Hi all. I want to buy a cheap clock as in the 2.99 jobs from the discount crap shops. So do any of you know if its a straightforward job to remove the hands and the clock 'engine' from the dial and then remount successfully on an alternative dial?
Its for my 5 year old daughter who is currently 'with' chicken pox.
Thanks.
Arthur
Plenty of kits with just movement and a choice of hands available. Try Ebay.
The few clocks I've dismantled in the last couple of years had hands that were easy to slide off. Alternatively, you can buy the components for about the same price from Maplin:
Dunno, but several places sell hands and clock 'engines'. I think I got one from Maplin the last time I needed one.
Yes absolutely this is a pic of one of my collection of clocks
I've done it a few times, including changing to radio controlled types. The only possible problem is the hands from the old mechanism will probably not fit the new mechanism so make sure the new hands are suitable for the face. Likewise, check the diameter and thread length of the central fixing. If you have a problem here, two-sided tape is an alternative.
You could always fit a 'radio controlled' module which are cheap as chips these days. Which will out perform any mechanical clock.
i could do but I fully intend to fix the original movement
not where I live, the RC clocks keep getting a corrupted signal in poor weather and I often have a display showing something like 48:97
or the analog one just going round and around trying to lock.
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They are quite easy and most are the same/similar. You can actually buy the cheap clock movements from arts and craft type suppliers to build into your own clocks, but probably £2.99 is cheap enough. They used to sometimes use old CD's as a face the clocks.
I've used old shellac records as clock faces.
Maybe stuff it on te internet and get it to pick up NTP?
I get a real thrill out of looking at the computer clock as the pips go. Within a tenth of a second ALWAYS.
I must do that on this useless laptop, still its only lost about 20 minutes in the last few weeks. :(
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I used to use old wax cylinders as clock faces but reception from MSF was bloody awful in them days.
AA batteries hadn't been invented. We had to use EN6's
The kids complain about reception nowadays, but they don't know they're born.
DG
Usually trivial. Second hands can sometimes be awkward. You may sometimes also need to improvise a slotted screwdriver for the nut that holds the mechanism to the dial.
Most of mine (I make a lot of clock cases - few dozen a year) are bought from Lidl. Used to be Ikea, but their's no longer seem to last too well. Lidl also have radio-controlled mechanisms for about 7 quid, but they're often so complicated to set that it's easier to use a manually-set clock!
A well designed one will run on its internal oscillator if it loses the transmission and only alter that when and if it gets a good signal.
Not off DAB, though. ;-) Or FreeView.
I've got a stock of those (well, a different make). They were always known as 'flag' cells, not lantern batteries, and the originals had a wire tail for the -ve pole. I use them, inter alia, to drive a Hipp toggle clock, which they'll happily do for over a year.
I can't understand why mobile phones (at least mine) can't pick up the current time from the mobile phone signal and have to be set by hand. Is there really no time data in GSM?
Owain
Just a guess on my part - flag as in used for larger homes, hotels etc.. which had a bell and flag type system in the servants area. You press a button in a distant room to call a servant and a bell rang plus a flag fell to indicate which button had been pressed. All mounted in a polished wood box with numbered windows in the face for the flags. These were the batteries used to feed these systems.
That depends upon the linking used to supply the pips. R2 can often have digital transmission delays, making the pips a couple of seconds late. The TV can be much slower. R4 seems the only one which is on time.
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