Introduction: Cardboard Earth Clock

About: I love Arctic Monkeys :P

So last week I broke my wall clock. It literally shattered. Only thing left alive was the clock machinery. So days after seeing it lying around here and there I came up with a really cool idea and made an Earth Clock using a piece of cardboard!

I'll show you how. So without wasting any time, Lets Begin!

PS: This is my first ever instructable :P

Step 1: All the Things You're Gonna Need

Here's what you're going to need :

  • An 8x8" piece of cardboard
  • A cutout picture of planet earth from any old magazine (or you can print it out)
  • A small cutout picture of spaceships/satellites/rockets as shown above
  • A clock machinery
  • A thin wire or spaghetti pieces to be used as clock hands (yes you heard me right, spaghetti. Not boiled of course) In my case I used an old guitar string
  • Scissors
  • Superglue
  • A marker
  • Double sided tape
  • A ruler scale

Now lets get started :D


Step 2: Cutting Out Your Earth Clock Face and Cardboard.

  • Cut out the earth clock shape from the magazine and place it over the cardboard piece.
  • Use a marker to draw the circle on the cardboard
  • Cut out the cardboard piece.

Step 3: Making a Hole in the Clock Face.

  • Find out the center of the earth clock face and make a hole using a sharp pen or scissors. Make sure you don't tear it or make it too wide.
  • Use a ruler to measure the size of machinery so you can make an accurate size hole.
  • Use Spongebob ruler to add some extra awesomeness to your project xD.

Step 4: Making Same Hole in the Cardboard Piece.

  • Place the earth clock face over cardboard piece and make a mark.
  • Use scissors to make a hole using that mark as reference.

Step 5: Attaching Clock Machinery to the Cardboard Piece.

  • Place two pieces of double sided tape over the clock machinery as shown in the picture.
  • Now peel off the other side of the tape and insert the clock machinery into the hole.
  • Gently push both pieces together so that they both stick together.

Step 6: Sticking Earth Clock Face to Your Cardboard Piece.

  • Rub glue on the back side of earth clock face.
  • Gently place it on the cardboard piece.
  • Carefully press it to make sure it sticks properly
  • Use purple colored glue stick if you like to work with some style :P

Step 7: Making New Clock Hands.

  • Since traditional clock hands are too thick and too visible for our project, we are going to replace them with a thin string or wire.
  • In case the clock hands you're working with are thin enough then feel free to use them directly.
  • If not then lets cut em off using a pair of scissors.
  • DO NOT throw the circular part since we're going to attach our thin wire onto it.
  • Take three pieces of thin string or wire or spaghetti (again, not boiled!) and cut them in different sizes as shown in the picture.
  • Make sure one wire is small enough than the other one to leave enough space for the spaceships to move. After all you wouldn't like if your space shuttle crash into the satellite. Just think about all those astronauts.
  • Superglue the thin string to the circular part as shown in picture.
  • This might be a tricky job to do so take your time and do it carefully.
  • Let it dry for few minutes.

Step 8: Sticking Spaceships and Satellites to Our New Clock Hands.

  • Use same superglue to stick the spaceship pieces onto thin wire.
  • Keep in mind the direction of the spaceship should be clockwise. (We don't want our rocket to fly in the opposite direction, do we?)
  • Use black marker to color the white part on the clock hands.

Step 9: Making a Hook for Our Clock.

  • Leave the clock hands aside for now.
  • Cut out a rectangular piece of cardboard and make a hole in the center.
  • Fold it like its folded in the picture and glue it.
  • Make sure it is slightly taller than the clock machine.

Step 10: Placing the Clock Hands.

Carefully insert the clock hands into the cavities on the clock machinery.

All the points should be pointing at 12 O'Clock before putting the battery in. This is done to ensure proper clock hand timing calibration.

Put in the battery and adjust the time.

Step 11: Final Product and Possible Variations.

The Cardboard Earth Clock is now complete and ready to be hung anywhere !!!

Hope you enjoyed it. Please comment if you have any kind of questions or suggestion to make it better. Or even new ideas :)

You can use your own creativity to make changes in the clock. For example instead of spaceships you can use moon. Or Saturn and its rings. Or solar system.

The possibilities are endless!!!

Thank you.

Cardboard Contest 2017

Participated in the
Cardboard Contest 2017