Thread: making clocks etc

Size of mechanism & strength which is guided by sweep and size of hands, placement of numerals in relation to hands ie-under the tip or at end of the tip. The mechanism distance out tge rear of the clock how much it will have protruding if hanging it means distance from the wall

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Last year I made around 25-30 clocks, don't ask why as I don't know and obviously I had enough time to do them.....

I've found the Takane heavy duty made in the USA movements from Timberbits to be very good. Slightly pricey, but if buying in bulk the individual price comes down. Also with Timberbits, one can order individual sweep and normal hands. So mixing and matching is great. If you find that the desired sweep hand is too long, then a clip with a pair of sharp scissors does the job.

Whomever you purchase your movements from, purchase your hands from them, otherwise you stand a slight chance the hands from someone else don't really fit too well, sometimes not at all.

When setting the hands, rotate the hour hand using the little wheel on the back of the clock to one of the hour positions, then using brute force (your fingers) move the minute hand to the 12 O' Clock position. Then adjust the time to the correct time using the wheel on the back of the mechanism.

I use the Vicmarc two step jaws on the VM100 chucks, this has an approximate external diameter of 70mm, which is approximately the hole size required for these (most) clock movements.

I have used some of the number kits, which work well for large diameter clocks, anything over 300mm in diameter, but switched some time ago to using my Canadian metric plug cutter, 6mm and 10mm for the hour indicators. As for how long should the hands be, anything is correct, if the hands are quite short for the diameter chosen, people just use the sub-conscious part of their brain and somehow still get the correct time right.

As far as number kits go, Timberbits Arabic kits have a terrible number "8" with a very unflattering flat top; I use Carbatec for Arabic number kits

Mick.

Clocks_IMG_20220917_143351_Web_.jpg

Originally Posted by Optimark

Last year I made around 25-30 clocks, don't ask why as I don't know and obviously I had enough time to do them.....

I've found the Takane heavy duty made in the USA movements from Timberbits to be very good. Slightly pricey, but if buying in bulk the individual price comes down. Also with Timberbits, one can order individual sweep and normal hands. So mixing and matching is great. If you find that the desired sweep hand is too long, then a clip with a pair of sharp scissors does the job.

Whomever you purchase your movements from, purchase your hands from them, otherwise you stand a slight chance the hands from someone else don't really fit too well, sometimes not at all.

When setting the hands, rotate the hour hand using the little wheel on the back of the clock to one of the hour positions, then using brute force (your fingers) move the minute hand to the 12 O' Clock position. Then adjust the time to the correct time using the wheel on the back of the mechanism.

I use the Vicmarc two step jaws on the VM100 chucks, this has an approximate external diameter of 70mm, which is approximately the hole size required for these (most) clock movements.

I have used some of the number kits, which work well for large diameter clocks, anything over 300mm in diameter, but switched some time ago to using my Canadian metric plug cutter, 6mm and 10mm for the hour indicators. As for how long should the hands be, anything is correct, if the hands are quite short for the diameter chosen, people just use the sub-conscious part of their brain and somehow still get the correct time right.

As far as number kits go, Timberbits Arabic kits have a terrible number "8" with a very unflattering flat top; I use Carbatec for Arabic number kits

Mick.

Clocks_IMG_20220917_143351_Web_.jpg

I pretty sure this is going to be a one-off. A mate of mine is building a new house and asked if I could make something for the new house, I figured this would fit the bill.

Rather than go for a big clock you could always get a 4" clock mechanism and mount it something like below?

Or go totally MAD. It's 13" diameter and done by hand and eye.

Love the second or larger one, sen a few here laser cut, kinda expensive well over $1000

this guy just makes clocks, some very basic but beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iokvBlqXWjs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5pPF3U5G3g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvoOgxK4EvI

Originally Posted by hughie

Love the second or larger one, sen a few here laser cut, kinda expensive well over $1000

As I said, mine was done with the Mk1 eyeball. Perhaps not the easiest, but it's the way I like doing things, plus, although I was an IBM mainframe hardware engineer I never was any good at programming. And what's the fun in not getting hands on

Originally Posted by hughie

Love the second or larger one, sen a few here laser cut, kinda expensive well over $1000

I'm not up with the bits and bobs on this forum so please excuse me, but I had meant to carry on under the photo above?

Thank you for your comment Hughie. But I was getting away from your original post.

There are a boat load of ways to do a clock and as Optimark has said and done, I would have a look at quartz-movements from Timberbits? At least it gives you the flavour of what's available.