• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Clock - Done

AndyP

AndyP

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
14,175
Reaction score
1,715
Location
14860 Normandy, France
This is the design. Imagine that printed on A4 paper will give the size.
Took me ages of fiddling to produce 12 equally spaced letters in a circle. Wordart and a lot trial and error were used.
Ignore the hands they are just there to give me an idea. I have my doubts that the wine glasses will form part of the final design.
I have a piece of sycamore already cut to a rough circle and well seasoned.
I've ordered enough of both wet transfer and heat transfer paper to enable me to have a few trials.

ProseccoTime2.png
 
AndyP said:
Took me ages of fiddling to produce 12 equally spaced letters in a circle.
Click to expand...

Next time (!) ask me and I could do that for you in my drawing programme in minutes. Seconds even. No fiddling involved.
 
Mike G said:
Next time (!) ask me and I could do that for you in my drawing programme in minutes. Seconds even. No fiddling involved.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Will see if this one is successful before I think about doing another.
One of the problems I had was what looked perfect on the computer came out uneven when printed
 
NickM said:
Looks good. Not tempted to carve the letters?
Click to expand...
I do have the necessary gouges (missus did carving evening classes many years back). I’m not sure that carved letters would stand out enough without painting. I could cut the letters on the scroll saw but at less than an inch high that would be very fiddly. Pyrography has also been considered.
 
I think you're right that you might have to paint it if you carve the numbers. Transfers should work well.
 
AndyP said:
Thank you. Will see if this one is successful before I think about doing another.
One of the problems I had was what looked perfect on the computer came out uneven when printed
Click to expand...
Out of interest, what software did you use for it? I can think of quite a few tools (some free) that make that sort of thing extremely straightforward to do. The easiest (once you know how) are CAD applications, but they've got a relatively steep initial learning curve. However, there are a few simple-ish drawing packages that can do that sort of thing fairly easily too.
 
AndyP said:
It was all done in MS Word using the inbuilt Wordart and a lot of trial and error.
Click to expand...
Wow. I can understand why you struggled then!

A couple of free and relatively easy options to consider are LibreOffice Draw and Inkscape. They're not as powerful as CAD applications (e.g. OnShape or AutoCAD or whatever) or even as professional drawing applications like CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator, but they're in a completely different league (when it comes to drawing) than MS Word or even (in my opinion) MS Visio.

I just had a go at making something a bit like your clock face and it took me less than five minutes in each tool and that included quite a bit of googling to find out how to do stuff as I usually use CorelDRAW or a CAD application (in CAD it would probably take me less than a minute, although perhaps a bit more for the wine glasses). LibreOffice Draw and Inkscape are both quite a bit more awkward than the fancier applications, but still far easier than Word.

If you fancy having a go with either LibreOffice Draw or Inkscape then let me know I can I post some screenshots of the process.
 
Thanks Al, learning how to do stuff is all part of the fun. When I’ve got the wooden clock face sized and smooth I’ll shall cut out my version on paper and stick it on just to see how it looks. Proportion is everything .
I wonder at the moment if the letters should be a bit longer, not necessarily fatter just longer.
If I need to do another pattern I will try out LibreOffice as we have used that in the past for Word and Excel.
 
AndyP said:
If I need to do another pattern I will try out LibreOffice as we have used that in the past for Word and Excel.
Click to expand...
The word processor and spreadsheet are nowhere near as good as Word or Excel (although they're good enough for anything I need to do with word processors or spreadsheets), but the drawing package is excellent.
 
Inkscape can give you loads of fonts. Choose one near what you want, then you can stretch the letters to give them that long look you're after.
 
Here is the sycamore nearly at finished size with paper cut outs of the letters and hands. Just in case the recipients do not have wall space I will make a simple stand for it to sit on sideboard or mantlepiece.
20241123_192449.jpg
I will give it a good dose of looking at for a few days while I await supplies so I can make up my mind about finished sizes.
 
Just an aside from someone who has fallen into the trap a couple of times........buy a decent movement. I have no idea how you determine whether it is any good before buying, but I have two clocks which lose or gain in the region of half an hour a day. That of course renders them utterly useless. Maybe there are horology forums which might give you a hint.
 
I’ve made a few clocks, the oldest of which is more than 20 years old, all from movements supplied by Axminster and none have shown the level of accuracy you describe. The ones I can see all made in Taiwan. I’ve none of the Axminster ones left so have taken a punt on the big river company. The finished clock will not get delivered until end of Jan so I will have t8me to replace if necessary..
 
All of the wall clocks we have in the house use movements that get the time from MSF radio signals so they never lose time (until the battery runs flat) and auto-adjust when the clocks change. I presume you can buy those movements independently of the clocks so that might be a good option. Our clocks use (at least) two different movement types: one that moves a second at a time and one (used in the bedrooms) that sweeps continuously and hence is much quieter.
 
Interesting Al. I have only seen time signal controlled digital clocks, we have a couple. I’ll have a search .
 
This clock is radio controlled, it does loose the plot if the battery is a bit low and the weather conditions screw with the reception.
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20241124_130730359.MP~2.jpg
    PXL_20241124_130730359.MP~2.jpg
    187 KB · Views: 10
Dr.Al said:
All of the wall clocks we have in the house use movements that get the time from MSF radio signals so they never lose time (until the battery runs flat) and auto-adjust when the clocks change. I presume you can buy those movements independently of the clocks so that might be a good option. Our clocks use (at least) two different movement types: one that moves a second at a time and one (used in the bedrooms) that sweeps continuously and hence is much quieter.
Click to expand...
That's a good option, but for anyone in a steel framed building they don't necessarily save effort. I used to work in an office where we had that sort of clock. Twice a year someone had to climb up, lift it down and hold the thing next to a window for ten minutes or more, waiting for it to pick up the radio signal.
 
AndyT said:
That's a good option, but for anyone in a steel framed building they don't necessarily save effort. I used to work in an office where we had that sort of clock. Twice a year someone had to climb up, lift it down and hold the thing next to a window for ten minutes or more, waiting for it to pick up the radio signal.
Click to expand...
We've got Mr Faraday to thank for that ;)
 
Standing on a chair holding her mobile phone out of a tiny fanlight window in her on campus student accommodation is the only way daughter can get her phone to receive the two stage authentication required to log into the uni’s servers.
Mr Faraday has a lot to answer for.
 
The eagle eyed will have noticed the spacing of the letters on the proposed clock face in post#15 was not perfect eg between the T and I.
I finally gave up trying to improve things with Wordart and decided to give Inkscape a try. After a couple of days I was nearly ready to give up so I took Dr Al up on his offer of a few screenshots. His excellent tutorial has enabled me to produce the following which will be the final size and font. The hands shown are a bit small. The movement when it arrives in 3 weeks will have longer hands.

20241202_155926.jpeg
By the time the movement arrives I hope to have the recess made in the back and centre hole made. Can’t:) rush these things
 
Prosecco is an Italian version of champagne, but very much cheaper.
 
Mike G said:
Prosecco is an Italian version of champagne, but very much cheaper.
Click to expand...
As a drink it seems to have become very popular, in some parts, over the past few years.
A bit of an in joke in our family between those of us one side of the channel who appreciate that just because Prosecco sparkles does not make it a champagne substitute and those who can’t taste the difference:eek:.
 
AndyP said:
As a drink it seems to have become very popular, in some parts, over the past few years.
A bit of an in joke in our family between those of us one side of the channel who appreciate that just because Prosecco sparkles does not make it a champagne substitute and those who can’t taste the difference:eek:.
Click to expand...
I doubt I could taste the difference and I'd probably get extra condemnation for disliking champagne as much as I dislike Prosecco!
 
Standard wedding party modus operandi.....

champagne when people arrive
then switch to Prosecco or sparkling wine as they won't notice the difference
 
Dr.Al said:
I doubt I could taste the difference and I'd probably get extra condemnation for disliking champagne as much as I dislike Prosecco!
Click to expand...
On the birth of my grandson a month ago, the baby's head was wetted with a bottle of Laurent-Perrier. Prosecco doesn't quite cut the mustard! :ROFLMAO: - Rob
 
Last edited:
Our three generations of (paying) guests on Saturday evening consumed two bottles of Bollinger NV on arrival and two bottles of Krug for the 80th birthday toasts. I think they would have spotted it if we has switched to Prosecco. :unsure:

It's funny though how people lump champagne together as if it's all the same. Some is horrid and some is sublime.
 
AJB Temple said:
It's funny though how people lump champagne together as if it's all the same. Some is horrid and some is sublime.
Click to expand...
I'm sure that's true, but I've yet to find any fizzy drink (apart from water) that I like and I'm also not a fan of white wine, so I'd be surprised if I ever found a champagne I enjoyed.
 
Does that include cider Al?;) I thought that you were worried about import limits on the stuff not so long ago.
 
Woodbloke said:
On the birth of my grandson a month ago, the baby's head was wetted with a bottle of Laurent-Perrier. Prosecco doesn't quite cut the mustard! :ROFLMAO: - Rob
Click to expand...
I'm glad you wetted the head, rather than whetting it. The discussion of honing angles for a baby's head would have been tedious beyond words. :)
 
Dr.Al said:
I'm sure that's true, but I've yet to find any fizzy drink (apart from water) that I like and I'm also not a fan of white wine, so I'd be surprised if I ever found a champagne I enjoyed.
Click to expand...
Yes, I get that. Oddly enough, despite having had lots of opportunities to drink all kinds of champagne and having visited numerous champagne houses, I'm rarely keen on it either. Fizzy drinks to me almost always taste either much too acidic or unpleasantly gassy. Most of the blended champagnes taste manufactured to me.

But...I do like a couple of champagnes, and they are the ones that are made with tiny bubbles: vintage Krug is a good example but very expensive, even wholesale. Billecart Salmon Rose also slips down nicely for a NV, but the typical blended everyday well known brand champagnes I can happily say no to. I don't like Prosecco or Cava either - even the supposedly high end ones. Nor coke, tango, etc. I'm a red wine man :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top