Very short WIP - a simple clock

If you've come to this thread expecting something like a Clickspring Skeleton Clock, you'll be sorely disappointed

This is going to be a very short (two-part!) build write-up as there really wasn't much to it and I made my life a bit easier by using power tools for some jobs.

In our bedroom, we have a wall clock. It has a mechanism that updates the time automatically from radio broadcasts. The mechanism was a silent one that moves the second hand continuously rather than ticking, which I prefer for a bedroom clock. However, gradually over the last year or two it's got louder (if I had to guess I'd imagine that some dust has got into the mechanism and is affecting the smooth motion). I might have a go at taking it apart at some point but I thought it might be a nice excuse to make my own one.

A quick search on amazon found what looks like an equivalent mechanism: quiet motion and radio updated. I bought a couple of them so I have a spare.

I started off with a lump of Ash that I'd picked up from Wentwood Timber a while ago. I started by bandsawing off one of the rough edges so I had a reasonable reference surface to place down on the table of the bandsaw:



It then got ripped into a few pieces:



I don't have a surface planer (although I'm pretty sure I'll get one when we eventually move house and I have a bit more space). For now though, getting a flat face means hand planing, which I do quite enjoy a lot of the time, but less so when dealing with a wood like Ash:



There's a lot of tear-out at one end of the plank (and likewise on the other piece) due to the changing grain direction, but in this case it's fine as I'll be cutting that bit off later.

After clamping two of the pieces together, I planed an edge using the #7:



The two pieces then got glued together and left overnight:



I was still a bit undecided about overall size, but I drew some circles on the plank with a pair of compasses:



The distance from the edge of the circle to the centre was (just) too much for the throat depth off my pillar drill, so I used this little 3D-printed hand drill stand to drill the 8 mm centre hole:



It was then the turn of the bandsaw again to rough it out round:



I'd pondered using the screaming monster (electric router) to make it into a smooth circle, but I hate using the electric router (although you'll see in a bit that I did use it for one job) and also I wanted the rim to have a fairly generous fillet (round-over). Instead, I used the metal lathe to turn a very small pin (seen on the left in the next photo) that had one section that was a snug fit in the centre hole of a face-plate/screw-chuck thing I have and the other end a snug fit in the 8 mm hole I'd drilled in the Ash. It gets held into the face plate with a little M4 countersunk screw, the pin dropped into the centre hole and then three woodscrews hold the face plate to the Ash blank:



After heaving the wood lathe back off its home hanging from the rafters, I could then mount the blank on the lathe, turn the outside diameter smooth and then round off corners:



To make the pocket for the mechanism (which needs to be quite deep due to the thickness of the wood), I decided to use the screaming monster (along with my wireless vacuum cleaner starter). I 3D-printed a couple of templates to guide a flush routing bit, with one template thicker than the other so I could get the full depth without taking too much off in one go:



The resulting pocket:



That left enough space for the mechanism itself, but it needed a little bit more removing for the hanging hook. I could have just routed a key-hole slot in the Ash directly, but I figured it was just as easy (and a lot quieter) to chisel out a bit extra and use the provided hook.

For chiselling, I decided to try out my recently made turned mallet for the first time:



I cleaned up the bottom of the pocket with one of my favourite tools:



The mechanism fitted:

.....and next, the carving. Roman numerals?

That looks a nice slow-grown ash.

Mike G said:

.....and next, the carving. Roman numerals?

Click to expand...

Not carving I'm afraid. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see...

3D printing?

AndyT said:

3D printing?

Click to expand...

Patience, dear boy...

Pop the body down to Mid-Devon and I'll VCarve the Roman numerals.

A clock or two is what I have planned later in the year.

Dr.Al said:

Patience, dear boy...

Click to expand...

I envisage an etched brass clock face

AndyP said:

I envisage an etched brass clock face

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SWIMBO bought me one of those a few years ago for my clock project; I thought a lovely baroque clock face on a very contemporary clock might look odd, but it doesn't. It also was German made and not cheap - Rob

Woodbloke said:

SWIMBO bought me one of those a few years ago for my clock project; I thought a lovely baroque clock face on a very contemporary clock might look odd, but it doesn't. It also was German made and not cheap - Rob

Click to expand...

I was hoping Al would use his etching skills to make his own.

AndyP said:

I was hoping Al would use his etching skills to make his own.

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Your going to be disappointed I'm afraid; I went with a much quicker & simpler option. Maybe one day in the very distant future I'll make a make a brass clock, but if I do it'll be all brass with gears, escapements etc. In that case I'll etch a face, but not for this one.

Fun trying to guess though.
On a walnut clock a few years back I used the indexing feature on the lathe the mark the positions for the hours. Then drilled wee holes and inserted mother of pearl dots, aka guitar fret dots. Very simple.

AndyP said:

Fun trying to guess though.
On a walnut clock a few years back I used the indexing feature on the lathe the mark the positions for the hours. Then drilled wee holes and inserted mother of pearl dots, aka guitar fret dots. Very simple.

Click to expand...

You're definitely getting warmer now...

AndyP said:

Fun trying to guess though.
On a walnut clock a few years back I used the indexing feature on the lathe the mark the positions for the hours. Then drilled wee holes and inserted mother of pearl dots, aka guitar fret dots. Very simple.

Click to expand...

Even simpler is to fill the holes with a filler.

The next job on the clock was to work on the face side. I'd 3D-printed a little centring pip thing that drops into the centre hole and gives a space for my pair of compasses to drop into. I used that to mark two diameters around the periphery and I also used an angle gauge to mark out the twelve radial lines for the hour marks:



For the hour marks, I'd pondered on a few different options. The easiest option would have been to buy some numbers on-line and stick them to the face. Another option I considered was to 3D-print something and again stick that in place. I also could have tried my hand at carving numbers of some sort. However, in the end I decided not to have numbers at all and just have some contrasting wood set into the face at the appropriate locations.

For the contrasting wood, I used this little lump of Bog Oak:



Some of the cuts for the inserts were done on the bandsaw (and then hand-planed smooth where possible) but a few seemed easier to do with a Dozuki:



When they looked like this...



... they went back to the bandsaw to be chopped into thinner pieces. The idea was that they'd all be a similar size (as they'd been cut from the same blank) which should help make the face look relatively consistent (although I don't mind a little bit of variation as this isn't intended to look factory made).

The little pieces then got their edges tapered with a chisel (to help reduce the accuracy required when cutting the mortices). With the pieces ready to go, I could get the chisel and mallet out again and start chopping the pockets:



When all were done, I daubed the pocket and the Bog Oak pieces in glue and tapped them into place with a mallet. They felt pretty secure once that was done, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to clamp them all in place while the glue dries:



After the clamps had been on for about 3 hours I got impatient and decided to carry on. After removing the clamps I wedged the clock between some dog holes on the bench and then used my little home-made block plane to get rid of most of the excess:



The wood lathe then got heaved back down from the ceiling again (I'll be very glad when I have a workshop big enough to leave the lathe out permanently: it feels very heavy having lifted onto its hook twice in one day!). I used the pocket for the mechanism to give the chuck something to grab onto:



It then got a final sanding...



... my logo laser marked on the back...



... and then its first coat of finish, for which I'm using up the last dregs of my can of Chestnut Hard Wax Oil:



Once I'd done two coats of hard wax oil (which I figured would be enough for something like this), the last job was to fit the mechanism and hang it on the wall. The mechanism came with a few different designs of hands but I preferred the simplest option. The hands seemed a bit fiddly to fit at first; in the end I drilled a 6 mm hole in a scrap of plywood and used that to push them on and that worked well.

The finished clock is now mounted on the wall and running:

Lovely!
Excellent choice of timbers, design and execution.

Thanks Andy

Nice. You've given me ideas for my CNC based clock project later in the year.

Very neat.

Thanks both

Very good Al. That's really nice.

Thanks Mike

Very neat inlays. It looks fab.

Thanks Nick

Nice work as always

Scientically put, that's "elegant!" (simple, clean lines, does the job). Class bit of work.

I thought It looked as though the black dust was going to mark the Ash, but it’s come out looking quite spectacular.

A beautiful clock Al.

Thank you everyone for the kind comments. Ian: yes, I was a bit concerned by all the black dust when I started planing down the bog oak, but it wasn't a problem at all thankfully.

A very small update this morning. After seeing the clock running for a while, I decided that it would look a bit better with a shorter minute hand. Cutting it down was simple: just a pair of side cutters and a light touch-up with a file. The second hand and minute hand both now sweep the outer diameter of the Bog Oak inserts and the hour hand sweeps the inner diameter.

Nice! I have a couple of radio controlled clock modules l bought from AliExpress a while back somewhere. This might prompt me to use them for something...
If I can find them...

Cabinetman said:

I thought It looked as though the black dust was going to mark the Ash, but it’s come out looking quite spectacular.

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Always a worry with a dark wood and open grained timber! I've got round the issue with über powerful suckage on the dust extractor - Rob