All Wood Skeleton Clock Build - WIP

[strider]

Good morning to all, and i hope you have a great bank holiday. I got a fair amount of work done on the clock over the weekend. I finished cutting all of the smaller gears out, all of which are yet to be sanded.

This meant that I could then move onto some of the larger parts. The first of which ended up being the Brocot Escape Wheel. the first thing that I had to do was to thickness plane some stock down to the 10mm required. I chose a nice pice from my stock pile. (Not sure whaat the wood is, but it is very yellow, maybe someone could shed some light on it)

Once i had the stock to the required thickness, i had to cut it and glue it so that I had no grain running across the teeth.

Once the glue had setup, overnight. I stuck on the template,

Once the glue on the template had dried it was off to the bandsaw and scroll saw, for a good couple of hours cutting.

I am happy with how this gear has turned out. It was alot of work but i think that taking the time to make sure it is right will enhance the final appearance of the clock.

So now that gear was cut I have a little offcut of the same material that I can use for another part of the clock. The Anchor Plate.

This part sits above the Brocot Wheel. So I think that I will be nice to have them made from the same material.

Let me know what you think.

 

[motownmartin]

Excellent thread, i've always wanted to see one of these made, I would imagine the gears will have to be cut with precision.

Does it matter what species of wood you use, do some woods move more than others, I don't know, just a queery.

 

[miles_hot]

bloody good work with the jigsaw there - the big gear looks almost computer generated it's so well done

Miles

 

[strider]

Sneaked an hour in the shed last night. Got the anchor plate drilled, cut and sanded.

Also, i have uploaded the magazine article that inspired me to build the clock in the first place.

It may take a little while to download as the file is a 10mb PDF. I scanned it from the April 2005 Woodworker magazine that I subscribe to.

http://www.stridershouse.co.uk/clockbuild/WoodenSkeletonClock.pdf

Hope you enjoy the article as much as I do.

 

[strider]

Oh, forgot to say motownmartin,

I am not sure if there are certain woods that you should use. I am using hardwood as that is what I have, I belive that most people would use a high grade ply wood then veneer it, but at the end of the day I think that if the stock is prepared and dried properly then it should be ok. I will let you know if I get any odd movement from the wood.

Strider

 

[xy mosian]

Fascinating thread Strider, any more progress?

xy

 

[strider]

OK, apologies for the lack of progress lately. Been a bit busy with work, but I did manage to grab a little (well a whole day) quality shed time.

Got quite alot of work done. got the frames cut and sanded, (not without a great deal of hassle)

I went to a local printers and got the A1 plans duplicated, so that I could cut the templates out and glue them onto the wood and cut round them.

Never has the old addage (measure twice, cut once) come into play more so with what happened next.

I had got the paper templates cut out ready and I got my wood blanks prepared for the frames, when i thought that I would just check my measurements. The frame dimensions state 270mm. However, upon measuring the plans they were comning in at a little over 255mm.

Not good i thought to my self. So off to sketchup land i went for a good few hours or re drawing the plans for the frame. You can download my sketchup diagram from http://www.stridershouse.co.uk/clockbuild/skeletonclock.skp if you want to have a look.

I printed them out at 1 for 1 scale and then painstakingly spliced them all together.

Then I carefully drew round the template onto my blank and then proceeded to cut out the first frame. Once this was done i attached the 2 blanks together and with a template bit installed in my router table i made the 2 frames.

This gave me 2 identically sized frames. Now i have to scroll saw the middles out.

Once all of the middles were cut then it was time for some (alot) of sanding. this took a fair while but I am very happy with the result.

The cherry looks amazing.

Both of the frames now look the same. So from here it is onto the 2 remaining gears to be cut.

Again i did not want to have and grain running across the teeth, so alot of cutting and gluing

I have to make 2 of these but the process is the same for both. I cut 8 little triangles and then glues them into 4 squares of 2.

Then the 4 block of 2 were then glued into 2 block of 4.

Those observant among you will notice that I have glued the wrong sides. these have yet to be cut apart and reglued.

Oh well. That is where i am up to at the moment, apart from the blank that I have glued up for the ratchet mechanism.

let me know what you think.

 

[strider]

Got some work done this week. Got the frames all sorted and made the frame pillars. I made some changes to the
frame as i was not happy with the top circle. So in true woodworker fashion i chopped it off. In the plans it says the the frame is supposed to look like the eifle tower. I think it does a bit more now.

Now that I am happy with the shape i can move along to some other bits.

First on the agenda are the Frame Pillars. I wanted to do somthing a little bit different with these. At the International Woodworking Exhibition at the Ally Pally back in february or march, i bought the new Robert Sorby Spiralling tool.

Time to have a go in anger with this tool. I am really happy with the results that I managed to achieve with this. Took a little while but i think that you will agree that the results speak for them selves.

These are made out of solid Mahogany.

Next thing to do was to shape them so that they looked a little more refined.

I had to drill 13mm holes in the frames to accept the 13mm tenons on the end of the turnings. Once all 3 parts were turned and holes drilled it was time for the first dry fit.

With the dry fit complete I glued the frames pillars into the back of the frame and set them aside to dry.

I think that this is acctually starting to look like somthing now, not just a pile of parts.

 

[gasmansteve]

Looking good Nick, love what you have done with the spiralling tool must get one of those :lol:
Regards
Steve

 

[RussianRouter]

Hi Strider

What a poject you have taken on here,you must have the patience of a saint...either that or a lot of time on your hands. :lol:

Its looking real good and the only comment I would make is to get all those cog teeth splinter free as like any real brass cogs if there's any burs on the cog then this will interfere with its smooth running.

Fantastic progress. =D>

 

[mike-reid]

this is such an amazing project! you must be very satisfied so far with the effort you have put into it!
cant wait to see the finished clock

 

[strider]

indeed i am very happy so far. Had a day off of work yesterday and got loads more done. I will post all of the pics and the progress tomorow or maybe this evening.

thanks for the comments.

 

[mike-reid]

I DONT SUPPOSE YOU MADE A COPY OF THE PLANS BEFORE YOU BUTCHERED THEM UP?

 

[strider]

Hi there. As it happens i did but to be honets they are only about £12 to buy.

Go here

http://www.myhobbystore.co.uk/product/15070/all-wood-skeleton-clock-db3335/?source=2

these are the exact plans that i bought.

hope you get some and build a clock. Mine has tought me alot so far.

More Pics coming soon.

 

[mike-reid]

cheers mate, im on it! not likely it'll be as good as yours, i will be doing the lot by hand.
i think i will defo do this as my main show piece for my business, it would be a real conversation starter with customers i think

 

[strider]

Got alot of work on the clock done recently.

To start with I had to make both of the chapter rings. It only took me about 3 attempts to get it right. I tried all sorts of ways to make it. cutting 22.5 degree miters, This worked but then i had no way to make the shape
perfectly round. Then i made it up from sections, but this left me the same problem as before. So bascially I thickness planned tome stock down to 10mm and then jointed the edges. Made up a blank and then user the router table to cut the circles. This worked very well and enabled me to get both of the chapter rings from 1 blank.

This is the main chapter ring.

This is the seconds chapter ring.

Once these were both cut I hade to turn 7 little posts for the chapter rings to be mounted on.

I hope that you agree that the chapter rings witrh their grain running at 90 degrees to the frames look rather nice.

OK. Now i have to get back to cutting the remaining gears. These took a while and I now have the task of sanding all of the teeth perfectly smooth. I bought my self a small set of files for this.

60 tooth gear.

64 tooth gear.

Now that all of the gears are cut (yet to be sanded) I suppose that I should turn the shafts to put them on.

this is the first shaft.

I had to get the thicker part of the shaft to 13mm and the thinner part to 8mm.

I remembered watching a New Yankee episode once, where Norm said. the best way to make sure that your tenons are the right size is you use a spanner. Ok i thought. lets try that. Out with a 13mm and 8mm spanner and started to turn.

Blimey i thought when i had finished the turning that acctually works really well.

so now it was onto putting the clock together again.

And these are the shots of where i am at currently.

Hope you are all enjoying this build.

 

[mike-reid]

holy s$$t that is impressive.
i really am blown away by this project. truely a work of love that!!

 

[Steve Maskery]

I stayed with my uncle this last weekend, in Wiltshire. He has built this same clock, mahogany and box, and used PTFE for the bearings. It only stops when the weight hits the floor and keeps perfect time.

Not bad for an 85-year-old who didn't take up woodwork until he was 80!

S

 

[strider]

Awsome. Did you take any pics?

I was wondering how i was going to lubricate the shafts and what have you.

Strider

 

[Steve Maskery]

No, I should have done.
S