About 10+ or so years ago I bought a neat old "Orange Crush" wall clock at a yard sale. At the time it did light up, and the clock workings did keep time.
After a few years in the 40 Watt, it quit keeping time. The plastic of the main clockworks frame and the gears has given it up. It is just a fragile, brittle, crumbly mass of it's former self.
Restoration is impossible. The parts literally crumble in your hand. I took the movement off of it's bracket and it just fell apart... gears spilling off.
I'm going to "resto-mod" this piece. Replace the clockworks with a modern quartz movement, and replace the lighting (transformer/ballast/ring-lamp) with LED strip-lighting.
If you come up short for wall space you're more than welcome to store it in my garage.
John D said
Jan 30, 2016
Got emails saying my clock parts and LED stuff is on the way...
John D said
Jan 30, 2016
Here's the plan...
I built a raised "frame" inside the housing, and will install a length of self-stick LED strip lighting around the inside perimeter (so the LED's shine inward/towards the center).
The original clock workings were on a sheetmetal bridge. I'll either re-use this, or (probably) make a new one to get the new works at the correct height.
New Clock Workings I chose the one that runs on 110vac. Since I'll have the power supply for the lighting in there already, both will need 110v.
The interesting part will be if I can retrofit the original clock hands to the new motor assy.
Been in SD (Brookings & Aberdeen) the last few days on 3M jobs... Before I left, I sprayed the backplane in gloss white. It had plenty of time to dry while I was gone. While I was gone my parts arrived.
Got home and got busy on the build. I mounted the power supply on the backplane, and ran the strip around the perimeter of the frame (self-stick). The strip lights worked out perfectly! There are no "hot spots" on the face of the cover, and the gloss white bounces the light around.
I'm working on some spacer blocks for the original mounting bridge. I need to get the workings 3/4" closer to the face. The new works shaft isn't long enough.
One good thing is that the original hour & minute hands fit the new works perfectly - no modifications needed! The original second hand will not fit the new works, but the hand that I ordered is nearly identical in appearance, so I'm going to run with that. I scuffed the original hands, and they are now drying with a fresh coat of flat black.
About 10+ or so years ago I bought a neat old "Orange Crush" wall clock at a yard sale. At the time it did light up, and the clock workings did keep time.
After a few years in the 40 Watt, it quit keeping time. The plastic of the main clockworks frame and the gears has given it up. It is just a fragile, brittle, crumbly mass of it's former self.
Restoration is impossible. The parts literally crumble in your hand. I took the movement off of it's bracket and it just fell apart... gears spilling off.
I'm going to "resto-mod" this piece. Replace the clockworks with a modern quartz movement, and replace the lighting (transformer/ballast/ring-lamp) with LED strip-lighting.
I'll post links to the suppliers I've chosen.
Here's the plan...
I built a raised "frame" inside the housing, and will install a length of self-stick LED strip lighting around the inside perimeter (so the LED's shine inward/towards the center).
LED strip light (cut to order in 2" increments) The lights run on 12vdc, and there's a calculator on the page to see what wattage or mA power supply you'll need for the length used.
The original clock workings were on a sheetmetal bridge. I'll either re-use this, or (probably) make a new one to get the new works at the correct height.
New Clock Workings I chose the one that runs on 110vac. Since I'll have the power supply for the lighting in there already, both will need 110v.
The interesting part will be if I can retrofit the original clock hands to the new motor assy.
Been in SD (Brookings & Aberdeen) the last few days on 3M jobs... Before I left, I sprayed the backplane in gloss white. It had plenty of time to dry while I was gone. While I was gone my parts arrived.
Got home and got busy on the build. I mounted the power supply on the backplane, and ran the strip around the perimeter of the frame (self-stick). The strip lights worked out perfectly! There are no "hot spots" on the face of the cover, and the gloss white bounces the light around.
I'm working on some spacer blocks for the original mounting bridge. I need to get the workings 3/4" closer to the face. The new works shaft isn't long enough.
One good thing is that the original hour & minute hands fit the new works perfectly - no modifications needed! The original second hand will not fit the new works, but the hand that I ordered is nearly identical in appearance, so I'm going to run with that. I scuffed the original hands, and they are now drying with a fresh coat of flat black.
It's in beta-test/bench-burn mode... going on 24+ hours and keeping perfect time.
One shot is with the shop lights on, the other in darkness.