DSF

I use the ones from mpf wholesale given in the previous link.

Just bought some sheets so will give them a go.

I have metres of that magnetic material and have loads of off cuts. I should have been selling them on Amazon as craft supplies!

Customprintwales;132379 wrote:I use mpf wholesale, either ebay or direct.

I occasionally use their 11-inch square aluminium for clocks and just drill a hole in the centre, sadly they only do the .5mm and clocks really need at least .7mm thickness.

But they do a good quality cut and I've never had any rough edges from them which I have had from some cheap ebay suppliers.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blank-Alumin ... 2377544555

Sorry, off-topic here, but you mentioned aluminium clocks. I, too, found the aluminium a bit too thin for this, even at 0.7mm, and thicker gauges (if you can get them) are a lot more expensive.

I started off with an idea to make Tide clocks. These have a special movement that rotates once in 12hours and 25 minutes. This is in sync with the movement of the Moon. I made my first clocks out of 0.5mm aluminium and stood them on a MiniClip stand. They were ok-ish, but I wasn't really happy with the clock faces being so thin ...




So, on to my next attempt ...

This time, I decided to make my own acrylic stands that would cover the whole face of the clock, making it much stronger, and more attractive. What a learning curve THAT turned out to be! However, I persevered, made my own hot-wire acrylic bender, and learned how to drill, and sand rounded corners onto the acrylic sheets. (I was going to have them laser cut but that proved far too expensive).

This is a mockup I did, but my actual clocks look virtually identical to this ...




Using acrylic means I can still dyesub aluminium backplates, which is quick, cheap and easy, without having the hassle of facemounting images with a laminator and special film. The centre nut on the clock spindle keeps the aluminium pressed firmly against the acrylic.

Apart from the Tide clocks, I'm also making normal desktop clocks using the same method and materials, but using a different (and cheaper) movement. I've got lots of designs made now for both types of clock and sourced all my materials so looking forward to trying to sell them!

No problem going off topic, I kind of did that myself really Always happy to see new ideas.

great idea to mount onto the acrylic. I'm looking at my 'clock' options again as I'm just not happy with the aluminium. I'd hoped the SubTHAT! would solve my issues....it does but at a price.

That looks interssting.

I have to admit even at 0.7mm aluminium is not ideal. But I tend to do mainly wall clocks so once on the wall it's not too much of an issue. In fact being thin and light is great for student type clocks as most student halls don't allow nails in walls so you have to use sticky hooks.

I want to try and upgrade my clocks a little as I'm getting good responses from home decor items. I just beginning to look at mdf board. As long as I can drill through it to fit the mechanism then it is an option.

The biggest issue with clocks is getting decent hands. Most of the hands seem to be thin chinese metal that bends when you blow on them. OK if you encase the face in plastic or glass but no good if they open to draughts

Anything to get away from mugs and mouse mats which just aren't profitable anymore for the small operator.

Anything to get away from mugs and mouse mats which just aren't profitable anymore for the small operator.

Couldn't agree more. Everyone and their granny seems to be be on the bandwagon with mugs these days. It used to be that you could achieve an edge with good designs but nowadays they blatantly copy those too.

Anyway, I get my real buzz from experimenting and even if folk copy my ideas it takes them a while to figure out exactly how they're made, where the raw materials are sourced, and how to make or get hold of any special gear needed for manufacture. This puts them behind me by months, in which time I've greatly increased my range of designs and probably got the next 'big idea' in the pipeline!

I learned from my days as a market trader that most so-called 'entrepreneurs' don't really want to do any manufacturing, they just want to buy cheap and sell on for a profit. Nothing wrong with that mind, but you're always trying to cut prices to the bone to beat the competition.

Delivery from Xpres today of the Unsiub fridge magnets. Really disappointed that you get a small 25mm square magnet to go on the 75mm x 50mm hardboard, I would have expected 50mm x 25mm would be far better.

Also got the white aluminium business card sized metal to have a go with. Just waiting on the magnetic sheet for those.

To be fair, it doesn't take much to hold a fridge magnet. My rolls of adhesive magnetic sheets are 0.75mm which are really strong. I have left over scraps from cutting out discs and rectangles, so will probably start selling them off if anyone is interested?

Yes I appreciate they 'do the job' They just look a little lost on the back, cost saving I guess.