About five years ago I saw a similar idea on the wall of a pub in Brașov, Romania and I wanted to have one of my own ever since. Altough the one in that bar was actually just the printed image of a record stuck to a round piece of glass I figured it wouldn’t be so hard to put one together with an actual real record. I had one attempt soon after but I couldn’t find any clock hands to buy so I tried making them myself. Neddless to say they didn’t fit the mechanism perfectly and the clock was often falling behind. Fast forward a couple of years and I gave it another go with all of the proper components:
Altough you can easily pull it off without changing the label on the record, I preferred to make my own label that would also make it easier to tell time. After all, we are making a clock and not just another wall decoration. If needed you can easily find a custom clock face to replace the 100mm wide record label. For example I downloaded one with roman numerals and adjusted it to match the style I was going for.
I printed two labels just in case I messed one up while cutting it out and also gave the design a 5mm bleed and cutting guide, just to make my life easier. This way if I stray off a bit while cutting I don’t get any white edges.
The new label was then glued to the record with regular paper glue (same you’d use on envelopes for example). It works perfectly since both the record label and the clock face are paper. Just be careful to align it properly with the record label so that it covers the entire thing and you don’t get any underlay showing on the edges.
As it turns out the existing hole in the vinyl record was a bit too small for the bolt in the clock mechanism to fit so I had to use a 6mm drill bit to widen it. Wish I had done this before gluing the label but at least it was later covered by the bolt’s nut.
When setting the clock mechanism in place I had to make sure to align it properly with the hours so that when hung vertically the 12 numeral is on the vertical axis and not tilted. After fitting the bolt through the middle of the record I fastened the entire mechanism with the provided nut and the clock itself was basically done.
Because my mechanism already had the clock hands included I didn’t have to buy a separate set but sets are also available separetly online with enough options for size and shape. In my case I also had to peel off some protective foil they had on them since I didn’t want it to start peeling by itself later. That would’ve made it trickier to get off. No matter the type you get though, you should make sure that they are not curved or bent before setting them in place. If any two of them touch you might end up with your clock falling behind so be careful that they are as parallel as possible.
With the clock all assembled in less than 30min the result was very rewarding indeed. I wiped the record clean of any fingerprints, dust and cat hair and was done. Yes, I had a furry little assistant constantly keeping an eye on my while I worked. All that was left was the nail in the wall off which to hang the clock and that was it!
As you can see I went with white arms for my clock to get that sweet contrast between the black vinyl, red label and white wall. You could come up with any kind of combination and if you fall short on inspiration just run an online search and you’ll find plenty of ideas (Pinterest is an especially good place to start).
