I retrofitted a light switch in my Copal 703 flip clock with alarm feature

When i was a child my dentist had a flip clock in her waiting room. I always liked how they look so when i finally needed a new alarm clock earlier this year i was wondering if they also made flip clocks with alarm feature. I quickly found out that the answer is yes! So after browsing etsy and ebay for a few days i decided to buy a mint condition copal 703 as my new alarm clock.

It quickly arrived as well as looked and worked great. But there was also instant disappointment when i found out that the internal light is permanently on and that there is no way to turn it off. Now i had a problem because i need a dark room for being able to sleep. But i also did not want to modify this expensive mint condition vintage clock. So after a lot of back and forth i bought a second Copal 703 in decent but far from mint condition. That one i finally retrofitted with a toggle switch for turning the internal light on or off. I'm now going to explain exactly how i pulled this off...

Well i don't have any schematics but the construction really isn't rocket science. What i basically did is drilling a hole in the clocks plastic case in order to install a simple plastic on/off switch. I went with a plastic switch because the light blub is driven directly by the mains input (socket voltage) so there is no risk of an electric shock. With this switch you are basically connecting or disconnecting 1 of the 2 lightbulb wires in order to turn it on or off. The pictures and pictured instructions below contain all the additional information you need in order to replicate what i did.

I also want you to know (as i found out later) that there are other flip clocks, also with alarm feature (especially battery powered models) that already have a light switch built in or no internal light at all. So do your homework prior to buying and you might not have to do any modifications at all.

Click here for detailed, pictured instructions.