Kitchen Time Turner

Not to spoil the Cursed Child for anyone who's still waiting on their book to ship, but time turners are making a come back tour this season! I'm a sucker for time travel, Harry Potter and baking, so this project has been a marriage of all my loves.

This large scale replica of the movie-version time turner is about 8 or 9 in in diameter and is both a functional and aesthetically pleasing accent piece for potion brewing stations and kitchens alike. It features an actual kitchen timer secured inside a wooden replica of a time turner, and may be hung behind your stone to give the room a nice pop of color.

You Will Need:

- 1 plastic hour glass toy. I had mine lying around for years, but I've seen similar toys in convenient and dollar stores.

- 1 kitchen timer.

- 1 2x2 piece of wood 3/4in thick. I used mdf because it's easiest to paint, but be very careful that you put the screws in slowly and gently so the wood doesn't split, then reinforce the area with wood glue. You may also use plywood, but I only had mdf on hand

- Primer. Amount depends on how big you want to go, I used considerably less than one small can.

- Spray paint. I used silver because I liked the color, but you can make it whatever color catches your eye.

- 4 1/8in thick, 1 1/2in long screws.

-Wood Glue

-Super glue or hot glue to secure the timer and hour glass in place

-A drill gun

-A jigsaw

-a compass

Unscrew the time part from it's plastic frame. Be careful to only take off the plastic and leave the rest intact, because if you unfasten the metal frame you may not be able to reassemble it. Set these pieces aside for now.

Based on the size of your hour glass and timer, trace a total of three rings; the smallest will have a hole carved into it to hold the timer. The next largest and final largest will be cut out.

Use your compass to trace each of the rings before cutting to ensure you have enough space for everything.

the outter rim diameter for all three are 8.5in, 6.25in and 4.5in. the smallest has a hole of 2in for my timer, but you'll need to measure your own timer to determine the hole size.

Each of my rings is 1/2 inch wide, cut out of 3/4 inch thick wood I already had.

Learn from my mistakes, paint first, fasten screws later. Prime and paint your wood now while you still have access to all the little corners. I used silver because I liked the color, but I think the official color of time turners is gold.

I used a brush to apply the primer, and silver spray paint. It dried within minutes. I also painted the plastic handle of the kitchen timer just so everything would match, you can see it in the middle, below the hour glass. I can approximate where the numbers are by looking at it, but the numbers are lightly showing enough that I can still go back and trace over them in a matching color if I change my mind.

This part is tricky only because it's holding the inner rings in place while screwing down is frustrating. But doable. I used 1/8th thick screws that are 1.5in long which I already had around the house.

Start with the inner rings, line up the screws so they're right at the center line diameter of the circle, then use your drill gun to secure the screws. Fasten the inner circles, then do the outer circle screws. Remember, the bolts are in a X formation, so these next outer screws will need to make a 90 degree angle with the first set of of screws, and they will only need to reach the middle ring.

I put a dab of wood glue on and around the rings to give the wood some extra support.

Take your hot glue gun and secure the metal frame of the timer inside the smallest ring. The place the plastic handle over it like you would normally, and glue the hour glass so that the dip is lined up with the handle. You should be able to twist the hour glass to set the timer.

It takes a lot of patience to create a perfect, curved out circle, so if you feel like it's a little above your level, make the hole a bit larger than needed and fill the cracks in with either the glue we were using before, or wood puddy if you have it.