As promised in the showcase… here’s the file for my clock:
General notes
It’s made to go with this movement. If you find a different one, you’ll need to measure and resize the center hole on the face (red circles).
This doesn’t all fit in the usable area for one cut, at least on my Glowforge Basic. But it does fit on one Proofgrade 12x20” sheet if you split it into two passes and move the sheet in between.
The orange parts are a back plate — the square cut helps for hanging from a wall hook, and for lining up other elements during assembly.
The green circles make a ring that should fit around the face or back plate, leaving just enough room for the two living hinge side wall pieces (black) to wrap in between. You can assemble the sides to the face and hold them in place that way while gluing,
The cyan parts fit around the movement and can help to align it or hold it in place till you get everything screwed or glued down. But if your movement holds onto the center hole well enough, you might not need it.
Customizing numbers
Sorry, this version of the file doesn’t have the alignment guides I made myself for arranging the numbers. But if you want different numbers, it’s pretty easy to create your own guides in your favorite graphics app:
- Line up two small circles with the centerline of the face, equally inset from the outer circle.
- Group them, duplicate the group and rotate it 30° around its center. Repeat five times and you’ll get circles at each of the hour positions.
- Add text boxes, centered on each circle.
Instructions:
- Make sure you’ve got the scale right before cutting. (Because SVG is terrible at that.) The side walls (black parts at the top) should measure 60.0 mm high total (30 mm each).
- After cutting, the edge of the side walls that’s at top in the file is the one for the front of the clock. You can make the cuts between the segments stand out better as minute/second tick marks in the clock if you sand down the scorched edge here.
- With the clock face piece facing down on your work surface, wrap the side walls around it. (Don’t forget the orientation if you want to have 60 equal tick marks!) Align it carefully so your tick-mark cuts lie up with the numbers. Hold it in place with the ring.
- Glue. 60 tiny drops of CA along where the walls meet the face should do it. A canned-air duster can help guide the glue to flow into the joint. Be careful not to get much glue into the living-hinge cuts, since then it’ll drip right out the front of the face. Let dry.
- Put the back on. You can move the ring to hold the sides to the back while you glue it. I didn’t make the back flush with the edges of the walls the way I did the front — just a tiny bit inset makes it easier to glue it to the walls. Again, align carefully with the tick marks. You’ll have unequal tick marks on the back because the side wall is two pieces. I put them at 12:00 and 6:00 so I’d have a guide for lining up the square cutout.
- Attach the movement. The cyan pieces can help you line it up, but if it holds itself on well might not be be necessary.
- Hang and enjoy knowing what time it is.
