Word Clock

Perspex Enclosure and

Vinyl Stencil Construction
Notes

Doug Jackson
VK1ZDJ
March 2011
V1.1

Licence
The Word Clock Design, PCB layout, Manual, and Firmware is Copyright 2009, 2010,
2011, by Douglas Jackson, VK1ZDJ.
This Design, PCB layout, Manual and Firmware is licensed under the TAPR Open
Hardware Licence (Non-Commercial). www.tapr.org/NCL.
Permission is granted for anybody to:

Modify the documentation and make products based upon it, provided you do not
make more than ten units in any twelve month period.
Use the products for any legal purpose without limitation.
Distribute unmodified documentation, but you must include the complete package
as you received it.
Distribute only on a non-profit basis, charging no more than the actual cost of parts,
assembly, and shipping.
Distribute products you make to third parties, if you either include the
documentation on which the product is based, or make it available without charge
for at least three years to anyone who requests it.
Distribute modified documentation or products based on it, if you license your
modifications under the OHL.

Welcome
Thanks for deciding to make this great little clock project. I have really enjoyed designing
and developing it over the last few years.
There are so many ways to construct a word clock. I have broken assembly down into
various documents This document details the construction of a vinyl display (stencil) and
a perspex enclosure.
You will find that construction of this clock is very simple and methodical.
Be careful with your measurements, and safety conscious when you are using cutting
tools, and you will find that the completed project will be an amazing conversation starter
for years to come.

Parts List
There are two versions of the stencil and enclosure kit a short form kit that just provides
the cut vinyl stencil, requiring you to purchase some Perspex sheets to complete the
project, or a full kit containing all of the Perspex as well. Perspex is easily available from
many sign writing equipment suppliers. Most suppliers will cut the sheets to the required
size
The first thing you need to do is to verify that you have all of the necessary components
required to assemble your front stencil Here is the complete parts list.
Front
300mm x 300mm
Perspex sheet
(3mm clear)

300mm x 300mm
vinyl stencil (In kit)

Enclosure
Side Support

60mm x 270mm

60mm x 264mm

Baffles (3mm Black)

25mm x 264mm

10

LED Array Support

264mm x 264mm

270mm x 270mm

Rear Cover Mounts

(3mm black)

20mm x 20mm

Front stencil mounting

strips

20mm x 260mm

(3mm Black)
Top Supports
(3mm Black)

(3mm White)
Rear Cover
(3mm Black)

(3mm Black)
Enclosure screws

3mm x 10mm coarse 7

self tapping screw

Additionally, you will need some plastic glue which is compatible with your perspex sheets
talk to your perspex supplier for the correct glue. I use "IPS weld-on #16 Solvent
cement for acrylic" for my own projects.

Stencil Construction
Start assembly by making our stencil. You will have been provided with a pre-cut vinyl
stencil. This needs to be attached to a clear perspex backing sheet to provide rigidity.

NOTICE
Ensure that when working with the vinyl sheet, you work in
an environment that is clean and relatively dust free.
If dust particles are captured between the vinyl and the
perspex backing, raised bubbles will appear that can not be
resolved, maring the appearance of the front of the clock.
I should do all of my vinyl work in the dining room, not in
the garage. [Note to self Thank Mrs Jackson for being
accomodating!]

The vinyl stencil as supplied will be larger than required. This is so as to provide extra
material for variations in face sizes. We need to cut the vinyl stencil to the final size of
your perspex sheet, allowing an extra 10mm allowance around the edges.
Lay the Perspex backing on top of the stencil , and mark out a cut line, then using a
straight edge and a sharp hobby knife (or scalpel), cut the sheet to size.

Next, ensure that your working environment is clean vacuum your table if necessary or
work inside the house, instead of the garage. Lock up your Golden Retriever dog and your
cats. If you get small particles between the vinyl and the Perspex, you will have enormous
trouble making the surface look flat.
Mix up a couple of drops of dish washing liquid with a cup of water, and load that into a
spray bottle. We will use this to make applying the vinyl lots easier.
Remove the protective cover from the clear perspex, and lay the Perspex to one side,
ready for covering.
Turn the vinyl sheet over so that the front is against
your working surface, and remove the backing sheet
from the vinyl stencil, being very careful to ensure that
the vinyl does not stick to itself.
DO NOT THROW THE BACKING SHEET AWAY It
contains letter pieces that are important.

Be gentle when you remove the backing to

ensure that the bottoms of the letters are not
stretched. You may find, for example, that
the bottom of the letter R and W stays on the
backing. Gently use a sharp instrument to
detach them from the backing. This photo
shows the base of an 'R' character being
loosened. The base of the 'W' has to be
loosened as well.
Spray the vinyl sheet with a liberal amount
of the water/soap solution - Don't panic we will be squeegeeing this out later - it
simply allows us heaps of extra time and
movement to get the vinyl applied easily.
Continue by laying the Perspex on the top
of the vinyl at an angle, starting with the
bottom edge carefully align the edge so
that it is straight, Hold the top of the vinyl
sheet taunt (you can have an assistant help
you), then, and using a folding, or rolling
motion lay the sheet on the vinyl. The
folding or rolling motion will help to ensure
so that most of the air and soapy water is
expelled.
(In the photo, I didn't use tension I have subsequently determined that tension helps )

Turn the Perspex over and using a squegee, or your hand, gently flatten the stencil out to
remove the excess water / soap mix. Use some paper towel to clean and dry the stencil as
you expel liquid. As you expel the liquid, you will notice that the stencil locks onto the
acrylic sheet. We want this gluing action to happen. Do not rub the front hard, as you will
damage the surface. Once you have expelled all of the water/soap mix, and things are
looking very flat, marvel at your work, and leave it to adhere for an hour or so.
Cut the vinyl sheet to the final size on the perspex I love the look of allowing a 3 5mm
clear edge to frame the black vinyl. You may
prefer to cut the vinyl even with the edge.
Next, looking at your stencil, you may find that
some letters need to be removed, while the centre
of other letters (O, A, R, D, etc) need to be
transferred from the backing sheet to the
Perspex. Use a sharp knife to gently remove the
extra vinyl letters, and to transfer the centre of the
letters to the Perspex.

In this photo, I removed the air and

soapy water before I filled the letters in
you are very welcome to do these
steps in the order that you are most
comfortable. Remember Gentle
pressure is all that is needed to remove
the water / soap mix.

It is unlikely that you will have any bubbles left, but if

you do, over the next week or so, any left over tiny air
pockets will tend to migrate away by themselves.
That completes the stencil assembly.

Enjoy looking at it, and then put it away somewhere safe where it won't get damaged.
Now is a great time to have a break!.

Enclosure Construction
Having finished the face, we need to continue with the assembly of the enclosure.
Our enclosure is made from 3mm Perspex sheets that are held together using a vinyl
adhesive. As mentioned in the parts list, you will need some plastic glue which is
compatible with your Perspex sheets talk to your Perspex supplier for the correct glue. It
is a solvent that actually dissolves the Acrylic material that the Perspex is made from so it
ensures that the joints are extremely strong.

Start by placing the stencil FACE DOWN onto a soft surface to protect the vinyl face. We
will be using the stencil as a template to ensure that we place the baffles in the correct
positions. You may like to use a piece of tracing paper to mark out the locations of the
words on the stencil, and use that to work on instead.
Before anything is glued into
position, ensure that everything fits
together by 'dry fitting' the pieces
together using masking tape as a
jointing material.
The 60mm x 270 mm pieces are
the sides, while the 60mm x
264mm pieces are the tops and
bottoms
Remember that the baffle pieces sit
against the back of the face plate.

Once you are happy with the fit of the pieces, remove the protective paper from the
Perspex, and glue the outside edges of the enclosure together. When gluing, use a thin
bead of glue along the entire edge of the sheet to be attached. Be careful at this stage, to
keep the orientation of the sides and top the same as during the dry fitting. Also be careful
with the glue to ensure that it does not flow from the tube over everything, making a mess.
Use adhesive tape as a temporary support for the edges of the enclosure while the glue
sets.

WARNING
Fumes given off by most Acrylic solvents are not healthy to
breathe. Ensure that when working with the glue, adequate
ventalation is available.
Please read and observe all safety warnings printed on the Acrylic
solvent. These solvents can be highly toxic and give off strong fumes.

Once the sides are joined together, it is time to install the baffles. Start by running a strip
of masking tape on the inside edges of the enclosure to protect the stencil from excess
glue. Centre the enclosure onto either the stencil, or the template you have created, and
start by mounting a middle baffle component. When gluing, again be careful to avoid
dribbling glue everywhere. Be sure to attach the baffle so that it is at the bottom of the
enclosure, touching the stencil. DO NOT GLUE THE BAFFLE TO THE STENCIL. Just
glue the ends to the enclosure sides.

Continue assembly by gluing the rest of the black perspex baffles. Once glued, hold the
frame together for a few minutes while the glue sets.

Complete the baffles, by turning the

enclosure over, and attaching some
temporary masking tape to hold the
assembly together while the glue sets
completely this should take about 4 hours.
Enjoy a cup of coffee!

After the glue is dry, test the white perspex

LED mounting board for a good fit It
should fit inside the frame, leaving no
gaps around the edge of the enclosure.
Once you are happy with the fit, put the
stencil some place safe, and liberally
apply glue to the edges of the baffles, and
the sides of the LED mounting board, and
glue the board into place.
Again wait a few hours for the glue to
set completely.
This largely completes the assembly of the enclosure..

Once the glue has completely set, we need to install the LEDs on the inside of the newly
created light box enclosures.
There are two options at this stage Either, you can use individual LEDs and resistors
(Which I feel is a little ugly, but it works), or you can use some of the 'strip lights' that are
available from places like eBay.
Strip lights are strips of flexible
plastic PCB material that have
groups of LEDs and resistors preinstalled. They are designed to run
of 12V DC, and have an adhesive
backing material already applied.
They can normally be cut into set of
3 LEDs, as individual light
components. The photo on the right
shows a typical strip light.
I purchased 2 x 1m Strip Lights for
the project.
Start be cutting the strip light into the appropriate length sections for the words to be
illuminated. In the case of my strip lights, there is a cut line every 3 LEDs, so I used 3
LEDs for the short words, and 6 LEDs for the longer words.

Once the individual words have been cut out

from the strip lights use a small soldering iron to
tin the ends They are plastic coated, but
should solder easily.
Next, remove the paper
backing, exposing the sticky
adhesive surface.

Continue by attaching the strips to the back of each

small light chamber enclosure. Alignment is not
incredibly critical, but try to get the strip centred
along the word. Use the stencil as a guide. Be
careful when installing the strips to make sure that
the + and connections are uniform (i.e. all + up, or
all + down) It doesn't matter which convention you
use, just be consistent.
Once the strips have been stuck down, use a 3mm diameter drill and drill a small hole
beside the strip light for the cable to be wired through. Be careful to not drill a hole in the
strip light material.

Next, hold the assembly up to a light, and mark the

holes for the controller to be mounted we use a
light behind the assembly to make sure that the
holes you will be drilling won't interfere with any of
the strip lights.

Next, install 4 sets of short hex standoffs for the

controller to be mounted on.

Continue assembly by soldering a wire between all of the '+' connections Remember that
the controller has a common + between all of the words.

Here is a close up of the connection.

Once all of the strip lights have been installed, mount the controller, insert the ribbon and
wire each individual LED strip. Keep a copy of the wiring instructions as detailed in the
assembly manual for the Arduino or PIC Wordclock controller manual to help you get the
wiring right. I wrote the names of the words on the back of the white LED mounting sheet
to help me.

The first word wired up!

All of the words wired up!

Here is a photo of the finished wiring on the back of the clock. Note the coils at the top of
the clock These are the wires for the two spare words instead of clipping the wire off, I
coiled it up for later.

Mount the power connector socket.

I drilled a hole that was the correct
for the power socket (7.5mm) and
mounted the socket and wired it up
the board.

And apply power to test all of the wiring

is correct. A self test runs at startup,
testing every word by turning it for for
half a second. If one of the words fails
to light, check your wiring (did you get +
and the correct way round?)
YAY!!! Run inside and show your
spouse!

size
to

Next, we need to complete the baffles by adding the separators between the words.
I can't give you an exact measurement
for these, as their size depends on the
spacing that you used between the
horizontal baffles.
I measured each, and cut them
individually, and then glued them in
place using the vinyl adhesive.

Here is what the clock looks like with the baffles completed!

Centre the enclosure on the back of the stencil, and mark the edges. Remove the
enclosure, tape the sides of the enclosure to protect it from the glue. Attach the mounting
strips to the top and bottom as shown in the below diagram. The photos on the next page
will help with this step!

Here is a close up of one of the stencil mounts ready

for gluing I set up all four before I glued the stencil
in place. I simply used masking tape to hold the
mount temporarily for gluing.

Check the fit of the stencil mounts

carefully before applying vinyl glue.
Note that I have protected the edge
of the enclosure using tape to ensure
that no glue can accidentally glue the
stencil on the stencil has to be able
to be removed (which is why we use
mounts).

Here is a close up of one the mounts, waiting to

be glued. Note the gap between the enclosure
and the stencil!

Once you are happy, apply the glue, and leave it it dry for a few hours.
Once dry, remove the enclosure, and verify that the stencil mounts are correctly
positioned! Remove the extra tape, press the stencil back
into place, drill the holes for the mounting screws.

Continue assembly by mounting the time setting buttons on the bottom of the enclosure,
so that the time is able to be changed.
I assembled the time button board (using a couple of buttons with long shafts), marked a
convenient place on the bottom of the clock, drilling the holes for the buttons to go through.
Then I attached the buttons with a set of small spacers and screws.

After this is done, you need to add the tabs to the

back panel of the enclosure so that it can be attached
to the top and bottom walls. Just use a bead of glue
to attach the strips.
I used one long strip at the top, and a set of strips at
the bottom. Because the strips are all that holds the
clock to the wall, I re-enforced the strips with some
extra black perspex. Once the back was dry, I placed
it on the enclosure, drilled the mounting holes, and
screwed it in place.
My back panel has a slot cut into the top to allow the
clock to be hung on the wall. This photo shows the
long strip at the top of the back, and the wall
mounting slot.

While you are waiting for the glue to dry, you need to attach some diffuser material to the
back of the stencil I used strips of light weight tissue held in place using clear tape. You
may use paper, but I felt that the paper blocked too much light.

Finally, screw the back onto the enclosure, and screw the enclosure to the stencil, and
that's it Mount the clock on the wall, set the time, and have a party!

:-) There that was easy!