Make a Clock Out of a Bicycle Brake Disc

Here is what you can do with all those old/spare bike brake discs you have lying around!

You will need:

- bicycle brake disc
- cheap quartz wall clock
- superglue
- ruler
- 2 long bolts and 2 nuts to fit them (optional)
- brasso
- kitchen sponge + towel

Step 1: Clean It Up

If your brake disc is an old one and very rusty - like mine was - then get a little 'brasso' or other metal cleaning stuff and a kitchen sponge that you would use for washing up, and give it a good clean. It can get scratched easily if you use the hard side of the sponge, but with the rust being quite bad in my case, i didnt mind scratching it abit to get rid of the brown stuff. After it all comes off, get a clean cloth or paper towel to wipe it all off, it should become nice and shiny, just like new.

Step 2: The Cheap Quartz Wall Clock

Now get your cheap unbranded quartz wall clock, just like in the picture here. It helps that when you are choosing the clock, the length of the minute hand of the clock is a little less than the radius of the brake disc. I went for a clock with metal gold coloured hands, but the black or the silver ones would look as nice i think.

Take out all the screws on the back of the clock that hold the front and back together, normally 3 or 4, so that the front of the clock comes off. Sometimes, the front transparent screen of the clock is held in place by a few little plastic clips, so use a thin flathead screwdriver to get it out.

Now gently remove the clock hands, first the second hand, then the minute one, then the hour hand.

The working body of the clock (the black box that has all the insides in it) is normally held by glue. I ripped it off using a flathead here as well. Go gently on it so you dont crack the body.

Step 3: Head: Measure It - Stick It

Now get the ruler and use it to find the vertical and horisontal middles of the facing side of the clock box, it might help to put little lines through them with a pencil. Now try to fit the clock box to the back of the brake disc and make it level. By level i mean that you can try and arrange the disc top and bottom (depending on how the large holes are placed throughout the disc) so that you have different holes for every different hour marks of the clock. I had to do this as my finished clock will not have any numbers stuck on it, so i would still be able to tell the time! See picture, this might explain it better. For the glueing process, you would align your 1200 with 1800 with the vertical centre pencil line on the clock body, and the 1500 with the 2100 with the horizontal centre line on the clock body.

Now, once you found the way one will fit to the other, get your superglue, make sure all surfaces are dry and free of dust, and start applying the glue, minding the surface of the disc to avoid the holes (see picture notes again). Squish the two together (be careful to do it properly - this is where the pencil markings of the holes come in handy), wait a minute - and its ready!

Step 4: Hands

Now attach the hands to the centre of the clock - Hour hands first, then minute, then second hand. Again, be gentle with them.

Step 5: Legs

You can now either put a large screw through the 12 o'clock hole and hang the clock on the wall, or like me, you can attach the legs to it if you would like it to be freestanding. As you can see, i got 2 long 2.5" bolts and a couple of nuts for them. I chose round cross head bolts, but you can of course try the big fat hexagonal heads too. Ive put them through the 5 o'clock and the 7 o'clock holes. This way, not only they will now tell me when it is 5 o'clock, and 7 o'clock, but i think it gives the it the best angle when it is stood on the table.

Step 6: Heart and Tuning

Now stick the battery into the back of the clock body - the hands will start moving. Tune the clock by turning the little round wheel on the back. Set the correct time, otherwise the clock will be useless.

Step 7: Comments

Please constructive criticism comments only for this one, as this was my first instructable. Also, please post the pictures of the brake disc clocks you made!