I had an old retro looking clock that the mechanism had gone out on. I really liked the clock, so I figured it shouldn't be too hard to fix. I went to JoAnn's and found a $8 (-40% for the coupon) mechanism with a long shank. Figured that had to be it, since the clock was so thick. Wrong. It was so long that the clock wouldn't go back together. I decided it had to be the shorter one. So I went back to JoAnn's. Returned the long shank, got the shorter one (same price, but 50% off coupon this time). Took it home and the thing hit the glass, thus it wasn't moving time!
I was in Wal-Mart one night and found this little clock though. It appeared to have a really short shank. Plus, the clock was just $4! No coupon necessary. I decided to buy it and try it.
I ripped into it as soon as I got home to see if this was the solution. I pulled the "retro" clock back open and changed one mechanism to the other. It wouldn't move! Turns out the the hands were too long!!! I looked at it for a bit and then after ruling out burning and melting the ends off - little too dangerous and figured the smell wouldn't be good. I took an electric nail file and filed off the end of the longest hand, rounding it to where no one would even know the difference. Well, if you look really, really, really close...you might. But why would you want to? The good part is that the clock finally worked!!! But then there was another issue. What to do with the $4 leftover clock from Wal-Mart. Or rather the frame with the glass and paper liner with numbers on it that certainly wasn't much of a clock now. I had a thought, but then it was making it work that was another issue. I was going to try to find chalkboard contact paper locally. It wasn't easy. I did finally find it at a Hobby Lobby, even after a clerk told us that they didn't carry that. Actually, they do. It just didn't have the phrase "contact paper" attached to it. You have to be so precise when asking for things apparently. He did direct us to some 12x12 sheets of paper that were also chalkboard surface. One sheet was $1.99. A roll of the adhesive paper was $7.99. It can also be found online, by clicking here. Okay, so now onto what I did. I took the new clock that saved my sanity and gave it a new life as a small chalkboard.
I took it back apart and using the glass pressed to the backside of the chalkboard adhesive paper, I marked around, cut it out (duh!), peeled off the backing and stuck it down. It is repositionable...luckily because I did have to do that a few times. You may want to have a credit card handy to smooth out any bubbles. That does cause a problem as well. Not sure yet where I'll place it. Right now I just took a quick picture for this post. It's not the easiest thing to get a photo of with the glare that it causes when the flash hits even the chalkboard.Note that SOME chalkboard surfaces such as these require that you rub all over it with a piece of chalk to "condition" the surface a few times before first use. This particular paper took the chalk very well.
