Thread: My Wooden geared clock

The stars do look good.

So is it a tide clock next, big wave theme etc

Thanks Walesey.
I really like my stars...this is how I make them.
1. Cut a purple heart plug upside down, which will have a dowel in the middle. 2. On a scrap piece of timber cut a hole, (which on average is .2mm smaller than the diameter of that dowel right through.3 Turn the plug over and gently hammer the plug in being careful to align the grain 30 deg to the horizontal( this stops the tips chipping off during machining. 4. Without changing X&Y coordinates on the CNC change bits from 3mm to 2mm ball end cutter.(hey Rusell I tried using the bit you gave me but it was a weird shank size! (imperial)? DOH mine only uses 3 or 6mm.) 5. After machining apply oil and use a drill bit end to eject finished star from scrap timber. 5 Repeat 20 times to get 12 good stars or until timber runs out.

.

For me the challenge here was to persevere! Each of the holes in the dial were all the same when they were machined a year ago but in reality ranged from 5mm to 4.4!. For a press fit this meant that the stock for each hole had to be done on an individual basis instead of just cutting 12 plugs in one hit.Then glue in and align the points in a pattern to keep both of my girls in the house happy.

Now onto the weight issue. Yes my clock could run for 32 hours but did not because of the high humidity I will remake a couple more of the gears to help eliminate potential gear jamming on high humidity days. Right now I am working on a three fall weight set up which will give me close to 3 days! I like the sound of that.

Dean.

Finally the finished dial with the stars complete.What I like about the stars is that each one is slightly different depending on how I Z zeroed the cutter each time.
Dean.

Looking very nice indead Dean.

Lovely! I wish I had half your skill, Dean.

Thanks....skill prephaps but persistence has certainly been developed during the course of this build!
dean

Looks good Dean, bugger about the 2mm bit with the 1/8 shaft

Russell

No worries its the thought that counts. I will show you tomorrow the newly versioned weight set up. Its great. Hopefully it will run for 64 hours between winding's. Jus have to re-mount the upper mini cogs and finish making the lower weight pullies....and and ....

Dean.

Hi al,l here is hopefully the final setup as far as the whole weight configuration. Hopefully I will get 64 hours between re-winding. I am amazed that I got this much done in a week. A party beckons me so I will finish the re-installation tomorrow.

This is a four fall compound meaning that it requires 4x2kgs each side to operate. That means the originall 16 hours between winding can now be multiplied by 4 to give the 64. Cant wait to finish tomorrow when I will post more pics!!

Dean.

So how did the 4 string combo end up going Dean? Good I hope.

Cheers

Ah Rod you just beat me to it! I was just about to post; like you I am impatient for an update. The 4 compound set up is great! Here are some pics. Due to the extra weight (16kgs) the upper dowel suddenly rotated without warning tonight and the weights on the right hand side came crashing down! Nothing is broken thank God. I will have to make a little thing to stop that from happening. I had the clock ticking over just before the crash happened which means that its 8 kgs each side is heavy enough to make the clock run. I have had to replace the rope on both sides; each side now uses 14 meters! My amazing friend Michael from Kite Magic in Coogee has kindly donated all the string to date.!!
I also re-made the lower 60 tooth gear and the smaller 20Tooth as well both are now 6 spoke Isoloc design.
I also made a prototype pulley set up; which is really a very simple affair; went to the boat shop and brought 4 pulleys and de-constructed them.

Pic 1&3 shows the string set up and how it looks. Pic 2 is a close up if the weight wheels set up and the new string terminal sticky outy things. These were a pain to make as the whole clock had to be pulled of the wall twice to make and fit them.The last pic shows the pulley housings. Each pulley is rated to 150kg and is plastic. I would have preferred metal but at $15 each I was happy not to have had to make them all by hand! In time I will replace the housing with a more attractive shape. Boy I am tired but happy after all that. Ps looks like I missed the anniversary date for this saturday! Oh well I am enjoying the journey. Dean.

Hi all
to stop the weights from rotating the 40mm upper dowel i have made a small "thing" out of some alley plate. Hopefully this will help. Next Job is to re-do the drums out of silky oak with the aim of making the clock stick out less by 45mm or so.

BTW Its the 1st today......oh well.
Dean.

Its been one very amazing week.I never thought that I could completely finished my final gear design in one week. Thank you God. You will notice the 50m or so of extra space between the front gear and the frame. Eventually I will make the frame smaller and more compact. All the drums, which were temporary have been remade in silky oak. The timber is drilled and press fitted onto a brass rod and them machined; this ensures that the finished drum runs completely true. The drums have been finished with orange oil and buffed on the lathe. Every gear save one, had to have the bolt length custom made and cut to suit the width of the drum; that's why I didn't get to bed this week before midnight! The widest drum is 60mm; it is quiet a feat to drill a straight hole over that length. One of the pics shows the drum being re-drilled from the other end to correct the run out. I also fixed host of small issues along the way. The drum has been cut in two and a piece of hard disk added to stop both cables tangling as they are wound up. The font gear had the bolts on the outside; they are now nicely hidden! The pauls pins have reversed to stop them snagging on the wire. This list is endless. My nest major job is to re-design the coil pulse housing. Here are some pics of the toil of my hands for the week!

Looking very good. I hope you managed to stay on the right side of the good lady, spending so much time on this this week. Keep up the good work.

Cheers