book clock

Book clocks are analog clocks combined into the spines of vintage hardcover books. Book clocks can be made from almost any kind of book and can be easily customized with your favourite books! These book clocks look great in a bookshelf next to other books and is sure to amaze your literary friends!

This idea isn't new as commercial versions of the book clock can be purchased online here, here, and here; ranging in price from $24-$30. I happened to see one on display at my local book store which was $40! The commercial ones are hollow, made of cardboard, and had standard analog clock inside. Hardly worth the price tag. I figured I would try to make my own, so I grabbed an analog alarm clock from the Dollar Store and found 3 hardcover books at the Thrift Store spending around $4.

commercial version

Combining the parts was easy, each book was partially cut with a hobby knife and glued together, the analog clock easily fits inside and can be placed anywhere along the spine where there's an opening. My book clock took me just over an hour to make. 

Let's make!

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Step 1: Tools + materials

materials: 1x analog clock - $1.00 3x hardcover books - $2.50 Total:  $3.50

tools: hobby knife / rotary tool with cutting wheel rule pencil white glue

You can use either a hobby knife or a cutting wheel to remove the pages from a portion of each book. I found the hobby knife generally worked better for this project, but either will suffice.

Comments

[alexh98]

It took me 1 hour to make the hole in the book but i managed to fit it in with a AA battery holder.

[mikeasaurus]

Great stuff!
Thanks for sharing, enjoy the 3-month Pro Membership and digital patch!

[sasha2105]

How then to change the battery

[znelson710]

you re build it... Great idea but the battery seems to have been overlooked. Maybe if you replaced the pages with wooden spacers so the inside was hollow but the books still maintained their shape.

[mikeasaurus]

Please read Step 4 entirely.

[jbrecken]

What happens to the clock hands when you open the book? Do you have to reset them to 6 or 12 first?

[mikeasaurus]

Yep.

[rosewood513]

Can't we just use the front of a book and this way you can change the battery easily?
Actually I like the peg clock or something similar. Nice tutorial though thanks for posting
it, it gives us lots of ideas

[shazni]

This is great! when i saw this i was amazed at how easy it is!

[amandaghassaei]

cute!

[ChrysN]

Awesome, I think it looks much better than the commercial version.

[depotdevoid]

Very cool way to make use of a cheap analog clock. I imagine it would look really cool displayed on an invisible bookshelf!

[mikeasaurus]

Now that's a great idea, maybe this will be version 2!