Anyone build a wall clock from a kit?

[Don Morris]

I've done a lot of due diligence on wall clocks and think I've found one at Klockit.com with a quartz movement that would be a good first build. It has chimes on the quarter hour and strikes out the hour. You can shut the sound off at night but I'm worried I'll go nuts with all that sound during the day. So I'd like a little more control than this quartz movement gives. I'm thinking somehow to make access to a side panel during the build and somehow put a simple cord shut off to the speaker wires. Does that sound like a plan? Comments, suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Don M
shopdrm@verizon.net

[James Baker SD]

I have three weight driven pendulum clocks that chime all day, all night and I love the sound (plus the ticking). I would never dream of silencing them.
James

[James Baker SD]

sorry, I did not answer your original question. The engineer in me says your plan sounds like it would work if you have a speaker system instead of mechanical chimes.

[Don Morris]

James,

My wife's family had a grandfather clock, and before we were married I stayed over at their home on a couple occasions. I found the ticking not too troublesome, but the hourly chiming kept me up most of the night. That's why I have some real concern. I like the idea, and even some chiming, but perhaps, not all the time and certainly form experience, not at night. Based on clock companies making clock chimes with the option to silence them at night, I'm not alone. Hermle, the world largest maker is now making an Autowind (electric). I jokingly proposed an Autowind electric grandfather clock to my wife. She was horrified we would have a cord leading from a grandfather clock in her home. Quartz was the only compromise she would consider because we can't always be there to wind it.

[Van Huskey]

A simple switch inline with one of the speaker wires will work fine. I say get fancy and make it remote control...

[Lee Schierer]

James,

My wife's family had a grandfather clock, and before we were married I stayed over at their home on a couple occasions. I found the ticking not too troublesome, but the hourly chiming kept me up most of the night. That's why I have some real concern. I like the idea, and even some chiming, but perhaps, not all the time and certainly form experience, not at night. Based on clock companies making clock chimes with the option to silence them at night, I'm not alone. Hermle, the world largest maker is now making an Autowind (electric). I jokingly proposed an Autowind electric grandfather clock to my wife. She was horrified we would have a cord leading from a grandfather clock in her home. Quartz was the only compromise she would consider because we can't always be there to wind it.

When we first got our Grandfather clock, the chiming every 15 minutes kept us up at night for the first night. Now we don't even hear it at night unless we are awake for some other reason.

A simple switch in the speaker wires should allow ou to turn the chime on or off at will. You should be able to mount the switch where you can reach it and it won't show. I just added a switch to our Lionel train engine to turn the smoke unit on/off. The smoke unit will over heat if it runs a lot without the smoke oil and adding smoke oil is a pain and the smoke smell gets strong if the kids play with the train for hours at a time. The switch lets me have smoke if I want it or turn it off if I don't.

[Jerome Stanek]

I built a Grandfather clock from a kit and it chimes the quarter hour and strikes the hour. My daughter missed it when they went to collage so much that she went out and bought a clock that chimes. I had to repair my movement and missed the chimes also. lucky it was only a couple of days till I got my parts to fix it.

[Jim Rimmer]

About twent years ago I built a relay/timer for my TV (before remotes and mute buttons were common) that would allow me to silence commercials. It had an N555 timer, potentiometer, battery power, and a relay. When I pressed a button, the relay activated for whatever length of time I had set with the pot and automatically dropped out at the end of the time. So you could definitely put some kind of mechanical switch in the speaker line and open it up when you want and then close it back in the morning. If I hadn't quit dabbling in electronics so long ago I would try to help with a remote controlled timer but I guess you're own your own there. Maybe the Popular Electronics website would have something.

[Dave Lehnert]

I have built many clocks. I have 3 clocks that chime in the living room. One being a Grandfather clock that chimes every 15min. We got to talking the other evening if the chime on the clock was still working. Guess we are so use to it, we don't notice any longer.

[Gregory Myers]

Don,

I just finished a couple of mantle clocks from Clockit. The plans I received were just drawings with really no explanation. I did try to read the ones they provided, but were missing a good step by step process. The Savannah Clock I ordered was only offered in Oak and I wanted to step it up a little, so I built it with figured maple; the results were amazing. I was overall please with my results and I like the chimes that the clock provided.

Overall my experience so far from Clockit has been good...you will probably be happy too. I showed the clocks to some friends and neighbors and in a week I already have orders for 5 more.

Good Luck on your order!

Gregory Myers

[Dewayne Reding]

Highly recommend Klockit. A few failures from their cheapest electronic movements, but even their low end stuff usually lasts a long time. I don't even hear the chimes, but the shutoff feature is nice.

[Paul McGaha]

Hi Don,

I've thought about building the New Yankee Clock of Norm's. And just hang it out in the shop. I'll probably do it one of these days.

PHM