I recently saw someone post a Christmas Countdown Clock in a Hobby CNC Facebook group I'm a member of. The post mainly focused on different ways to fasten the clock arm. Magnets, screws, and what I think is the best option—threaded inserts—were all mentioned. The original poster also mentioned how good of a seller his were, so since I’m looking to create new holiday crafts this year, I decided to make my own version. This post will cover my first attempt at bringing it to life. As always, once the plans are finalized, I'll post them here.
And yes, I know there’s no arrow hand yet—I haven’t settled on a style for it...
The original poster’s design featured Santa's sleigh, but I knew right away I wanted to whitewash my wood and incorporate a snowman instead. Using a combination of Canva, Sketchup, Inkscape, and Carbide Create, I edited what felt like six million nodes and came up with this layout, shown below in Carbide Create. Since I’m writing this after completing the first trial run, I already know there are a few things I want to change—but we’ll get to that later in the post.
To be honest, I’m still learning my way around these programs, so I don’t feel confident explaining everything just yet—it feels like I’m discovering new tricks every day. I’m completely self-taught, which means I definitely waste time figuring things out and making way more mistakes than the average person. Outside of the technicalities of editing vectors, my biggest hang-up was deciding whether to include 24 or 25 numbers on the clock, and whether 1 or 25/24 should be at the center. After some back and forth, my wife and I finally settled on this version.
Since I knew the clock needed to be circular, my mind immediately went to the basic 15" pine circles they sell at big box stores. I picked these up for around $8 each, which is affordable enough to build a solid profit margin—assuming I can make them both correctly and efficiently. Once I had them back in my shop, and before doing anything else, I made sure to measure out the center of the circle and mark it with an awl. This will be necessary for setting up the zero points on the CNC later on.
Earlier this month, I experimented with whitewashing wood using chalk paint while making some simple "Boo Ghost" table decor. You can find that project for free here. I decided to continue experimenting with that technique for this clock, but this time I’ll need to use Oramask to assist with painting. I ended up mixing the chalk paint with a bit of water, but next time, I might apply it full strength since I had to sand so much in the final stage to clean up after removing the masking. In this attempt, I lost too much of the white, so maybe a thicker coat will help preserve that look next time.
I’m an idiot and forgot to take a picture of it, but after the paint had fully dried, I covered the wood in Oramask. Since chalk paint tends to be, well, chalky, I lightly sanded the painted surface and cleaned it with a tack cloth before applying the masking. I’m not sure if this makes a real difference, but it does in my head. Since I don’t have a picture of the Oramask being applied, here’s a shot of the painted piece of wood instead.
When it came to assigning toolpaths and machining, I used a 90-degree V-bit, a 60-degree V-bit, and a 1/8" Downcut bit. The toolpaths I chose were V-Carve, Pocket, and No Offset Contour. In hindsight, there are definitely a few things I would do differently next time to improve the results. The main issue I ran into was with the hold-down technique—since these boards are never perfectly straight, the right side ended up carving deeper. You can see this in the "18" compared to the "8" on the opposite side; the "18" looks thicker because that part of the wood was raised off the wasteboard.
One key thing to remember when setting this up on the CNC is to mark the X Y zero location at the center of the wood, which is why we marked it at the start. I rarely set my zero to the center of stock, but with circles, its necessary without a jig.
As I started painting over the masking, I noticed a few more things I would change to make the process easier and the design clearer next time. One of the main changes would be how I carve the perimeter text—I think tracing the numbers instead of V-carving them would fit the overall style better. I’d also simplify some of the details, like removing the frills on the snowman’s scarf, to give the design a cleaner look.
When it came to choosing the colors, I went with what I thought would look best. I ended up using acrylic paint for this project, but I’m considering using Unicorn Spit, a colored stain, next time. I’m always experimenting to find the best look.
I peeled up certain parts of the Oramask so I could paint the snowman’s hat, scarf, and nose without having to be too careful. This was a good strategy, but I’m not great at mixing paint colors, so I started getting really nervous about how things were turning out at this stage. But I continued...
Some parts of the Oramask pulled up during the machining process, which tends to happen with projects that have tiny or detailed elements. In my case, some of the numbers—like the centers of the 8's—came off, along with parts of the main text. I always expect this to happen with masking projects, so I plan for a bit of sanding afterward to clean things up.
I was fairly happy with how the project looked after removing the masking, but there were still a lot of mistakes that needed sanding. I wasn’t too fond of how bold the colors on the hat and scarf looked, as I felt the clock needed more of a distressed look. I figured I could achieve that by sanding it down a bit.
I might have gone a little overboard with the sanding, which is frustrating, but for a first attempt, I can’t be too upset about it. The final result definitely shows potential, as I think the layout itself is really nice. Adding thicker paint from the start would help build up the layers and give the whitewash a more pronounced look. Despite my lack of painting skill, the painting strategy itself seems to have worked perfectly.
And to top things off, before I start designing the arrow for the clock, I added an M5 threaded insert so I can adjust the friction of the clock arm later on. I think it looks pretty sharp!
I have to admit, I’m excited to get started on the next version of this design—once I figure out what the clock arm should look like. I’ll probably test one more version before moving forward with “mass production,” which in my case means making about seven of them to sell this year. I’m not a fan of making the same thing over and over, so once those are done, I’ll move on to designing something new. If only I had more time!
Thanks for reading this! Let me know what you think in the comments!
