Tick Tock, A New Red Clock

I was tickled when I found a darling RED vintage-style clock at my local thrift for a mere 80¢! It is a reproduction but I thought it had plenty of charm and would look great in my vintage-style kitchen. Only problem--when I got it home, it didn't work! Even after putting in a good battery, the clock hands failed to move. I determined that the clock mechanism itself was kaput, but I knew that I could buy a replacement at the craft store.

Armed with my trusty 40% off coupon, I headed to JoAnn's but was dismayed to find that a new set of clock works was $7.99. Now, I had a coupon that would make it less expensive, but people--I AM CHEAP! I didn't want to pay 6x more for the mechanism that I did for the darn clock itself!

Enter Plan B--find another cheapo clock at the thrift and harvest its organs...er, mechanism. I've searched unsuccessfully a few times now but today I found it! A boring, cheapo clock also priced at the magical 80¢. I didn't have a battery with me to make sure it worked and that thrift store doesn't accept returns, but for that price I was willing to take the gamble. I may be cheap, but I'm not crazy!

I didn't think to take a photo of the "donor" clock, but just imagine your garden-variety plastic, few bucks at Wal-Mart type of clock. I used a butter knife to pop off the plastic dome, unscrewed the hands and removed the little black box. Threaded it through the hole on the red clock, reattached the hands and the glass dome and hurrah--it worked! I did have to fiddle with the hands a bit to make sure they were seated correctly but it's keeping time like a champ now.


Now to hang it and enjoy!