DIY Spool Wall Clock

On our endless search for pallets, we stumbled across one of these spools.   (After we asked for permission of course..), it was loaded into the truck.  We weren’t sure what we were going to make with it, but it was going to be something neat!   We searched Pinterest for awhile and found some ideas for spool wall clocks.  Here’s a brief tutorial on how to make your own!

Check us out on WSAW at 5:00 pm on Wednesday October 12th for a demonstration of how simple it is to create.

Materials

• Wooden spool (Many electric supply companies and electricians have access to the spools but be sure to get permission before you take them)
• Two adjustable wrenches or an adjustable wrench and impact wrench (you will either need really long arms or a helper to operate both!)
• Orbital sander with 60 grit and 100 + grit sand paper
• Elbow grease….a lot of it!
• Stain or paint for your spool base color (personal preference; we use Minwax water-based stains)
• Stencils for the clock face; you can use standard numbers, Roman numeral or even dots/dashes.  Most craft stores sell number stencils or you can contact us to make you some vinyl stencils.
• Paint for stencils; latex chalk paint offers a nice finish or you can use acrylic craft paint
• Clock hardware; based on the diameter of your spool you may need to adjust your hand length.  Our spool is 32″ in diameter so we are using 12″ hardware but 14″ would work nice also.
• 4″ – 5″ diameter metal or wooden disc to cover the center whole in the wooden spool

How To

Step 1:

Once you obtain your wooden spool. You will need to disassemble it.  You can use two adjustable wrenches or one adjustable wrench and an impact wrench.  You may need a helper for this step depending on the size of the spool and the length of your arms.

Step 2:

You will need to sand the spool smooth using sand paper.  Ideally you using a power sander (either orbital, palm or belt sander) will make the task easier.  You will want to sand with 60 grit sand paper first and do a finish sanding with 100 or higher grit.  This will be difficult to sand by hand but possible….more power is better for this step!

Step 3:

Stain or paint the spool.  There are unlimited options as to how these can be finished!  Ours is stained on one side, and painted on the other.

Step 4:

Paint numbers or symbols on the clock face.  This easiest if you use stencils.  This may take some searching.  (Basic fonts with numbers can be found at craft stores..)    We dab lightly with paint (2 coats).   Another option:  You could use dots or dashes instead of numbers!     After painting ours, we sanded with a fine grit sandpaper to distress slightly.

Step 5:

You will need to find a small metal round plate or thin wooden disc.  It needs to be larger than the diameter of the center hole.   (There will be instructions with your clock hardware as to what diameter hole you will need to drill through this.).  We had to drill a 3/8″ hole for the clock hardware.  (You can paint it or leave it as is!)

Step 8: