Thread: Waldo’s Grandfather clock

Waldo, some of us have followed the whole build, and it's great to see the reward for your care and hard work. Sometimes people use the word 'perfectionist' as though it's a bad thing, but your attention to detail has paid off.
I like Bob's idea of a book to document the making of it, so that later generations will know what you've done.

This is the sole purpose of why I have built this grandfather clock, to leave something that I created purely for one day day that either my daughter, Sarah, or my son James, so that one of them would have something I made for them, so that they would always remember me. The plaque on the inside of the door says it all.

In all the grandfather clocks I've seen in person and viewed online, the ones that impressed me the most were those with upper crown mouldings. This piece represents the last item that had to be installed before my son and I moved the case into the house 1 week ago (13th May, 2023) so that on this Saturday 20th May, 2023 on my birthday I was able to finally call the grandfather clock completed and installed.

Later the same day (see above) Kylie, James and I moved the clock from its home of 5 years from the shed into the house. Having my son James help me install the upper crown moulding and helping tome the grandfather clock into the house were important for me as I wanted his help on the final parts of completing the clock, so that one day he would remember back to the time.

With the grandfather clock in the house, it was time to move onto the clock mechanism. Until I had the gong assembly and the mechanism of the clock in their exact places relative to the chime seat board and its components, I wouldn't know how much extra I had to pack out for the chime sound board. Each piece of the mechanism had to be an exact distance from each other, only then did I know that I need a packing piece of 16mm in thickness.



Now that I had the packing piece in place I could mark out where the gong assembly might go and take further measurements before marking where the holes needed to be drilled to accept the gong assembly.





Then with the chime rods bent into position, relative to the gong assembly I could begin the final pieces of competing the grandfather clock.

Today on my birthday (20th May, 2023) seemed like the right date to complete the journey of my grandfather clock build, and with a week off from dental surgery, I had the time over a few days to take my time to finish the grandfather clock.

The next final next steps were to:

• assemble the weights and hang them
• hang the pendulum
• install the night-time control rod and chime lever
• attach the clock face to the clock mechanism
• fit the hour and minute hands

After having done the above (19 May, 2023), today started off with James helping me to hang the door and install it and install the door knob. It seemed right that the last things to install on the clock were the finials.

The shots below show the grandfather clock finished (are unfortunately showing browner and duller than it really is with its natural golden brown lustre).



bay bridge wallpape











benelli wallpaper



When I was taking all the measurements I could from the installation manual for the clock mechanism and working out the build of the grandfather clock, I thought I might be out 5mm relative to the chime seat board and the dial trim panel, but I would never know until today. And I was out by 5mm, so that the dial face sits 5mm lower than it should to the dial trim panel. So I haven't technically finished, as some day soon I'll have to disassemble the clock mechanism, glue 5mm packers to the chime seat spacer so that the chime seat board siesta the height where it needs to be. But for now and after having started this build roughly back inSeptember 2017 when I started is Sketchup to draw out the plans for this grandfather clock, I'm finished. My next project is to document this whole journey into a book for Sarah and James.

I'm proud of what I've done and I'm very emotional because I've achieved what I wanted to do, to build something that either Sarah or James will one day inherit as a memory of my love for them.

Wow!

What a journey, it has been great to be an observer to the progress of a work of art.

Many thanks for sharing.

It’s an absolute thing of beauty, especially given the reason for its creation. It will be a family heirloom. Thanks for sharing the journey.

cheers,

ajw

Congratulations on completing your grandfather clock! It's a mighty looking piece of work!
Cheers
Swifty

Thanks Bob.

Originally Posted by ajw

It’s an absolute thing of beauty, especially given the reason for its creation. It will be a family heirloom. Thanks for sharing the journey.

cheers,

ajw

Thanks Ajw, I'm glad it's now finished, but I'll also miss the journey of building it.

Originally Posted by Swifty

Congratulations on completing your grandfather clock! It's a mighty looking piece of work!
Cheers
Swifty

Thanks Swifty. My next project will be much simpler for the time being, and that'll be to continue my late Grandad's legacy of making kids wooden toys to donate to a local aged care facility for their yearly fete to raise money.

Been watching with interest Waldo,a fine piece of craftmanship applied to to what surely will be an heirloom to be passed on to the family.
A nice addition to room without a doubt.

You have made a clock of beauty I can understand why you are proud of your incredible work.