Thread: Kauri Pine and Sheoak clock

Hi folks,

Here is a Kauri Pine clock I made recently. After being unhappy with stick-on numbers, I put it back on the lathe and inserted these numbers made from Sheoak.

I had a pen blank from cross-cut sheoak timber. I mounted it in a chuck, then used a 1/2 inch plug cutter to create these plugs, and then sliced them on the bandsaw. Cross-cut timber made the perfect stock for the plugs, to show off the grain. A normal straight-cut piece of timber done this way would result in end-grain plugs.

Using my lathe's indexing positions, I marked out the numbers. With a hand drill and 1/2 inch bit, I drilled recesses for the numbers, inserted them with some glue, and then re-mounted on the lathe to scrape, sand and finish.

This was a prototype one (my wife was sick of not having a kitchen clock), and I learned a few things doing this one. The main thing I will improve next time around is to make the holes deeper and the plugs longer. Some of them are now dangerously thin by the time I finished scraping and sanding. Not such a big deal in real life for this prototype, as it's hung on my wall and I never get closer than about 1500mm away from it anyway (kitchen bench in the way), but it's certainly something I would want to get right if I was ever to sell one of these.

Questions and comments welcome. Simon.