Tech Week! Lets make a Tech Week Prize!!

Before I begin, this is not being submitted for the compe***ion. This is just for fun and to participate.

Okay, I offered up a clock for a runner up prize for Baliegh's Big ***ed Tech week and here's how I make 'em up.

Start with a clock, uglier the better, cheap is important too.



Take it out of the box and put a battery in it to make sure it works. With what we are gonna do to it they wont take it back.




Now that we know it works, take it apart!




There are any number of ways they come apart, most are screwed, some are clipped, rest ***ured that they will come apart. They may never go back together, but they will come apart.

Next find someone to blame if things go wrong, I picked her.



Now its time for some artsy stuff, a paint job. Take a look thru your rattle can stash,



For this I grabbed some bumper chrome, flat black and some sparkly clear.



I laid down the bumper chrome as a base coat,



And then added the flat black spraying at a shallow angle from the center out so it would add a fade-away effect.



Once that was dry I hit it with the sparkles.





I then taped off the inner circle and resprayed it flat black, thought it would look gooder that way.



Now for the face......

 

Dang, I got this far in anticipation, then nothing. Impatiently waiting.

 

Time for the metal work!

Measure the diameter of the face and divide by 2 so you end up with the radius. I use a strip of s**** and drill it to match the radius. you can see I've done a few of these things by the number of holes in the comp***. I've got 2 more like it.



The face is made from 22 gauge steel that I run the DA over with 80 grit paper to get some visual stimuli on.



Once its marked its time to cut it to shape.

Lets start with some basic snippy use tech, red handled snip will cut counter-clockwise without leaving ripples in the edge, green handles are just the opposite,



See how the edge has teeth marks and is slightly rippled? This one is much better simply by cutting from the other direction,



So using the red snips hack away most of the excess in an anti-clockwise direction,,



You don't want to cut right on the mark on the first shot or you'll have to spend a bunch of time filing and hammering the edges back to shape. As this is a prefinished face any hammering will mean re-sanding the top side.

Now cut it a bit closer to the line, try and keep this one a bit more parallel with the finish line,



and then continue cutting along the line, slow and smooth will save you a bunch of time with a file later!



See how nice that edge is?



Cleanup with a file takes a couple minutes and it ready for the stressful stuff.

"Pardon me, but as your lap seems to occupied with that roundy thing your obsessing over so I'll just jump from the bench to that empty shoulder. You don't mind do you?"

 

Time for laying it out.

I should have mentioned that you should pick a clock that has the numbers already defined, unless of course you've got a spare one that you can use as a guide.



Once you've got the numbers located its time for the design work. The type of rolls I'm putting on this one are worked from the back side so flip it over and mark the center.



I added a few witness marks that are in the same place as 4,5,7 and 8 will be on the other side and drew out some fire, only half of it though.



Here's my pain in the *** way of mirroring for the other half, lay out strips of masking tape sticky side up over the already sketched part. (cheaper the better, cheap stuff is thinner so its easier to see thru!) Use some small tape tabs to pin it down.



Then trace the outline of the flames onto the sticky side of the tape, make sure you get plenty of ink on it! Ultra fine sharpies are your friend.



Then flip it over and using your witness marks get it lined up and pressed down.



Using a ball point pen draw back over the lines and press firmly to push some of that ink back onto the metal.



When you peel off the tape it should look like this.



Now darken the lines using the sharpie and we are ready to roll!



The setup for this type of roll is using the tipping die on the topside and a flat lower roll wrapped in electrical tape to soften it a up a bit.



Okay so set the depth on your roller and get cracking. Small tip here, when using a variable speed power roller just put the tip of your toe on the pedal.



This allows you to keep most of your foot flat on the floor so any body motion wont cause Toyota unintended acceleration. While this isnt much of a problem with these smaller panels, on larger panels you need to be able to roll your upper body around without changing the speed or you'll be cussing and throwing things, blaming the shop cats and starting over.

Now back to the story,,,

As you are running this thru the machine it will begin to curl a bit with each line.



So after each p*** you should pop it out and run it across the top of your English Knee from several directions to keep it flat. If you don't it can and will snag on the throat of the machine and steer you the wrong way. See the above warning for the consequences.

If you notice the tape coming loose or balling up,,,



Take the time to swap it out, make sure you put the same number os wraps on so your depth wont change. I use 4 wraps.

Done!!!! (ish)

 

So if you keep after it with your knee action in between p***es the warpage will be kept to a minimum.



Now measure in from the edge for number placement and drill some holes, I used #10 screws on this one so 3/16 was what I ended up with. While your at it punch the center hole out to whatever size is needed to clear the snout on the clock works.



Now clean the **** of the topside and get it ready for some clear.



Once the paint is dry go ahead and start re***embly. Make sure you index the screws so it looks like you care. I also did a red fade on the hands while I was waiting for the clear to dry. When putting the hands back on always point them at the 12 oclock position. Also make sure they don't touch or they could hang up as they cross each other.



Clean the inside of the crystal and set it in place clean side up. My signature on these things is a sparkly clear thumbprint dead center on the inside of the gl***, so I paint my thumb and stick it on the center.



Flip the gl*** and clean the outside,,



and finish screwing it together,,






That's all there is to it! Hope you guys enjoyed and will take some inspiration from this. You don't have to be a metalworker to do this either. Make the face from a piece of cardstock and draw goofy **** on it or something. Anyways have fun and hope the winner enjoys the prize!

 

Tinman Do you do this kinda stuff for fellow car nuts? I have a 26 buick grill shell I want to make a huge clock out of it to hang on the garage wall. I can do most of it. Just lookin to have the flames put on the panel.

 

Cool man!

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

That's cool. I'm surprised it doesn't have a paw print on it.

 

no paw prints but there are some cat hairs in the paint.

 

Looks great jay!

 

That's really cool.

 

Hmmm I have one of these clocks mine is personally signed with a thumb print that i can't clean off.

 

what size is your bottom die on your tipping wheel if it is 2" w/ 7/8" shaft I have a present for you. no tape needed

 

have to check on the am when I get there.

Thanks for the offer!

 

Very cool Jay. Thanks for sharing.

 

simple, clean, cl***ic. I like it.

 

Cool clock, that fingerprint would drive me nuts "Why won't it come off?!!!"

 

Nice work ,thanks for supporting tech week.

 

Nice,

I'm glad I'm not the only one to receive regular cat scans