Bicycle Rim Clock.

Here is another great way to reuse that junk that sits around the house. An old bicycle rim is a great base for a clock. The rim that I used belonged on my friends road bike before she ran over it with her car by accident. The rim got damaged and three spokes needed to be replaced before i could continue with this project.

Skills:

• Basic skills with hand tools.
• Basic metal work.

Materials:

• Old(or new) bicycle rim.
• High torque quartz movement (I got mine off of Ebay).
• Thin metal strap.
• Two bolts(6mm x 50mm)
• Two nuts(6mm)
• Two lock washers(6mm)
• 1/8" metal plate.
• Couple of gears off of rear cassette from bicycle.
• Thin flexible rubber washer.
• Thin wooden insert.
• Flat black spray paint.
• spray paint, color of your choosing, for hour and minute hands and hour markers.
• painters tape.
• J hook wall picture hanger.

Tools:

• Cordless Drill.
• Drill bits(various sizes).
• Pliers.
• band saw
• sandpaper
• wrenches

The first part of this step is up to you. I went ahead and removed the manufactures labels from the edge of the rim that will be used as the clock's face. This gave the rim a clean look. Speaking of clean, it is very important to scrub the surface of the rim to prepare it for paint. Most likely the rim you will be using will be used and show signs of wear and covered in dirt, oil and grease. This debris will hinder the paint.

If you decide to put hour markers on your clock you will need to find where each will go. There are two ways to do this.

1. The easiest way is to place a mark every 30 degrees from the center. This will give you your hours markers.

2. The second requires some math. First find the inside circumference of your rim. To do this take the diameter of the inside of the rim and multiply it by pi(3.1415....). Now take that number and divide it by 12. This final number is the distance between each hour when you following the curve of the rim.

If you get lucky and find a rim with only 12 equally spaced spokes all the work is done for you.

After you have found your hour markers you need to mask off everything else. I used a piece of skinny electric tape to give me the width of the hour mark. I felt there was no need to mask off the center of the rim.

Using the color of spray paint you picked, I used Regal Red, Spray every hour mark in a well ventilated area. Place 2-3 coats going light on each coat. Give the paint plenty of time to cure before removing the masking tape.

I decided not to place any numbers on the clock to keep the rim clean and simple. If you do want numbers a simple sticker would do.

Depending on what rim and clock movement you get the way you secure the two together can be different. Some movements may have holes in the case to allow bolts to be place through them. My movement does not. The way I secured the movement required a single strap over the case to secure it. Do whatever is easiest.

To attach the movement to the rim start with a thin metal strap. The strap I used is about 1/2" x 5".  First start by drilling three holes in the strap. The first hole is in the center to fit over the threaded shaft of the movement the hole will need to be big enough for the movement that you purchased. The last two holes, 6-7mm, will be drilled about 3/16" from each end of the strap. With the holes drilled, bend about a 3/8" tab at each end of the strap with a set of pliers. Now put two more bends equal distance from the center long enough to wrap over the top of your movement. The end result should look similar to the picture. Place the strap over the movement and and then place the movement on the hub feeding the tabs through the spokes.

Now make a metal sheet that will be placed on the back of the hub. The metal sheet should have a large hole in the center to slip over the center portion the protrudes out. This will also stabilize the sheet. Two holes, 6-7mm, need to be drilled out at each end of the sheet equal distance to meet up with the holes in the strap. I rounded everything off to clean it up. You can now paint the strap and the sheet flat black.

With the movement in place, Slide the sheet over the rear of the hub and bolt the strap and the sheet together securing the movement in place.

To finish off the clock something must be placed over the movement to hide it. I used a couple of gears from a cassette that i replace on my road bike. The two gears were luckily already secured together. First remove the nut and washer from the shaft of the movement. Now, to center the gears over the movement I quickly cut out an insert out of wood with a hole in the center to slip over the shaft of the movement. This keeps the gears from moving around. Next place the flexible rubber washer over the gears and replace the washer and nut to the shaft. To top everything off place the minute and hour hands on to the movement according to the directions that come with your clock movement. I also painted the black hands the Regal Red color to contrast from the black spokes.

To hang your clock on the wall, center punch a point on the back side of the hub where the hub protrudes out at the  12 o'clock position. Then drill a 1/8" hole at the center punch. I use those J hooks that you poke though the wall o hang the clock. The hole drops right on the hook. The clock will tip forward. If you want your clock to sit flat against the wall, glue a piece of rubber at the bottom of the rim to push the bottom out.