Alright, so I’ve been tinkering with this idea, “torchlight reveals the hour.” Sounds a bit dramatic, I know, but it stuck in my head. You know how some ideas just latch on and won’t let go? This was one of ’em. I figured, why not try and build something, see if I could make it a real thing. Nothing too fancy, just a bit of fun and a way to use up some odds and ends I had lying around.
Getting Started – The Spark
It all started when I was rummaging through an old box of bits. Found a tiny little clock mechanism, the kind you get in those cheap desk clocks. And I thought, what if you couldn’t just see the time? What if you had to do something, like shine a light, to find out what hour it was? Seemed like a neat little puzzle, a bit of a throwback. I wasn’t aiming for a masterpiece, just something that worked, more or less.
So, the plan was simple: a dark box, the clock mechanism inside, and you’d need a flashlight – your “torchlight” – to actually see the hour. The challenge, I figured, would be making it dark enough inside but still easy enough to illuminate just the hour hand, or whatever it was pointing to.
The Messy Middle – Lots of Trial and Error
First off, I needed a casing. I found an old wooden cigar box. Perfect. Sturdy, darkish wood. I painted the inside black, real black, with a couple of coats of matte paint I had left over from another project. The goal was to make it as non-reflective as possible. I drilled a hole in the back, just big enough for the clock mechanism’s shaft to poke through.
Mounting the mechanism was easy enough. Then came the hands. The original hands were too flimsy and, well, just normal. I wanted something special for the hour hand. I tried a few things:
- Cutting a tiny stencil: Too fiddly. My hands aren’t that steady for super detailed tiny work anymore.
- A small translucent piece of plastic with a number: Better, but hard to light up evenly.
Then I decided, keep it simple, stupid. I took the original hour hand and painted it black too, so it would disappear. Then, at its very tip, I glued a tiny sliver of white plastic. The idea was this little white tip would catch the light when you shone your torch in.
Next big problem: where do you shine the light? I couldn’t just leave the front open. That defeats the whole “reveal” part. I tried a small slit, but aiming was a pain. You’d be wiggling your flashlight around forever.
I spent a good afternoon just sitting there, pointing my phone flashlight at this box from different angles. It felt a bit daft, if I’m honest. My wife walked in, gave me that look, you know the one. Shook her head and walked out. Can’t blame her.
Figuring It Out – The “Aha!” Moment
The breakthrough came when I thought about old spy movies. You know, where they shine a light through a tiny peephole. So, I drilled a small hole, maybe a quarter-inch, in the front of the box. The position was crucial. I had to line it up so that when you shone a light through it, the beam would hit the general area where the hour hand would be sweeping.
But just hitting the area wasn’t enough. I needed to see the numbers too. I printed out a simple clock face, just numbers 1 to 12, on black paper with white numerals. I cut this into a ring and mounted it inside the box, around where the hour hand would travel. Now, the little white tip on the hour hand would point to these numbers. The challenge was getting the light to illuminate just that spot.
My first tests were… underwhelming. Light bounced around. The white tip was too small. The numbers were hard to read. It was more “torchlight vaguely hints at a smudge” than “torchlight reveals the hour.” Frustrating, to say the least.
I went back to the drawing board, or rather, my messy workbench. I made the white tip on the hour hand a bit bigger, more of a small flag shape. Then, for the numbers, I used glow-in-the-dark paint. Just a tiny dab on each numeral. The idea was the torchlight would supercharge the glow paint for a second, making it pop.
The “Final” Version – Well, It Works!
After a bit more fiddling with the peephole angle – I ended up making a sort of internal baffle with some black card to direct the light better – it started to come together. Now, you grab a small flashlight (I keep a little LED penlight next to it), shine it through the hole, and for a brief moment, you see the white marker on the hour hand pointing to one of the numerals, which itself glows faintly for a second from the blast of light.
It’s not perfect. Sometimes you gotta wiggle the light a bit. And you definitely can’t tell the exact minute. It’s strictly an “hour revealer.” But there’s something satisfying about it. It’s a bit clunky, a bit mysterious. It’s not something you’d rely on if you were catching a train, that’s for sure. But as a little piece of interactive desk art, or whatever you want to call it, it’s got charm.
So, that was my journey with the “torchlight reveals the hour” project. A lot of mucking about, a few dead ends, but I got there. It’s a good reminder that sometimes the process of making something, even something a bit silly, is the best part. And hey, I used up an old cigar box and a cheap clock. Can’t complain about that.
