Vintage Plate Clock

This beautiful wall clock was made as a Mother's Day gift for my mother from great grandmother's heirloom plate. This way a plate that was not used, as it was only one left, was preserved and it serves not only to tell time but as a keepsake also.

Plate wall clocks are really easy to make so there is no reason not to try!

Hope you like it!

Rotary tool, rotary tool ceramic tile cone shaped drill bit, rotary tool ceramic tile cilindrical shaped drill bit, safety glasses, safety gloves, clock mechanism kit, plate, permanent marker, tape measure, dropper bottle.

When buying clock mechanism kit be sure to measure its threaded part length as it needs to be longer than the thickness of your plate in the middle!

Turn your plate upside down and mark the center with a permanent marker. My plate already had a tiny dot in the center so I only had to check if this point was equaly distanced from the rim using my tape measure, but if you can't find the center this way you can use this tutorial on finding center of any circle!

Prepare your work surface! The plate needs to stay in one place when drilling and to ensure this I used a cork placemat! Put your safety glasses and safety gloves on and drip one drops of water on the mark you made at the center of the back of the plate. This will cool the drill bit while working! Be sure not to use too much water as it can rise up the drill bit and go into the rotary tool. If this happens unplug your tool immediately and stop working!

First start drilling slowly with the cone shaped drill bit and then increase speed. As you drill, the drill bit will heat so stop from time to time and drip a drop of water onto the hole you've made! When you've drilled all the way through the plate, turn it on the right side and start drilling with the cilindrical drill bit to widen the hole! Again, make sure your tool doesn't get too hot so make some breaks. You are done when your clock mecanism's threaded part fits through the hole! Clean the hole with water dry it!

Fit the threaded part of the clock mechanism through the hole and screw the nuts on. Fit the hour clock first, then the minute hand and finally the second hand. You only need to put the batteries into the mechanism, hang it and you are done!