Long case arched dial clock WIP

[luthier49]

I`ve started work on a long case clock I`ve been meaning to build for about ten years now. The case is to replace a clock I made some twenty five years ago when I was just starting out in this woodworking hobby of ours. Although I made a fairly good job of making the clock, I made a lot of no no`s as regards the construction methods. One being the glueing of oppossing grain, eg. gluing the large base and hood mouldings completely across the waist boards of the clock, therefore restricting any nateral movement across the boards. The poor clock has creaked and groaned over the years and some of the butt jointed boards have opened up. Of coarse this was due to a lack of knowledge at the time. Well here goes, although I`m working from the original plans I used to build the clock, it still feels like I`m making it from scratch again. Here`s a photo of the plans.

Here`s the new dial for the clock. I had to draw some new parts of the clock as the new dial is slightly smaller than the original home made dial I made.

Here is my setup for overhead routing of the large base and hood mouldings. I have the Router Rack that used to be available from Trend but no longer available. Anyone else got this gear? I made a tilting cradle for the first stage of routing the moulding.

Here are the router cutters used i the making of the mouldings. Purchased from Wealdon.

The first stage of routing complete.

Here are the finished mouldings. I had to use a cutter extension in the router to rout the thumbnail profile. I ran the router at 12000 revs using these larger cutters. This is one of my hates when doing this kind of job, the dust and chips this operation produces. I did have some dust extraction, but it was`nt very effective, I spent three times as long cleaning the workshop up after. Oh for a New Yankee Workshop sized workshop. And the machinery. The two pieces with the knots/ingrown bark will be mostly cut away when the mouldings are mitred round the clock waist.

 

[secret_squiggle]

It's looking good, and I'm looking forward to see the finished article.

About the plans, were they bought plans, or did you draw them up yourself? I'd be interested in tackling something like this myself once I have more space!

Ian

 

[dedee]

I'm looking forward to seeing more of this too

Andy

 

[Alf]

Keep it coming, Bob.

 

[Offcut]

Looks great so far

Andy

 

[Scott]

Great stuff Bob! I'm sure that's got a few of us interested. I'll look forward to seeing it progress.

You collect pillar drills then? :wink: :lol:

 

[Paul Chapman]

Hi Bob,

I'll also be very interested to see how your long-case clock progresses. I was given a very old one by an uncle of mine when ill-health forced him to give up his farm in Wales. The clock had spent most of its life in the kitchen of the farm house and the case was riddled with woodworm and covered in gunge from curing bacon. The case was in such a state I had to burn it

I want to make a new case for it - hopefully this year :roll: It will be a simpler style than yours so as to keep it as much like the original as possible. Which is a good thing as I haven't made anything as ambitious before :shock: So I'll be very interested to see how yours develops.

Paul

 

[luthier49]

Been doing some more clock building today. Secret_squiggle, yes I did buy the plans for this clock years ago. It was a project in Practical Woodworking magazine when that mag was great. It`s not a patch on what it was then. Anyway, just a few more photos, nothing meaty yet, that`ll come later.
Here I`m jointing up pairs of boards to make wider boards for the clock waist. The sides of the clock waist will be 6 5/8" wide but I will have to allow an extra 1/4" for a tougue and groove joint to the waist front. This is a good joint to use here as any slight bow in the sides will be straighted out when glued to the front. Glue blocks will be pinned inside to further strengthen the joint.

The waist front assembly rail components are cut slightly oversize on my chop saw.

Then biscuit slots cut for strengthening biscuits.

Boards glued and clamped.

Sorry you can`t see the grain of the American Cherry very well, the photos are highly optimized for faster download to those with dial up. I had to say that because I`ve just gone over to broadband, and WOW, I`m glad I did now.

 

[luthier49]

Some more clock case building photos. Cleaning up the waist side boards with scraper plane and then sanding with random orbit sander.

The top rail of the clock waist was marked with compass for the semi circular cut out and then cut on the bandsaw. I then drum sanded the curve on my small pillar drill.

I opted to dowel joint the front frame, and here I`m using my Record dowel jig to prepare the rails and stiles for dowels.

Waist front frame glued and clamped.

And finally for this session, I`m forming the 1/4" x 1/4" tongue on the waist sides with a fillester plane for glueing to the front frame. I also planed 1/4" x 3/8" rebate on the other edge of the boards for the 1/4" plywood clock back.

 

[devonwoody]

Wishing you many more happy hours on your project and thanks for giving the time with producing superb pictures for the thread.

 

[Waka]

Very impressed, keep them coming.

 

[Paul Chapman]

It's looking good, Bob, and very nice pictures

Paul

 

[Colin C]

I have worked on a few Long case clocks and from what I can see you are doing a very good job 8)
For all that dont have lots of room, why not make miniatures, I did before I got my workshop.
Started working for myself 3 years ago :shock: , full time Antique restorer.
I have two tables that are alittle broken at the mo, will post pic.
Cant wait to see the finnished clock

 

[luthier49]

I`ve been doing a little more on the clock today. I`ll soon be ready to glue the waist assembly. This is obviously the longest part of the clock assembly so once this is out of the way, I will be dealing with much shorter boards for the base and hood assemblies. Much more manageable. Here I`m cutting the joint groove for the sides with my Record plough plane. I absolutely love using this plane. It`s a shame I don`t have more of this to do. I cut my finger clearing shavings from this plane. Won`t do again.

Here I`ve dry fitted the side to the front frame. A nice snug fit just what I wanted.

I`m routing the clock hood base grooves here. These grooves hold the clock hood in place and allow the hood assembly to slide forward and of the clock to gain access to the clock movement.

Here are the routed grooves, 3/4" wide for the hood base. I have`nt optimized this photo to much so you can see the lovely grain on this American Cherry. Can you see on the bottom board I`ve exsposed a biscuit joint. Oooooppps.

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks again for progress report, it must be warmer up there in Norfolk, I haven't been in my workshop for around 5 weeks. Also i'm taking sick leave as well.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Another great set of pictures, Bob You must be very pleased with the way it's going - it's looking very good.

Paul

 

[Anonymous]

Really interesting so far and I'm enjoying following your progress

I am wondering about the assembly you used to route the grooves to hold the clock hood in place, can yoiu tell me more about that?

 

[Alf]

Ditto both of Tony's comments.

 

[Offcut]

lovely job so far.
Good to see your planes in action.

Andy

 

[DaveL]

I am a bit late here but can I join the queue with Tony and Alf?

Nice looking wood, should be a good looking clock.