I’ve been throwing around a bunch of ideas on how to make a stand for my Arduino LCD Clock. I wanted to just order a piece of acrylic online with some holes in it, but everything is so expensive to have it custom laser cut. I figured there had to be a good DIY option. I figured I’d just buy a cheap acrylic frame, cut it up, and bend it using a heat gun.

I took a trip to Staples to buy an acrylic photo frame or sign holder and was very happy to see that they had 3” x 5” acrylic sign holders for only $3 each.



They’re almost perfect and match exactly what I had in mind. The width is right, but it’s a little too tall. I’ll have to cut a few inches off the top to make it shorter.



I taped a printout of the board to the front and marked off the cut with a marker.



I then sandwiched the acrylic between two metal rods an tightened it with some clamps.



I took it outside and trimmed the top off with a Dremel.



Once the top was cut off, I polished it.



It’s a nice clean cut and it looks prefect.



I’ll wait on drilling the holes until the boards arrive in the mail. That way I know everything lines up perfectly. I at least wanted to try this out as a proof of concept before the boards arrive. Looks like it’s going to wok out fine.

See this project from start to finish:
We Have a Clock
Setting the Clock
Clock Code is Complete
Clock Design Decisions
New DS1307 Kit
ChronoDot Breakout Board
Arduino LCD Clock PCB Complete
Making the LCD Clock Stand - Take 1
Arduino LCD Clock PCBs Arrived!
Arduino LCD Clock Assembly
Making the LCD Clock Stand - Take 2
Another Clock Stand
Arduino LCD Clock: New GUI
Laser Cut LCD Clock Enclosure: Take 1
Laser Cut LCD Clock Enclosure: Take 2