A Creative Exercise Using RUSCH Clocks

Materials: RUSCH clocks, anything to decorate the clocks with (spray paint, fabric, dollar store trays, etc.)

Description: Description: The RUSCH clocks are really cheap here - in USD $0.84. I wanted to see what sort of ideas I could come up with when hacking the look and design - so I ended up buying 5 of them.

My first experiments were based on trying to change the look of the whole clock - like spray painting the frame black. But anyone who has seen one of these clocks would know what I just did. So my attention went to hacking the round plastic cover. This way the new clock designs wouldn't look like the original RUSCH design.

For three out of the five clocks (The Black Beast, White on White, and Dressed Up) I ended up using the round plastic cover as a base. Two were spray painted, another covered up with fabric. For the Black Beast I cut up the seconds hand to create the number locations.

I didn't want the seconds hand on any of the clocks so I cut off the stems, just to keep the round tab to cover the hole.

Next up is the Double Dose clock. Instead of using the round plastic cover as the base I glued cardboard to the back of an IKEA MARIT dinner table mat.

The last clock, Horizon, used a dollar store serving tray as the base. Half of it was spray painted black, the other half white, to give it a more abstract design. All of the spray painting, including the painting of the first two clocks, were done inside of an IKEA shopping bag (so the spray paint doesn't go everywhere).

To see more pictures of the clock hacks, click here.

~ Jacob, Malaysia

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Sacrifice Skovel and Rusch on the altar of Noir

Materials: Skovel, Rusch

Description: I used the Skovel wall clock to replicate Kirika's pocket watch (not to scale, obviously) from the 2001 TV series Noir. An extra Rush was sacrificed for the clockwork of the off-center seconds hand.

I was inspired to make this geekish hack by the 10th anniversary of the Noir DVD release, and the availability of the eminently hackable Skovel clock, which is relatively cheap, simple and straightforward in its assembly, yet with a steel and glass body.

Removing 4 screws is enough to take off the glass. I carefully lifted the hands off of the clockwork with a fork. After this, unscrewing a single nut separates the clockwork from the body.

I removed the paper clockface with the aid of heat from a hairdryer. In retrospect I should have simply pasted the new face over it, because the sticky goo that remained was nearly impossible to get rid of.

I created the new clockface in a graphics program, printed it out on A3 paper and glued it on the body after drilling the hole for the seconds hand.

Because the seconds hand revolves under the minutes and hours, I had to make sure it didn't protrude too high above the clockface. I therefore used a spacer (made of scrap wood) between the back of the clock and the Rusch mechanism. To limit the size needed for the hole, I removed the hour and minute axles from the Rusch mechanism, leaving only the parts needed for the seconds. Both the mechanism and the spacer are held in place by 2-sided adhesive tape.

The new clock hands were cut from paper card stock, and glued on the cut-off hands of the Skovel (and the seconds hand of the Rusch). Finally I added some accents with silver-colored marker.

In all, it took only a couple of hours to turn the rather unexciting Skovel into the envy of all Noir fans.

~ Eli, A place forgotten by time

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Wood RUSCH clock

Materials: Rusch clock, a piece of wood, some varnish, a circular saw

Description: I took a slice of wood, sand it and with a circular saw I cut the back of it very carefully to fit the mechanism of the Rusch clock. It's very difficult since the metal rod of the clock is not thick at all.

I fixed the clock with two screws because it didn't work with glue.

I wrote the numbers with a pyrograph.

~ Vincent, Versailles (France)

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LP RUSCH CLOCK

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: RUSCH wall clock, old vinyl record, glue gun, marker pen.

Description: This is maybe the simplest hack yet,

I bought RUSCH wall clock ($1.99) a while ago and planned to hack it later. Then later I bought some old vinyl record from a flea market for just ($1.00) a piece.

First I started by removing the needles from the clock mechanism.

After that, I stuck the clock mechanism behind the record's aperture using hot glue.

The needles, I used a marker pen to colour it white so that they contrast with the vinyl record's colour.

Then, I replaced the needles and just like that, it's finished. Like I said before, it is the simplest hack ever.

~ Anuar Nasiruddin, Malaysia

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The Rusch Twins

Materials: Rusch Clock x 2, White Acrylic Paint, Double-sided tape

Description: I just finished a renovation project and realized the walls are so plain. It's missing the clock! After reading so many good hacks on the Rusch clock, I bought 2 Rusch clocks at $1.99 each, came home and took it apart. And here comes the Rusch twins!

1. Pop the front acrylic (it's just snapped on)
2. Pull the hands out from the clock
3. Pop the clock from the back (it's just snapped on too
4. Paint the 2 clocks in white acrylic
5. Wait til the paint is dried
6. Put the second hand on one clock and the hour and minute hands on the other.
7. Insert the AA battery
8. Stick them on the wall with double-sided clock

After an hour, now I have two clocks side by side, one showing the hour and minute and the other just seconds (and what's the point? I am not sure but it looks cool...)

~ ahongkongese

Nice and quiet Rusch hour

Materials: Rusch wall clock

Description: The Rusch wall clock is so cheap that it's practically begging for creative modifications.

In this case I spray-painted the body black and covered the face with a design I printed out and colored with gold ink. I replaced the hands with interesting shapes cut out of paper card stock and covered with gold gift wrap paper. The gold looks better in reality than on the pictures.

I found that the noise of the Rusch wall clock can often be greatly reduced by spraying the wheels with lubricant (I use silicon spray) and putting a few drops of heavy mineral oil into the well of the little wheel that drives the whole mechanism.

~ Eli, Belgium

Tadao Ando Book Clock

Materials: RUSCH Clock mechanism, awesome hard cover book, super glue, pen knife

Description: Tadao Ando architectural style mostly constructed with concrete, which provides his architecture a sense of cleanness and simplicity at the same time. So I decided to honour his style by making this clock book with the extremely cheap Ikea clock to go with the concrete walls.

First of all, make a hole in the center of your hard cover book wide and thin enough for the protruding piece from your clock mechanism to go through. I don't have a drill, so I use a knife and a pen to round up the hole...

Super glue the clock mechanism behind the front cover page. Then cut square holes on all the pages wide and thick enough for the clock to be in.

Close the book cover, and snap the clock hands on to the piece sticking through.

Hope you all like it!

~ Imchaser, Singapore

Rusch, modernized

Materials: Rusch clock, wooden dowels, paint, glue

Description: I wanted to create a large, modern-looking wall clock on the cheap. Enter the Rusch clock, which is only $2.

I got some thin wooden dowels (24" in length, 6 dowels total) at Michael's. Cut each dowel in half to get 12 12-inch dowels, and glued them to the back side of the clock using hot glue.

Also fashioned an (ugly) hook out of wire, and hot glued that to the back as well.

After the glue set, I painted the dowels using black craft paint, and then decided to paint the outline of the clock face as well.

I wanted to hide the numbers a bit on the clock face to make them less prominent, so I attached a piece of white printer paper using double-sided tape to the clock face. The numbers are still visible, but are more grayed out now.

Ta-dah! Clock is done, all for under $10.

Make sure to measure carefully where the dowels should be glued. I got lazy, and as a result, my 9-o'clock dowel is not perfectly lined up. Boo.

~ Sarah, San Francisco

RUSCH wall clock mod

Materials: small screwdriver, double sided tape

Description: This easy modification easily customises your cheap clock. It also has the added benefit of making the ticking lower volume.

First you need to remove the front plastic cover by carefully prying it with the small screwdriver, there are 3 small tabs to gently pop out.

Once the front is off remove the second hand by pulling. I then used cutters to snip it short, you could easily just bend and break it off.

Now attach your new graphic with double sided tape making sure it is centered well.

Reassemble.

~ Paul, UK

Rusch Clock Face, Background

Materials: Rusch clock, knife, scissors, magazine paper, glue

Description: Place the clock face down on a soft surface. Using a knife, push in the three "knobs" in the spaces on the back of the clock (do not break them). This should loosen/pop out the glass. Remove the insert carefully so as not to rip out the double sided tape.

I riffled through several magazines and cut out images from ads and articles. For the first clock (I put it in the kitchen), I traced the insert of the clock over a white piece of paper. I cut out the bottles from a nail polish ad, and glued the images where the numbers should be. I used a flower image for the clock center. Don't forget to cut a hole in the center of the flower. I have a hard time reading time so I wrote in some numbers to remind myself ha ha.

For the second clock (I put it in the bathroom), I cut out some magazine images and glued them over the numbers on the insert. I left a couple of number in there b/c again, I suck at reading time. Each clock only cost $1.99.

~ JustHackIt, New York