Long case arched dial clock WIP

[luthier49]

Tony,
I thought that photo would cause some interest. The router is an American fixed base 1 1/2 HP Craftsman brand sold in the states by Sears Roebuck, which I purchased from a mail order catalogue some 25 years ago. I also purchased the attachment at the same time, it`s called a Trim A Form. The router can be fixed any where along the slide for routing strip mouldings, or the the work piece can be clamped and the router can slide to cut housings or tenons etc. The router carriage can be raised or lowered and locked to accomidate the thickness of material. The slide can also be swivelled 45 degrees left or right. I prefer to do overhead routing mostly but there are some situations where the router table is the best method and I do have a simple home made table when this is required.

 

[luthier49]

Some more progress in this clock building saga. Below a side is being glued and clamped to the waist front frame. You`ll notice I have used home made right angled brackets to hold the sides square while the glue goes off.

The waist mouldings are being mitred here. I cut just shy of the line so I can lightly disc sand the final mitre.

Disc sanding the mitres. This used to be my main lathe a while back, the Record DML24. I now have the Record CL2 with variable speed control so I made this into a dedicated disc sander as I no longer needed it as a lathe anymore.

And finally the clock waist finished with the mouldings fixed. The front mouldings were glued and screwed from inside the case and the side mouldings were glued for the first inch at the mitre and the rest left dry to allow seasonal expansion and contraction movement. All I have to do for this part of the clock case is to add glue blocks to strengthen the front frame and side joint and make the door. The door will be solid as the clock movement I have is really a grand daughter movement and the pendulum is to small to display behind a glass panelled door.

 

[Paul Chapman]

The clock case is looking really nice, Bob, and your pictures are excellent =D> =D>

Paul

 

[luthier49]

More progress on the clock. Fast approaching the construction of the hood, looking forward to making a start on that. The first photo shows me sanding the edge joints of the base front panel. As I want to rout a central incised decoration on this panel, I will not be using biscuits, so I want good tight joints on this panel. I use a shooting board and sand all the high spots till I see no light coming throgh the boards when held together up to a light.

All the base panels glued and clamped.

Here I`m sawing the 1/4" plywood template to be used to rout the panel decoration.

Here are my template bushes, and I`m using the 5/8" template.

Ready to rout the decoration. The template is fixed to the panel with double sided sticky tape.

The finished result.

Here is my Trend Router Rack assembly. I don`t have enough space in my workshop for a ready to use table, so I have to go to the trouble of faffing about assembling my router table. It`s not a tool I use very often anyway, so I don`t mind.

Here are my panel router cutters from Wealdon. I bought these ten years ago and I`ve only ever used them to make a test piece. Now they`re being used in anger.

My router table setup on the router rack. I have abrasive attached to the mitre fence so the rails don`t move when making the scribing cuts.

Routing the rail moulding profile. Notice the push stick.

The base front glued and clamped.

A base side being glued and clamped. Tongue and groove jointing the same as the waist.

Routing a roman ogee profile on the material for the base skirt.

Cutting the mitres on the skirt moulding using my Nobex mitre saw.

Marking out the front skirt under shaping using a cardboard template.

The fiished base. Well, not quite finished, I`ve still got to fit filler strips to the top of the base for the waist to be screwed to. The front skirt is glued and screwed along the full length, and the side skirt is glued an inch from the mitre, the rest is dry screwed.

Here`s what it looks like with the waist on top. Looking real good.

 

[Chris Knight]

Bob,

Thanks for the great set of photos. It is coming along nicely.

 

[Scott]

It certainly is Bob!

 

[Anonymous]

I'm really enjoying this one Bob, keep 'em coming

Routing the rail moulding profile. Notice the push stick.

Yes, me and my fingers have noticed :roll: :lol:

 

[luthier49]

Getting near the finishing line on this one now. All the woodwork construction is nearly finished, I`m surprised how quickly it went. Here goes some more photos. Thought I`d employ my new Kreg mini pocket hole jig for jointing the hood base.

Here I`m routing the 1/4" grooves to recieve the tougues on the bottom of the hood sides. The holes are for 1/2" tenons that will be turned on the ends of the hood turnings.

I cut all the straight moulding and the straight part of the curved mouldings using my router rack assembly.

Here`s a home made setup for routing all the curved components of the clock. Here I`m starting to rout the inside curve of the upper large ogee moulding.

Routing the outside curve of the large ogee moulding. I routed in about 3mm steps until cut through. The ogee has to be cut with lighter cuts as the cutter is quite large for a 850 watt router. I took about 1.5mm steps to cut the moulding.

Routing the small curved moulding.

Routing the pelmat.

Routing the hood back. The top of the hood will recieve a 1.5mm plywood top. I want to veneer this with cherry veneer, so I`ve allowed another 1mm in thickness for this. The router radius setting is reduced by this amount to cut the outside curve. I only need a small amount of veneer for this project so I think I`ll make my own from the off cuts this project has produced. The rebate is for the hood back plywood.

Here`s the the plywood top for the hood. My freind gave me this prebent on his bending machine. He makes plywood drum shells. I`ve tied it with string to retain the bend.

Routing the door top rail.

Here`s the finished mouldings arranged on the pelmat.

Here I`m bandsawing the mitres of the pelmat. I`m keeping about 1/16" away from the line so I can finish the mitre on the disc sander.

Sanding mitre on the disc sander. The clamp is for photographic purposes only.

Cutting biscuit slots in pelmat mitres.

The pelmat glued up.

I forgot to rout the plywood top rebate in the pelmat top arch before I glued the pelmat assembly. :roll: I can still machine most of it though. I`ll have to finish off with hand tools.

Got round that problem.

Here`s a dry assembly of the hood. Can`t final assemble until the turnings are made.

Thicknessing wood for the turnings. The back turnings are split turned. They will be glued together with a strip of newspaper between so they can be split apart after turning.

 

[Waka]

Bob

Really coming along, I can see that its going to be a masterpiece.

Very good clear WIP pic's, thanks for sharing.

 

[Paul Chapman]

That's looking like it's going to be a fabulous clock, Bob. And I love the pictures. Can't wait to see the finished result.

Paul

 

[luthier49]

Some more clock building photos folks.
The large an small curved mouldings have been glued and this photo shows a brain wave I had when gluing the large side mouldings. I used offcuts of the same moulding as cauls. Worked a treat.

Gluing the small side moulding.

Next I set to work on the clock door. Here I`m drilling the waste from 3/16" mortices which will be finished by hand.

Here`s my teneon jig I used to cut the tenons. One side of the curved top rail tenon had to be cut using a chop cut in this jig.

Here`s the tenon jig in use. A 5/8" bit is used in the router and a 3/4" guide bush on the router.

I could`nt clamp the door top rail like a normal frame assembly for fear of breaking the weak short grain so I made this clamping caul.

The door glued up.

Here is the door fitted to the hood.

Here`s a closeup of the door hinge. I used three brass washers under the top and bottom hinge to give me just the right clearance.

You can see the finished clock in a separate post to this one.

 

[Paul Chapman]

This has been a really interesting and well-photographed set of WIP pictures. Thanks for all the trouble you have taken and what a cracking result in your other post =D> =D>

Paul