (Like Roxio Creator)
* A lightscribe CD/DVD drive
* A blank lightscribe CD
* A hobby clock movement kit (found at hobby lobby, michaels, or other hobby store)
* Adhesive Velcro
* A motherboard (preferably broken)
* A computer with CD label software (Like Roxio Creator)
* A lightscribe CD/DVD drive
* A blank lightscribe CD
* A hobby clock movement kit (found at hobby lobby, michaels, or other hobby store)
* Adhesive Velcro
Wall Clock, Assemble!
The first step in making your clock is to find a open spot on the board to mount your clock movement. In my case, it ended up being the fried north bridge chip. in order to make space, I had to remove the epoxied heat sink from the north bridge chip.
Once i had that out of the way, I began to see what my highest point was. In my case, the Capacitors that were next to the processors were the highest point and i had to remove some in order to get the clock to fit flush with the board. Once a space was created, I began to assemble the clock face and movements.
I opted to use a lightscribe CD and burn a clock face onto the CD. For those of you who are unfamiliar with lightscribe, this technology allows you to burn an image onto the label side of the CD using a special CD Burner Drive. Your drive must support lightscribe in order to do this portion of the instructable. If you don't have a lightscribe drive, its just as easy to make a cool printable face for a CD.
I used Roxio Creator to design a simple clock face. The usage of Roxio Creator to design the clock face on the lightscribe disk is beyond the scope of this instructable.
Once you have created and printed your clock face its time for assembly. In the attached photo, you can see from left to right, the order to assemble your clock face. Make sure the pieces are snug and secure.
Once the clock movement is assembled, simply set the time and add one side of the stick Velcro tape to the back of the movement, making sure to not impede the clock adjustment dial. Ad the other side of the Velcro to the mounting point on the motherboard and join the clock movement and the motherboard together.
use one of the mounting holes on the corner of the motherboard to hang the clock on the wall. Sometimes depending on the weight and balance of the board, you may have to add a second nail to the bottom of the clock to ensure it is level.
And that's it. Your done! Sick clock right? I have had this clock mounted at work and get a lot of comments about it!
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or critisisims; Please feel free to message me or leave a comment!
Until next time.... Keep Calm and Geek on!
Once i had that out of the way, I began to see what my highest point was. In my case, the Capacitors that were next to the processors were the highest point and i had to remove some in order to get the clock to fit flush with the board. Once a space was created, I began to assemble the clock face and movements.
I opted to use a lightscribe CD and burn a clock face onto the CD. For those of you who are unfamiliar with lightscribe, this technology allows you to burn an image onto the label side of the CD using a special CD Burner Drive. Your drive must support lightscribe in order to do this portion of the instructable. If you don't have a lightscribe drive, its just as easy to make a cool printable face for a CD.
I used Roxio Creator to design a simple clock face. The usage of Roxio Creator to design the clock face on the lightscribe disk is beyond the scope of this instructable.
Once you have created and printed your clock face its time for assembly. In the attached photo, you can see from left to right, the order to assemble your clock face. Make sure the pieces are snug and secure.
Once the clock movement is assembled, simply set the time and add one side of the stick Velcro tape to the back of the movement, making sure to not impede the clock adjustment dial. Ad the other side of the Velcro to the mounting point on the motherboard and join the clock movement and the motherboard together.
use one of the mounting holes on the corner of the motherboard to hang the clock on the wall. Sometimes depending on the weight and balance of the board, you may have to add a second nail to the bottom of the clock to ensure it is level.
And that's it. Your done! Sick clock right? I have had this clock mounted at work and get a lot of comments about it!
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or critisisims; Please feel free to message me or leave a comment!
Until next time.... Keep Calm and Geek on!