Thread: My Wooden geared clock

Here is the finished bob. One end has a thread tapped into it to scres the upper nut into. Now the time trial begin! Love that purpleheart.







Dean

Bob looks great Dean. That purpleheart and maple contrast is excellent.
Must be time for another video.

Hi all its been a while since i have been able to work on my clock. Currently my design needs a wall to be mounted on. I have decided to try and design a frame to mount my clock in. Its current location is just too damp and a frame would enable me to move it upstairs to a dryer place. Also after the sewerage leak was cleaned up by a steam cleaner, my clock now gets stuck in the same place on one of the 60T gears. I will post my design soon,

Dean.

Here is my initial design for my clock frame. It still needs tweeking. Alot me thinks..

Dean.

Hi all,
I finally got some workshop time and started to assemble my clock frame. Tired and having the clock bolted to a rented wall I have decided to house my clock in a frame. The overall height is 2350 just low enough to fit into houses with lower roof height if we ever have to move again! Pic 1 shows the updated design; still not sure if I will curve the top of the frame or leave it straight. Pic 2 the euro beech at the start of the day.Pic 3 shows the rear frame assembled. I have used a dado joint for quick and easy assembly.
Bye for now.




Dean.

Hi evveryone, had a great day today curving most of the short members of my clock frame. Here are some pics of my progress.
I resurrected my old trammel bar I used 10 years ago that allows the router to pivot with precision. Its a simple home made one that does a great job. The largest radius i cut today was 2500mm. Tomorrow I will be finushing the frame and hopefully have it assembled in one piece!


later Dean

Another day in the workshop but interrupted by paperwork. Spent the earlier part of the day making the new clock frame fixings. The old method (on right) had a wood screw into a wall plug directly into the wall. The new one (left) fixes directly into the frame using an M8 bolt from behind. Its the first time the clock frame has been solidly fixed. I like it!



Dean.

Another damm fine day in the workshop but this time interrupted by a power outage and a big split while routing that required a glue up and 3 hr wait till it dried before work could commence again. Completed the front part of the frame and the challenging curved top member. Decided to move the side rails in to allow the weight boxes to drop right onto the floor. Problen is they will be curved in two directions which will be a challenge to do properly.

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Dean.

Your work continues to be inspirational Dean. I do appreciate you keeping us all up to date with your progress.

Cheers
Walesey

thanks Walesey.Its been fun having some time in the workshop alone and mostly undisturbed!
Started my day at 6am to get an early start. Decided to make a trail curved member before I practiced on the real piece. It all went to plan and here are some pics of the curved lower members. Took forever to make the jig so that the router would pivot smoothly. Finished the members a little proud so I can do a final sand to precise size.
Gee I am tired.....but happy. Whats next?... I have no idea maybee a beer?





Deano.

For the last week I have been re-designing the coil housing which i have been avoiding for the last 2 months because its hard to design. It consists of two 55mm dowels at either side which are joined by two tangentiall pieces of 1.3mm plywood. I will post more pics as soon as i have some....For now here is my solid model with the front panel removed. The top curve matches the curved made by the pendulum as it travels through its arc. I had to move the 2 dowels further apart to avoid the magnet at the end of the pendulum rod hitting them
cheers

Dean.

Dean, you are producing some great stuff. I have also just finished making a wooden geared clock. I didn’t have access to aCNC so I cut all my gears using a bandsaw – Long and tedious work. I also had problems with humidity and had to spend several hours filing (by hand) troublesome teeth. It now runs reliably and keeps reasonable time (+- 2 to 3 minutes per 24 hours).

Why do you have electronics at the bottom of your pendulum? Don’t the weights drive the mechanism, with the pendulum driven by the pallet at the top of the clock?

Since taking the attached picture, I have added some brass dressing to the dial where the numbers would be.

Clock 2.jpg

"Why do you have electronics at the bottom of your pendulum? Don’t the weights drive the mechanism, with the pendulum driven by the pallet at the top of the clock?"

Hey thats a nice clock youve made...love the weights!

In answer to upur question...when i first made my clock the weight used to drive it was alot and noticed how much strain it placed on the frame and gears. After i realised that it would only run for 12 hours I decided I wanted it to run for 3 days and the only way to do this was increase the weight. This was not an acceptable to me.
So i decided to incorporate compounding (like you have done with your clock aslo see https://www.woodworkforums.com/f168/m...ml#post1570740 to explain the method of componding.....put simply uou have to double the weight to double the drive time). By powering the pendulum with some coils this has reduced the weight to 8ks each side and it should now run for 3-4 days!. Its complicated but simple at the same time. This design of clock will not run with some weight unlike the grasshopper designs.

Dean.

Interesting thread Dean, the cnc aspects to an oldie like me are just mind boggling!.

I was wondering how you got on with the freezing of the timber for stabilizing?

I ask because, many years ago I studied briefly some timber technology - specifically about cell structure & moisture - EMC etc - before setting up our seasoning kiln & creating the drying schedules.

If i recall correctly - the cell wall of timber cellulose cells is a double wall arrangement - like a balloon inflated inside another balloon if you like.

The inner balloon has moisture inside it - and the gap between the two cell walls also has moisture inside it - then finally the cells themselves have free moisture (sap) running between them.

One of the golden rules for drying timber - to avoid cell wall collapse, is initially related to removing the free moisture (sap) from between the cells themselves slowly enough that only small pressure differentials prevent the moisture inside the cells from bursting thru the cell walls and creating structural collapse.

When drying timber down to EMC - the use of heat is to turn the moisture in the cells as well as that in the double membrane cell walls into a gas so that it can diffuse out thru the lumens (pores) in the cell walls and preserve the integrity of the cell walls.

What interests me is the idea of freezing the timber.

As we all know ice floats on top of water because its less dense, and that it expands quite a bit when it freezes.

I am wondering might not freezing the timber cause cell wall collapse (leading to dry rot type structural collapse in the longer term) if the expansion of the moisture in the actual cell wall (or if you prefer between the two inner and outer cell walls) expansion as it freezes prevents it diffusing thru the lumens and instead just collapses the cellulose cell walls?

This is a question more than a statement- I'm trying to imagine HOW freezing timber can make it more stable...? i/e/ what the rationale is for freezing it to gain stability?...

Maybe altering the stability of the cell walls makes the timber less prone to expansion and contraction between seasons because its less rigidly constructed if the component cell walls are all burst?

It has me a little perplexed is all....

I am wondering how WA coastal sheoke (A fraseriana) with its less than 1% expansion and contraction rates dry to green, and relatively high density, might not make a better material to construct the cogs from, that are presently warping / deforming and causing jambs?

I know zero about building timber clocks - just throwing in my 2c in based on a best guess!

Still amazed by cnc technology...

I suspect the days of manual timbe work may be numbered....and in single digits!.