Walnut Guitar Back Yields Wood For Classy Word Clock

Word clocks are cool, but getting them to function correctly and look good is all about paying attention to the details. One look at this elegant walnut-veneered word clock shows what you can accomplish when you think a project through.

Most word clocks that use laser-cut characters like [grahamvinyl]’s effort suffer from the dreaded “stencil effect” – the font has bridges to support the islands in the middle of characters like “A” and “Q”. While that can be an aesthetic choice and work perfectly well, like in this word clock we featured a few months back, [grahamvinyl] was going for a different look. The clock’s book-matched walnut guitar back was covered in tape before being laser cut; the tape held the letters and islands in place. After painstakingly picking out the cutouts and tweaking the islands, he used clear epoxy resin to hold everything in place. The result is a fantastic Art Deco font and a clean, sleek-looking panel to sit on top of an MDF light box for the RGB LED strips.

The braided cloth cable adds a vintage look to the power cord, and [grahamvinyl] mentions some potential upgrades, like auto-dimming and color shifting. This is very much a work in progress, but even at this point we think it looks fabulous.

[via r/diy]

10 thoughts on “Walnut Guitar Back Yields Wood For Classy Word Clock

    1. Not trying to be the jerk here, but who cares if he ruined an actual guitar?!
      This is Hack-a-Day, the very epitome of “chop on one thing to make a different thing.” Why the heck should a guitar be considered sacred?

    2. Why? Do you think he cut up a Fender? Do you think all guitars sound like Fenders? There are a lot of guitars out there which quite frankly the world would be better off NOT having to hear anymore. Not all instruments are hand crafted works of beauty with a tone that makes angles melt.

  1. I want one. Beautiful job! :)
    I’m imagining reversed letters on one side and ridiculously bright LEDs to illuminate the wall with the time.
    Really nice job; looks like something that would cost $600 at an artsy shop. Might need some brass…

    1. Hahaha.
      I swear, ALL of New England or the Deep South of the USA does. :P
      And it drives me crazy! Just say “ten fifteen” please. :|

      But it works perfectly with this clock IMO, though I wouldn’t use that phrasing myself.

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