Simple Hard Drive Platter Clock

Well here's my first Intructable. We wanted to make a windbelt in a school class, so we took apart some hard drives. I got the platters, and made a clock!

Most of this was just improvisation, but worked out great!

Not too much is needed here. Again you can really make it how ever you like. I actually had 2 hard drives, and I "mixed and matched", if you like, pieces for a better combination, like rings and the cap

Mandatory:
Single Hard Drive platter
Small analog clock, or clock movement 
Glue
A metal ring or two from the hard drive
Numbers, I used metal ones, you could even Sharpie some on if you wanted

Optional:
Wire (you'll see why) 

Tools: 
If you want to make on like mine, not much, Dremel with a cutting head and that's about it
I have other things pictured, but didn't end up using them for the final clock, it will be explained 

Simple enough, I put a tiny (very tiny, so it wouldn't ooze out onto the shiny platter) bit of glue to the bottom of the cap and was very carful to line it up right

Silly me didn't get a good picture of the numbers, So here's the materials picture. But most of this was improvised as I was building it

If you look close at the numbers you see tiny circles. These were scrap booking numbers. I very carefully cut them off with my dremel.

It was frustrating because they were such a flimsy and soft metal that the whole number would bend before the circle cut.

After a very very long time of gluing, looking and re-gluing, I got them where I wanted them. 

This is why you my need the wire, I didn't go with it, because A: I didn't really like the look, and B: The very long time it took me to line up the numbers would be quadrupled to get these perfect

I cut 8 small bits of wire off and lined them up like in the second picture and cut them evenly. 

3rd picture shows how I hammered them, putting them n the side of the pliers and waking them until they were flat 
 

Since I didn't like the movement I had, I went to our local Wal-Mart and picked up an $8 ticking alarm clock

I dissembled it. Took off all the wires but the battery wire, like the light, alarm turn on switch, speaker, and light/snooze switch. So all I had left was the battery and the movement. Since this wasn't going to be an alarm clock, I didn't need anything else.

I quickly realized the battery tray was part of the housing. I spent half an hour trying to dremel the silly thing out, and some more time trimming it enough to fit on the back of the platter

They back looks sketchy, but you're not going to see it anyway ;)

First I glued the movement, being careful to line it up center with the hole, then trimmed the battery tray as much as possible to make it fit. Then glued that.

The knobs were to big and made the clock stick far out from the wall, so I took them both off, cut the alarm link completely, and cut the time one in about half, and trimmed the knob accordingly. The knob wouldn't stay on now, so a dab of glue to fix it.

Probably the most improvised step. I used an aluminum ring from the hard drive. I couldn't glue it straight to the back of the platter, because the hanger wouldn't be able to reach it, the movement being in the way

So I had to build a spacer to move the ring back. I used a large juice bottle cap, Sharpied it black and cut it down, as you will see, then glued the ring to it.

Not a great picture, but you can see what I did

I took a small buffing wheel for my dremel and shined off the glue from the numbers, I also took a screw driveer and lighty scraped off the excess glue from the good side of the platter. This was great glue, came off easy, but still very strong,

I put a battery in, put the hands on and set the time. There we go!

I think different hands would defiantly look nicer, but I can change those at anytime!