Wood Clock Thread I'm currently in progress in making my

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I'm currently cutting 36 tooth intermediate wheel. Sorry for the shit potato quality.

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Here are the first wheels that I have cut.

Bottom Left: Escape wheel out of 1/4 inch ply. I was a bit scared while I was cutting this wheel since the arc towards the bottom of the teeth are hard to cut smoothly. Getting better every day though.

Top Left 3rd and 4th wheel from 1/4 inch ply as well. Straight and simple gears are east to cut compared to the escape wheel. I just have 2.5 wheels to go.

Bottom/Top Right: Here's the ratchet and storage assembly. It'll hold the energy for the escapement and pendulum. I haven't bought the spring yet and I plan to do so in about a week. I think it's a 60 inch constant force spring at around 5lbs.

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These are the front and back plates.

I don't know why the other pictures are loading sideways...

>>1210936

I could be wrong, but it looks like you are using a battery powered motor in the back because I don't see a pendulum.

What is the point of making a wooden clock if you are still going to drive it with electricity instead of winding? wouldn't it just be a gearbox, gearing down for the constant speed motor, instead of actually being a clock with an escapement?

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>>1210947

You're close. It's a magnetic solenoid that give a very slight push to the pendulum. Since the time is still controlled by the pendulum is still considered a pendulum clock. When I bought the plans for the clock I didn't fully realize that it a would be battery operated.

You can barely see the pendulum in this pic.

The pendulum drives a toucan type escapement at the top fyi.

The clock that I'm currently building will have no electronics.

This looks very nice op. Clean and well organized. Looking forward the the end result.
A project I always wanted to do was set up a desk that had a glass panel for the top then underneath was just layer after layer of clockwork.

how do I into clock design (how many teeth does each gear need, how long/heavy does the pendulum need to be etc.)? every guide I see just makes you mindlessly follow instructions.

>>1211435

Wikipedia. Look at history of clocks. They have a lot of information about the history of the various types of escapements and they detail pendulum design.

If you really don't want to mindlessly follow instructions you should be able to start from that and work out the gearing on your own. It would be a great project that might become a lifetime hobby.

Read about the first pocket watches, and marvel at the period in which they were made, as well as the different mechanisms involved. My grandfather had one of the types that had a long tiny chain wrapped around a drum, but it stopped a bullet in the civil war so it no longer worked.

>>1211385

Hey, thank you very much. It took me a little while to get setup after my first clock. I learned that I needed a lot more space to work more easily. I finally made a second work bench and things are going a lot nicer now. I'm glad I did it.


>>1211435

My recommendation is to start watching youtube and read a lot about gears and clocks in general. I highly recommend watching Art Fenerty and his tutorials about his software called Gearotic. Its completely geared towards clock design. No pun intended. The software that he mad is extreamly useful when it comes to gear ratios and the design overall.

You can also look into Kahn Academy about the pendulum physics. They also might have something for gear mehanics too. Otherwise, search around wiki. Learn the physics, not just the mathematics with gear ratios. Learning the physics is almost a requirement if you want to make good quality running clocks.


>>1211441

I also agree. Reading and researching is key.

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I finished up the gears tonight along with some of the other little pieces of hardware. I had tearout on some of the teeth but nothing major. Most of the tearout happened on the escape wheel which I'm not happy about. The tips are pretty thin so it's not unexpected.

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Here's how I make the gears concentric with the Arbor hole of the wheel. I use the butt end of the drill bit that I used to make the hole as a pivot. I clamp down a sacrificial piece of wood with the same hole size and turn the gear as the tips are up against the sanding wheel. Since the jig is clamped down I can nudge the gear tips closer as needed.

One thing that has been better since my first clock is I bought some Brad point drill bits. Their a lot more accurate when drilling at a very precise point. When I was sanding the tips down, I noticed that the edges were very consistent all the way around. I'm hoping that this will mean a very easy assembly and little troubleshooting!

>>1211441
>>1211539
noted, thanks

>>1210936
Are you doing anything to reduce friction on the joints?

>>1211874

Yes I will be doing some friction reduction throughout the entire clock.

Wheels: I'm going to try out using a dremel felt tip to burnish all wheel teeth. I've heard of really good results of this hardening the teeth faces for better wood on wood friction reduction. I ran all over town todat and I couldn't find just the felt tips and when I found only one tip it was $6-7. Way to expensive. I'm planning on putting an online order through sometime soon with this and lubrication powders.

Arbors: Any kind of brass on brass contact I'll be trying out graphite powder. Any kind of brass on wood I heard that there's come kind of powder people use for pianos just for this purpose. Hopefully I can get my hand on some of that soon.

It's been a few days with a little progress. This is just a bump until I can get more progress done and take pictures.

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I've started to assemble the clock base answer rear plate. I still have a lot of finishing to do on it but I'm going to wait until late I know everything fits and works perfectly.

I also put in the order for the constant force spring. I'll post pictures when it arrives.

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I've started to cut and deburr all the arbors. I've cut most of them but ran short of some of the brass stock. I'll have to wait till tomorrow to get more so that I can finish cutting the arbors and to start the first assembly.

In time...

I going to stop posting my progress unless there's more interest. I'll be back to post the final build at the very least.

You just using a scrollsaw to make this? If so I'm going to attempt to make one too, looks bad ass. That's about all I have to work with besides an old shitty jig saw and a drill.

>>1211435
You may like this channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA
although it's not exactly about clock design...

>>1215435
I've been following along. /diy/ is a pretty slow board. Feel like uploading your plans?

>>1215462
Op I'd like to talk to you more about what's going on with your project, as I have a lot of questions. I can drop an email later when I'm not busy, if you are up for it.

>>1215839
>I have a lot of questions. I can drop an email later when I'm not busy, if you are up for it.
Keep it ITT for the rest of us, you prick, he can respond just as easily ITT as he can via email.

>>1215841
It's not really relevant to clock making entirely, it's just about the gear parts for a project I want to fuck around with making. I can keep it in the thread if you like just didn't want to hijack the guys thread with my own shit.

>>1215435
Interested. Just nothing to comment.

Very nice OP

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>>1215636

Clickspring was a big inspiration for getting into clock making. I've tried out making clocks in wood and my next step is to start making them from brass. I plan to get a Sieg SC4 lathe here soon. Now I just need to find the skill and a mini mill...


>>1215462

Yeah I'm mostly just using a scrollsaw, 1"x30" belt/4" disk sanding machine, drillpress. There are other tools that I use along the way but those are the biggest tools that I use. I'll make a list of tools that I use in another post.


>>1215702

Thanks for letting me know that diy is a slow board. I knew it was slow but when I was seeing a bunch of other shit threads being bumped/made I thought no one liked this thread much.

I'd love to upload the plans and have eben tempted but I'd want to respectful to the designer of the clock. Clayton Boyer is the designer if you're interested.


>>1215839

I'm interested in hearing your questions! If you don't mind I'd like to keep them in this thread so everyone can see them! Ask away and I'll answer them to the best of my ability.


>>1215844

Yeah, please keep them ITT. I don't mind if the topic drifts a little.


>>1215853
>>1215874

Thanks for letting me know you're here and interested anons.

I'll keep posting to progress.

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>>1216139
Sorry guys, I still don't know why the pictures are loading sideways. If anyone knows why please let me know and I'll correct the pics from now on.

Just a progress update.

I've fitted all the gears on the front and back plates. I got a big bite in the ass with the tolerance stack. The gears were very tight and didn't want to move together. I ended up going through each gear pair, testing their meshing together and adjusting as necessary.

Using my 1"x30" belt sander with a 600grit I very slowly thinned the face of the teeth by about 1/64th" to 1/32". I had to make sure that I kept the addendum portion of the tooth intact.

Every set of gears had their problems and now I have them turning much more smoothly together.

>>1210936
Nice work, OP. How long does it take to cut the gear teeth? Is this a weekend project or weeks long project?

>>1216139
No worries m8, /diy/ is still 4chins. This thread is /comfy/. Please keep updating your progress.

>>1216144

very nice work.

>>1216144
>I still don't know why the pictures are loading sideways. If anyone knows why please let me know and I'll correct the pics from now on.
4chan now strips EXIF data to prevent doxxing. Unfortunately, camera orientation is part of this information, so you have to manually rotate images before uploading. I always open mine with GIMP because there's an immediate popup asking what I want to do about image rotation, then I export it without saving the EXIF data just in case 4chan ever stops stripping EXIF data or I decide to use the image elsewhere.

>I'd love to upload the plans and have eben tempted but I'd want to respectful to the designer of the clock. Clayton Boyer is the designer if you're interested.
Thanks, I looked him up and saved some bookmarks for later. I spend some time lurking >>>/g/wt and plan on getting into watch repair as a hobby, but right now I have access to a pretty decent woodshop so I'll probably do a wooden clock once I have some other projects out of the way.

>>1216139
Basically I just want to have a board, drill some holes in it, put dowel rods in holes and then put gears that interact with each other on the rods. I think it'd be a cool little project, but I was wondering what tooling I'd need which you answered.

Any advice on making the gears in general?

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Today I recieved a couple of packages. I finally got the constant force spring that will power the clock!! Its a powerful little thing too at 9lbs constant force.

I also ordered felt tips for a dremel. I'll use these to burnish the gear teeth to reduce friction and snags.

I'm happy that I finally have a respirator. All the sanding that I do in my basement makes me cough really bad. I'm set to do the final sanding on the front and rear plates. A lot of sanding.

>>1216152
It depends on the size of the wheel hat I'm cutting. On average it takes me about 30 minutes to an hour. It could be a weekend project depending on the clock that you're building and of course how long you work on it at a time. For me and the 2 clocks that I've made so far its about a 2 month project. I only have about 2-3 hours during the week and about 6 hours on the weekend.

>>1216153
Thanks anon. I'll certainly continue the updates!

>>1216244
Thanks anon, I appreciate it.

>>1216250
Thank you. I'll get the pics corrected. As amateur as it sounds, IMO starting with building wooden clocks is a nice kind of orientation to clock building in general. Just to get the toes wet. I didn't know about >>>/g/wt. I'll look into it since I'm moving towards brass clock making. Thanks.

>>1216320
That sounds like a fun little project. I highly recommend googling "Gear Generator". There are 2 good sites that will generate gears/trains that you can print out and cut from anything. That should be all you need.

If you're planning to use wood, I recommend getting spray adhesive for temporarily gluing your template on the wood, packing tape to keep the edges of your cut gears clean from ripping out and Mineral spirits to remove the paper and adhesive from the wood easily.

>>1216777
Thanks for the advice on the gear generator, exactly what I needed. I'm hoping to have it 3 dimensional and cool as fuck, it'll be the second project I've designed by myself.

I have some updates coming later today. I'm trying to figure out how to make webms to show the clock running.

>>1216995

Right on, I'm happy it's what you needed. I'm not sure if I've already mentioned it but there's some top notch clock designing software called Gearotic by Art F. It's what I've been tootling around with in preparation of designing my own clock here pretty soon. I highly recommend it. I believe he offers a free trial too.

This looks awesome so far, OP. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished clock.

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Here's a little video of the clock running. I still have a lot of fine adjustments to do on the gears. I'll also try to make better videos as I go along.

On a few pinions, the teeth don't mesh with the wheels correctly so it will completely stop the pendulum.

I worked on the clock for a few hours today and I think I'm done for the day. Getting tired of taking it apart and putting it back together so many times...!

>>1218599
That's pretty slick, OP.

>>1218599
It looks really good and I like your webm skills anon

Keep up the good work

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A couple of things that I forgot to mention in my last post with the webm... The black markings are from using graphite powder in the pivot holes. I heard that it was a good idea but in my opinion it only helped marginally. I would have been better off making a depthing gauge and working each gear pair individually with more detail.

I plan to make a depthing gauge to get to the bottom of the wheel & pinion meshing problems. I'll post pics of the tool build as I get to it.

In the picture is a preemptive look at the escapement ticks. From this I learned that the upper and lower limits of the pendulum bob will not allow the clock to tick in beat. I think that this is partly because the gear meshing does not allow a consistent force to be applied the to pallets therefor the ticking is inconsistent to begin with and also the bob adjustment screw might have to be extended. I'll get that figured out after the gears mesh perfectly.

I'll work on the clock more tonight.

>>1218460
Thank you very much. I hope to be done with it by the end of next week!

>>1218601
Thank you very much!

>>1218613
Haha, thanks anon. I had to break our my old camera and figure out the whole webm conversion stuff. It turned out the be really simple one I got the software set up.