As I'm sure you all well know :-), the piston (the round part) is not connected to the connecting rod (the long part) in a rigid way because it needs to move freely. As a result, when you put the whole thing upside down, it falls over. After having tried different glues and sealants I gave up and asked for help. An apprentice in a local welding workshop (it's amazing but they still exist in XXI century) welded the two parts together for about 2,5 euro.
Than I decided to paint the future clock black as it's quite universal and elegant color. I started with a spray paint but it turned out no good. The paint was easy to scratch with a fingernail which I'sure my brother would promptly point out (he's 6 yrs older, you know what I mean).
Again, I asked for help. There's a lot of paint shops in any suburbs. I got my clock painted in one of them, again for about 2,5 euro, though I don't know why it took whole week.
The most important part of a piston clock is a clock itself. You need a so called insert of appropriate diameter that would fit the hole in your connecting rod. Luckily, I found one on eBay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jen1m).
The last thing I needed to do was to apply some kind of a pad, so that my clock did not scratch my brother's valuable mahogany desk :-). I cut out a piece of felt and fixed it with a black silicone to even some irregularities on the surface of the piston.
And this is the final result:
Not bad, eh? 😃
