A corporate gift idea.

Clocks – A corporate gift idea

For many years now I have been making clocks as gifts for important clients. I have found these to be a good way to promote our business. The clocks are basicaly just signs with the addition of a mechanism.

These neat little clocks allow us to demonstrate our sign making prowess to the client and serve a useful function in that when hung up in their office, our telephone number is readily available to them.

Mechanisms can be bought for as little as £1.00 ea. – a quick search on the internet will reveal a number of suppliers. Here’s one I found:-

http://www.craftmaterialsupplies.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

Here are the components that go into the making of one of these clocks:-

In this photo you can see the signblank (In this case I am using Butler finish Dibond – but this could just as easily be forrex or any other substrate you have in stock. A favourite of mine is 5mm forrex top which has a nice gloss finish). The main clock mechanism is a battery powered device which can be bought at very low cost these days. The other components are the hanger, hands, washer, and nut (these all are supplied by the same people that supply the mechanisms – see my link above).

Here you can see my design which has been weeded and taped and is ready to apply to the clock face (In this instance I have printed and cut my design using a colorcamm – but this could just as easily have been done using vinyl and an ordinary cutter)

Once the design has been applied you need to find the centre of the clock face. Do this by marking the centre of the diagonals

With the centre marked – drill a hole through the face of the same diameter as the clock spindle

I like to use a corner rounder to round the edges of the clock face. If you dont have one you can use a craft knife and glass paper to radius the corners

Next, insert the mechanism through the hole at the rear of the clock face

Fasten the mechanism to the face using the washer and nut that comes with each device

Fit the hands to the mechanism making sure the hands are correctly aligned by fitting them all in the 12 – O-clock position. Then adjust to the right time after fitting the battery.

Finally – the completed clock

Phils Comments:

I have sold a few of these to customers who have asked me to make some with their business logos featured so I am sure they are well received. We have also made some as gifts to mark a special occasion such as a birth etc. (Hence the “Winnie the Pooh” example seen at the top of the page).

Though I can’t recall where we bought it from the corner rounder cost about £100. I have seen these advertised for sale in some of the sign magazines.
http://www.chilvers-repro.co.uk/htm%20files/round_corner_cutter.htm
http://www.jagsignsupplies.co.uk/corner.asp

A tip when using the “corner rounder” on Dibond:-
Turn the dibond upside down.
i.e lettered face downwards) when rounding the corners (the corner rounder tends to “crimp” the dibond face facing upward – however, done this way the visible face shows no sign of crimping and looks much better….