Finished the project!

The clock fully works, but it'd look nicer if it had something to cover the wireless charger to make it look okay and hold the charger in place. So I made that! I'm also counting the printing/assembly for this because the design took 11 minutes. The print initially failed because I forgot to put the bed plate in after the last print, which ended up creating a blob of Babybel cheese wrapper looking plastic. Luckily I was able to remove 98% of it without any problems. The problems came in the actual print, where the bit of remaining plastic partially attached to the print. Luckily it didn't end up causing any serious problems. It fit the wireless charger perfectly, so perfectly the charger wouldn't come out, so this was going to have to be the final draft. All that was left to do was install it, which was the difficult part. The twisty ties would not come through the loops easily, and when they did come through, they weren't the most secure. Twine was just too thick to go through. I got closer with toothpicks, but that had problems with the inner holes, and it had risk for splinters once it was cut. The solution that ended up working was q-tips the tips cut of (just q-s I guess). It's not the most secure, but it's secure enough, and the white pops well against the red I printed it in. The clock is now fully assembled! My world-record perma-unfinished projects started streak is therefore over, but it's worth it.

The final product (it's not actually 12:16 AM I just haven't set the time):

Upload requirement:

Final clock print

After a bit of setting up Orcaslicer to print, troubleshooting errors, and a very brief failed print (Amazonbasics gold PLA filament wouldn't print properly, some spots too thick some spots nothing came out. I know, an Amazonbasics product having zero quality control, shocking), I got a print going, and it came out great! After taking approximately forever to remove the tree inserts (still haven't quite gotten them all but it still works), everything fully came out how I designed it, and my measurements were perfect. It's just the right height so the clock goes in well but it's hard to remove. The top buttons are also all well accessible. However, just like last time, everything I estimated was off. My estimate for the radio station changer wheel was too far up and to the right, but it's close enough that it's still usable. What I completely estimated wrong was the AM/FM radio switch, which just isn't usable, but it's 2025 and nobody uses AM radio, including my dad, who I'm designing this for, so it shouldn't matter too much. Wiring up the clock was difficult, I really shoudv'e made this more modifiable, but I got it. After that, I put twisty ties in the toruses for the cover for the charger, which will finish this project after I get it made! [and my world-record projects started and abandoned streak will die :( ]

The clock:

🟥E🪧

As I mentioned in the previous journal entry, I needed a redesign for my clock enclosure. So, I did that. I followed the suggestions I wrote for myself in the last entry, so just go read that. I also added some small quality of life upgrades, like text that labels the charger.

Pictures:

Trial & Printing Errors

After designing the clock enclosure, it was ready to be printed for my dad! I then went to set up Orcaslicer to print with Protopasta's "The Empire Strikes Black" HTPLA that I found on my earlier ReStore visit, but after quite a bit of time trying to set that up I figured it would just be easier to print in the Bambu green PLA I already had set up, and it probably wouldn't matter because this was just the first prototype not counting just stacking the parts. Then, Orcaslicer made me generate supports, which I did, with Bambu Support For PLA filament for the supports. That turned out to be a mistake. The supports were falling apart about halfway through the print (8 hours, which I'm not counting for the journalage because I was asleep most of that time), and eventually the printer just gave up tring to print it. This ended up being a blessing in disguise, because by this time I could see that this design wouldn't be the final draft. Everything I measured turned out perfect, but everything I estimated was a bit off. The top would cover up some of the controls, which will be an easy fix, but the harder part'll be enlarging the wire holder. I probably could do some ultra-mega-super soldering magic to shorten the wires and make my old design work, but I'm not going to do that when there have to be easier solutions. However, one of those isn't making the cabinet wider or taller, as wider would exceed the boundaries of my 3d printer (I was cutting it close already) and taller would throw off the looks. The obvious solution seems like it'd be moving the cord holder to the back of the clock, so that's what I'll do in my next redesign. Other than that, everything should work as-is.

photos:

another image because for some reason the photos don't count as images:

DDDesigned

(get it? 'cause I designed a 3d part? and it's designed with 3 Ds? I know, it's absolutely hilarious)

For the general design, I'm thinking I'll want to add the smallest amount of space possible while making everything fully work. What I'll mainly need are space for the wires, something to hold the charger in place, & a third thing because rule of threes, all while keeping all the buttons, switches, & knobs accessible. On the GE clock I'm basing this on, the only side with nothing important already there is the left side, so I'll be storing the wires in some extra space I'll add there. I'll want to have the wireless charger directly in the middle on the top, but that's also exactly where the speaker grille is. However, I tried playing the radio with the charger on top of it, but it still sounded fine so I'm just going to ignore that and hope this isn't foreshadowing. I removed the feet from the wireless charger first, and then tried to remove the fake wood from the clock, but after 50 years happily married to the plastic it wasn't going to get a divorce regardless of how much alcohol I gave it. After that, I took some measurements & booted up Tinkercad (which is good, fight me). I modeled a rectangular prism with the measurements of the clock, a cylinder in the shape of the charger, and put them on top of each other, and started designing an enclosure around them. I worked on that for a few minutes, then realised the wireless charger was misaligned from where I wanted it & started over. From there, I finished the models, if you want to know what it's like just look @ the images

Completed design:

Misaligned design:

Getting started with getting parted

I got all the parts I needed for the project*! For the clock part, I'll be using an old GE clock (model number is 7-4613b if anyone cares) I already had, which is very simple but will get the job done. For the wireless charger, I got a store brand wireless charger from Target (think slightly higher-end Walmart with less of a food focus if you're not from the US or Australia) for just around 20 bucks. For the thing to make the previous things work together, I went to ReStore, a thrift store focusing on large items, and usually has quite a good power strip selection at my local location. This time it surprisingly didn't and I could only find one, but the one I found had just 3 plug-in hole sets and a long cable to plug it in, maaking it perfect for the project. It's a low-tech solution, but it's easy for me and works perfectly so I'm doing it anyway. The only parts I haven't gotten yet are the parts I'll 3D print, so expect me doing that soon.

All the parts (and some rubber bands & twisty ties for the cords):

Prototype #0 (aka parts stacked in a way that kinda resembles how it'll be):