Yet Another HSC Student Seeking Knowledge

**ballofstring** · 14th February 2013, 12:21 AM

Hey to all
I've decided to choose a grandfather clock as my HSC major industrial project for this year, so far this baby is still in the conception phase but in the next few weeks I should be sourcing my timber and getting going.

To let y'all know what I've got so far I have purchased a Hermle 1161 853 movement from the US, (mainly because Aus retailers seem to like inflating their prices a touch too much) and I've got a rough idea of what I'm doing, just at that point of sorting out the final aspects of the design (basically what everyone else has done 2 months previous).
I've included an (hopefully readable) initial sketch of the front face, as it can be seen there are quite a lot of curves and therein lays my dilemma.
IMAG0410.jpg

The First Obstacle
Not quite sure what would be the best way to do this, as can hopefully be seen from the photo the side pieces of timber are curved. The outline of the timber hasn't been explicitly shown but the plan was to run the two side pieces on either side all the way from top to bottom with the top & bottom middle pieces being joined to them. The inside curve isn't a mirror of the outside but rather gradually thickens towards the bottom, giving it visual stability (or something...) [basically it doesn't have a radius, its custom] this shouldn't be too much of a problem with a proper template.

The problem is joining the side lengths to the top and bottom front panels. How should I join the curved sides to the middle top & bottom panels? (sorry, don't know how else to word it...)

I was thinking of a mortise and tennon type joint but apart from hand chiselling it how would you guys recommend I proceed? Any other ideas on this or any other aspect of the project would be fantastic

Note: there is a door, and it will hopefully slide out to the side in order to wind the clock. The door will mirror the curves of the carcass but be 20mm thick instead of the carcass's 45mm. Whatever technique chosen will have to be replicated for the door as well.
Ohhh and for interests sake the preliminary dimensions are 2150mm high, 800mm wide (down to 520mm in the middle) and 344mm thick
The sides will be predominately glass with 5 straight panes following the curve (I tried with curved glass but the quote was ~$1500)
I'm going with Tasmanian Blackwood for it all but I'm all up for any last minute ideas of brilliance, if anyone knows any good (cheap) suppliers of dry (preferably air dried) Blackwood I would be indebted to you.
For those interested the curved design was partially borrowed from my Yr10 major made from left over Blackbutt decking, I've included a pic.
IMAG0412.jpg
Terribly sorry if I've doubled up and asked questions that have been answered but from a rough look I couldn't happen upon anything and I thought I'll probably come up with more problems so hey, let's give these good people something to look at in the next couple of months.

I'll do my best to update on progress a couple of times at least before the final result

Thanks for taking the time,
Mike

**Walesey** · 21st February 2013, 11:04 AM

Hi Mike, and welcome to the Message Board.
I am pretty much a novice woodworker, and so might not be much help to you but You seem to have been waiting for a few days now without a response, so I will chime in for what it is worth.

You have set yourself a pretty ambitious project, Mike. If you pull it off, you will have learned a heck of a lot! I look forward to following your progress.

I don't know a lot about bending timber, but have heard that it can be done by soaking the timber for a week or two, and then bending it rounder a "former" and letting it dry. Another way is to laminate lots of thin sheets together, again, wrapping them around a former and gluing the laminations together.

Did you say that the sides were 45mm thick? Shish! that seems pretty solid to me. Why so thick? The sides will be 5 glass panels? 45mm thick? You might need to explain it to me a bit better. Maybe an side elevation, as well as the front elevation.

Some other observations that you might take or leave as you like. You will need to be careful with that sliding door. It will be pretty weighty, and if it is a glass panel, fairly fragile. You will need to remove it and replace it for winding the clock once a week, every week for the rest of your life. If it is a heavy door and awkward to handle, and not well supported when it is off, it could become very tedious very quickly, turning your lovely clock into a huge ornament.

Had you thought of maybe having a timber front in the same shape as you have drawn, but having a rectangular glass door that you could hinge open to wind the clock and access the pendulum? Perhaps a round bezel and dial with a hinged door to adjust the clock hands? You would open the hinged bezel to access the hands and open the rectangular glass door separately to access the pendulum and weights.

You probably will want flat feet on the clock, rather than the pointy ones that you have shown on your diagram. Pointy feet will concentrate the weight on too small an area, resulting in damage to the floor as well as increasing the chance that the feet themselves will be damaged from the weight of the clock

Is your supervising teacher able to give you advice on types of joints and how to bend wood?

Please let us know how you get along. Sorry I can not be of more help.

regards
Walesey

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